Camu, a mobile app for editing photos and video that was earlier named one of the App Store Best of 2014 applications following its launch this past August, is now available to Android users after receiving 3 million downloads via iTunes. The app is designed to simplify the process of shooting, editing then sharing photos and videos by offering the ability to do many of the more common photo-editing tasks, like creating collages or adding text, all in one application.
While many users today do their photo or video edits after the fact, Camu instead offers “live” filters that let you pick filters both before and after shooting, while also letting you make on-screen clarity adjustments, giving you the ability to shoot your photo collages live, and afterwards, quickly make simple edits via techniques like blurring, zooming, or adding text. A “super-focus” mode lets you add depth-of-field to images. Meanwhile, Camu’s “auto mode” setting is specifically designed for selfies – it doesn’t take the shot until it detects there’s no movement visible.
But while the feature line-up itself is only somewhat differentiated from a number of photo editors, the simplicity and design of Camu is appealing. In addition, the app can serve as a mobile messenger for photo-sharing, allowing users to share directly with other friends using the app, or to networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
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With the Android release, the company has added a couple of new features, including live video filters and a Tinder-like “keep” or “delete” feature for the content shared with you on Camu from other users. That is, you swipe one way to save the content, and another way to trash it. (These features have been added to the iOS version of the app as well.)
Sumoing, the company behind Camu, includes a team of designers and engineers from the “Nokia cluster” in Helsinki, Finland. Their first iOS app called Repix, which combines photo editing and painting, was launched in early 2013 and has now been downloaded over 13 million times.
Camu for Android is live now on Google Play.