GIMP

Review by eFreeware

Serious photo editing usually means sitting at a computer, because the tools that can handle layers, masks and precise selections have never translated well to a touchscreen. GIMP for Android takes a different route: rather than rebuilding the editor for mobile, it runs the actual GNU Image Manipulation Program on your device. The app comes from UserLAnd Technologies, which describes it as an adaptation of the Linux application rather than something built by the main GIMP team.

That distinction matters more than it might first appear. What you get is the desktop program, with the interface and the feature set that go with it, presented through touch gestures. The developer's pitch is that it has everything you would expect from professional image editing and authoring software, and that the app is full featured and professionally supported. I take that as a statement of intent rather than a promise that every session will feel effortless on a phone.

The app costs $1.99. There are no ads and no in-app purchases, so the price you see is the whole cost of entry. It has been installed more than 50,000 times and holds a 3.1 average across 1,738 ratings, a figure that suggests people have strong and divided opinions about running this kind of software on a touchscreen. Released in April 2022, it was last updated in May 2026.

Photo retouching without a desktop

The core job here is retouching photographs. If you want to clean up a portrait, adjust color and tone, remove distractions or work on parts of an image separately from the rest, this is the kind of tool built for that work, and the developer describes it as covering what a professional editing and authoring program should offer. The difference from a mobile-first editor is that you are working in the same environment a desktop user would recognize, so the techniques and the vocabulary carry over.

The catch is the input method. A mouse gives you a pointer and a right button for context menus; a fingertip gives you neither. The app compensates with gestures: a single tap acts as a left click, two fingers together act as a right click, and pinching zooms. That is a workable translation, but it is still a translation, and fine selections and mask edges are the sort of thing where the gap between a stylus tip and a cursor becomes noticeable.

For straightforward adjustments, though, the gestures are enough. Cropping, straightening, exposure and color work do not demand pixel-level accuracy, and those are the tasks most people reach for first when a photo needs fixing. The developer's own guidance is that this is all easier on a tablet with a stylus, which reads to me as an honest description of where the app sits: capable everywhere, comfortable on the right hardware.

Creating images rather than fixing them

Editing is only half of what the program is for. It is also an authoring tool, which means starting from a blank canvas and building something: graphics, composites, illustrations, layered designs assembled from several sources. The developer describes it as a tool for editing and authoring photos and images, and the authoring half is why the vocabulary of layers and selections matters so much here.

This is where the app's approach pays off most clearly. Building a composite means moving between tools constantly, and having the full set available rather than a trimmed-down mobile subset is the whole point of paying for an adaptation instead of using a lighter editor. The two-finger scroll and the press-and-hold pan gesture exist for exactly this situation, letting you move around a large canvas while zoomed in without losing your place.

It is also where the interface demands the most patience. A dense desktop workspace squeezed onto a phone screen leaves little room for the canvas itself, and the developer points out that a tablet and stylus make the whole thing easier. I would expect anyone doing layered work regularly to want the larger screen, not because the app fails on a phone but because the work itself needs the space.

Touch controls and getting files in and out

The gesture set is small and worth knowing before you start. One finger moves the pointer as you slide it, a tap is a left click, two fingers together are a right click, and a pinch zooms. Holding a finger down and sliding pans the view, which is the one you will use most once you are zoomed in, and sliding two fingers up or down scrolls. None of this is complicated, but it is a different muscle memory from a mouse, and the first while with the app is spent learning it.

Text entry works through an on-screen keyboard. Tapping the screen brings up a row of icons, and the keyboard icon among them opens it, which is how you type layer names, file names or values into dialog boxes. There is also a desktop scaling setting, reached through the service notification in Android, that changes how large the interface elements are. The developer notes that you have to stop and restart the app for a scaling change to take effect, so it is worth deciding on a setting early rather than adjusting it mid-project.

File handling is the part I find most considerate. The home directory includes links to Android locations such as Documents and Pictures, so images already on your device are reachable without an import step, and finished work does not need to be exported back out through a separate mechanism.

What the latest update changed

The most recent release, in May 2026, updated the GIMP version and the file system, and fixed problems that had made it difficult or impossible to update GIMP and the filesystem yourself.

There is a wrinkle: getting the benefit of that update means uninstalling and reinstalling the app. A smaller follow-up release fixed a script issue.

The app is licensed under GPLv3, with source code published on GitHub, and the Wilber mascot icon comes from a vector source released under a Creative Commons by-sa 3.0 license. The developer also points out that if you would rather not pay, or cannot, GIMP can be run through the UserLAnd app instead. That is an unusual thing for a paid app to mention.

Where this fits in a mobile workflow

The people who will get the most from this are those who already know their way around desktop image editing and want that same environment when they are away from a computer. If you understand layers, selections and masks, nothing here needs to be relearned; you are trading a mouse for gestures and a monitor for a screen, and the toolset underneath stays the same. A tablet with a stylus is the setup the developer recommends, and it is the one I would expect to feel least like a compromise.

At $1.99 with no ads and no in-app purchases, there is no ongoing cost and nothing to unlock later. For occasional retouching or a project every few weeks, that is an easy calculation.

It is not a bad score, but it is a divided one, and the most likely explanation is that the app delivers exactly what it advertises, a desktop program on a touchscreen, and that experience is wonderful for some people and frustrating for others. The ratings tell you the app is polarizing; they do not tell you which side you will land on. The gestures are the thing to judge yourself against, because they are the part that stands between you and the tools.

A paid shortcut to desktop-grade editing on a tablet

GIMP for Android is worth the $1.99 if you want the real program on a device you carry, and you are willing to learn a gesture vocabulary to get at it. The feature set is the desktop one, and there is no advertising or additional purchasing to work around.

I would point this at people who already edit images seriously and want that capability on a tablet, and at anyone who prefers a one-time purchase to a subscription. If you are new to this kind of software, the learning curve is the program's own, and the touch controls add a second thing to absorb on top of it. The app does not hide what it is: an adaptation of a Linux application, packaged and supported for Android, priced once, and honest about the hardware that suits it.

What's new in version 26.05.29

26.05.29 Small script fix from last release 26.05.26 Update GIMP version and file system significantly Fix bugs that made it difficult to impossible to update GIMP and the filesystem on your own You have to uninstall/reinstall to get this benefit (sorry)