Photo editing on Android smartphones and tablets has come a long way over the years. There are many powerful tools built in at your disposal. However, one thing always seems to stay away: the ability to simply flip a photo.
Cutting and twisting are staples of almost every editor on Android, but what if you just want to flip a picture? Some camera applications will take mirror images with the camera facing forward. It looks like it would be a basic feature, but it is not.
For example, Google Photos is one of the most popular photo apps on Android. With the editing tools you can cut, rotate and even adjust your perspective, but flipping is nowhere to be found.
There are many applications in the Google Play Store that aim to solve this problem, but most of them are riddled with ads. The best solution is a Google app called ‘Snapseed’. It’s a powerful photo editing program, but we just need the browsing tool.
First, download Snapseed from the Play Store on your Android device.
Then open the app and tap the big “+” button in the middle of the screen.
The first time you use the app, you will be asked to give it permission to access media on your device. Tap “Allow” to continue.
Tap the “+” button again and select the image you want to flip over.
Switch to the “Tools” tab in the bottom bar with the image open.
A bunch of photo editing tools will appear. The one we want is ‘Turn’.
Now tap on the rotate icon in the bottom bar.
The image will now be flipped horizontally.
If you would rather turn it vertically, you can use the rotary knob together with the rotary knob.
When done, tap the tick button in the bottom right corner.
Select “Export” in the bottom bar to save the cropped image.
There are a number of options for saving the image:
- Save will simply create a copy of the original image.
- Use Export if you want additional options after saving them.
- Export as you can save the copy in a specific folder.
- You can also Share it directly to an app or contacts.
That’s all there is to it! You now have a mirror image. As simple as that.