Fragment for Android Review

What seems like a wave of photo editing applications has been arriving for Android and Fragment (Play Link) seems to be the latest addition. It has a nice set of effects and options for making those pictures really pop.

Utility

Fragment can initially come off a little complicated until you play around with it a little bit. After you get the hang of things the amount of visual tweaks that this app is capable of is pretty staggering. Fragment stands alone just fine, it can help you turn a photo into a mesmerizing piece or it can bring out whatever you're looking for with its myriad of options.

Design

Fragment's approach to photo editing is in one word, minimalist. Before we get to that however, lets go back to the start. Above on the left you'll see the app's initial screen, It has a few options, (starting with "Photo" and "Camera" which let you get right to work). Then there is "Inspiration" (above on the right), this is a nice addition as it gives you a glimpse into the potential that comes with this application. This, quite frankly was one of the factors that kept me playing with Fragment and motivated me to figure it out.

Back to the minimalism piece, this can be a blessing and a curse at times. At first the lack of direction has me pressing everything to figure out how to use the application. I had trouble figuring out what I was working with when "Editing Fragment" versus "Editing Photo" seeing as the fragment is shards (depending on the fragment chosen) of the photo that can be scaled, rotated, and aligned differently than the original. This is not terrible but, not all users will take the time to understand how to operate the app (or be swayed by the Inspiration section). As you can see more clearly above you can also add saturation to these fragments to make them stand out from the original photo it accompanies.  This aside, after you are acquainted with how the app works, the clean look leaves you to your creations.

Wrap-Up

Until later this fall, the interoperation between apps on Android is second to none, it is one of the reasons I stand by the platform. Photo editing is one of those instances that give you a clear example of this as you can drop a photo into a series of apps and end up with something that looks like the image above. Despite it's learning curve at first, Fragment is a great application and adds value to your tool chain nearly immediately.

Apps I used to create the above image:

Fragment (Play Link)

Google+'s Photos (Play Link)

Over (Play Link, Review)