The popular photo app has been reworked with deep Google+ integration

Dec 6, 2012 15:24 GMT  ·  By

Google's acquisition of the company behind Snapseed is bearing fruit, several months after Nik Software joined Google, there's finally an Android version of the popular iOS app.

Not only that, the app is now free on both Android and iOS. You'll need to be running Android 4.0 or higher to use it though.

Google's move to acquire Nik Software was curious since the company was known for creating professional or semi-professional photography tools.

Its most popular creation was Snapseed though, for the iPhone and iPad.

"Today I’m excited to announce Snapseed for Android! Snapseed won best Best Mobile Photo App of 2012 from TIPA, and now you can get it — for free — from Google Play," Google's Josh Haftel, who has been at Nik Software for more than a decade, wrote.

"The app works on any Android tablet or phone running 4.0+, comes with built-in Google+ goodness, and it’s launching in 8 major languages," he added.

But Google didn't add Nik Software to the Android team or created a separate unit for photo tools, rather it integrated it with Google+.

The choice may seem a bit peculiar at first, but Google wanted those photos to be shared and it wanted better tools for the photography fans that have already taken a liking to Google+.

Google+ focused on photos from the get go and still offers the best experience among the social networks, arguably even compared to dedicated photo sharing sites.

With Snapseed, Google is giving amateur photographers even more to work with. Google+ is built straight into the app. You can snap a new photo and then edit it with Snapseed or use one from your phone's gallery.

But you can also take any of your Google+ photos, crop it, adjust colors, add custom filters and so on and then put it right back on Google+. You can share your creations on Facebook or Twitter too, but Google+ is built into Snapseed. The new Google+ Communities should also come in very handy to photographers.