Visual content is the linchpin of an effective social media strategy in 2024. With the average person exposed to 6,000 to 10,000 ads per day, you need arresting visuals to cut through the noise and capture fractured attention spans. Luckily, a host of powerful mobile apps make it easy to create high-impact social media visuals on the go.
Research shows the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text and 65% of people are visual learners. On social media, visual content gets 40X more shares than other types of content. But it‘s not enough to just slap any old photo on your post – you need high-quality, thumb-stopping visuals to drive real engagement.
Need some inspiration? Take a look at these 20 mobile apps that will help you create stunning visuals and take your social media content to the next level.
Graphic Design
1. Adobe Creative Cloud Express
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) packs the power of Photoshop into an intuitive mobile app. With customizable templates, design filters, and Adobe‘s advanced image editing technology, you can easily create professional graphics that pop.
Key features:
- Organize your projects into brand-specific themes
- Auto-resize designs for different social platforms
- Add your brand logo, colors, and fonts in a few taps
- Access Adobe‘s stock photo and icon library
Pricing: Free plan available, premium starts at $9.99/month
2. Canva
Over the past few years, Canva has become the go-to graphic design tool for non-designers, and their mobile app delivers the same drag-and-drop simplicity. You can create everything from simple photo edits to complex infographics in minutes.
Key features:
- Huge, searchable library of templates and assets
- Collaborate with team members on shared designs
- Handy "Magic Resize" tool to adapt designs for each platform
- Upload your own fonts and brand assets to maintain visual identity
Pricing: Free plan available, paid starts at $12.99/month
3. Piktochart
Piktochart is an intuitive tool for creating professional infographics on the go. Their mobile app simplifies the process of visualizing data and statistics to tell compelling stories on social media.
Key features:
- Library of templates for charts, reports, presentations and more
- Interactive chart maker to import data from spreadsheets
- Searchable icons and images or upload your own
- Customize fonts and color schemes to match your brand
Pricing: Free version available, pro starts at $29/month
| App | Key Benefit | Best For | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Creative Cloud Express | Advanced image editing and effects | Brand-focused visual content | $9.99/mo |
| Canva | Huge library of customizable templates | Non-designers needing variety | Free |
| Piktochart | Easy infographics and data visualizations | Making complex information digestible | $29/mo |
Video Editing
4. Splice
From GoPro, Splice makes it easy to create professional-looking videos by combining video clips, photos, text, and music. Their streamlined interface is perfect for quickly putting together social media videos.
Key features:
- Trim, crop and rearrange clips with a few taps
- Add smooth transitions and visual effects
- Royalty-free music library organized by mood
- Customize text with fonts, colors and animations
Pricing: Free, or $2.99/week for more features
5. InShot
InShot is an all-in-one video editor perfect for touching up raw footage for social media. Its advanced tools like chroma key and color correction make your videos look polished and professional.
Key features:
- Adjust video canvas to match different platform requirements
- Rotate, flip, trim, merge and adjust video speed
- Keyframe animation for text, stickers and overlays
- Remove backgrounds with chroma key
Pricing: Free with watermark, $3.99 to remove
6. KineMaster
KineMaster is a full-featured video editor that offers more granular control for advanced users. Its precision editing tools, multi-track audio, and blending modes help you produce studio-quality results.
Key features:
- Multiple audio and video layers for complex edits
- Frame-by-frame trimming and splicing
- Precise color control with curves and presets
- Support for 4K 60fps video on latest devices
Pricing: Free 7-day trial, then $4.99/month or $39.99/year
Creating scroll-stopping social media videos has never been easier with these powerful mobile editing apps:
| App | Best For | Key Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Splice | Quick and easy video editing for beginners | Trim, remix clips, add effects and text | Free (or $2.99/wk) |
| InShot | Polished videos with advanced effects like green screen | Adjust canvas, keyframe animation, chroma key | $3.99 (remove watermark) |
| KineMaster | Precision frame-by-frame editing for pros | Multi-track audio/video, color curves, 4K support | $4.99/mo |
Animations
7. Animoto
Animoto simplifies the creation of stunning slideshow videos. Start with your photos and video clips, then customize the pacing and style to add visual interest to your social media presence.
Key features:
- Library of pre-built storyboards for common video types
- Automatically add motion to static photos for more energy
- Intelligently trim footage to match your selected song
- Customize colors, fonts and layouts to suit your brand
Pricing: Free trial, plans start at $9/month billed annually
8. Enlight Pixaloop
Enlight Pixaloop lets you animate specific parts of your static photos, drawing the viewer‘s eye to key details. It‘s a great way to add intrigue to images without overwhelming the senses.
Key features:
- Anchor points keep stationary parts of the image in place
- Overlay direction arrows to set the path of motion
- Radial blur tool to create a spinning effect
- Sky pack adds realistic clouds, sun flares and more
Pricing: Free 7-day trial, then $3.99/month or $19.99/year
9. Life Lapse
Life Lapse is a powerful tool for creating stop motion animation. String together a series of still images and the app will smooth out the transitions for a seamless final product.
Key features:
- Align tool shows faint outline of previous frame for continuity
- Grid and ghost image overlays help keep objects aligned
- Adjust frame rate, playback speed, and add filters
- Import images or shoot new frames in the app
Pricing: $2.99 for full features
| App | Best For | Key Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animoto | Engaging slideshow videos | Pre-built storyboards, auto movement, brand customization | $9/mo and up |
| Enlight Pixaloop | Subtle motion effects | Anchor points, directional arrows, radial blur | $3.99/mo |
| Life Lapse | Stop motion animation | Align tool, ghost image, adjust frame rate | $2.99 (one-time) |
Design Inspo
Need some inspiration for your social media visuals? These apps deliver curated creative examples and customizable templates to spark your imagination.
10. Pinterest
With billions of images and videos, Pinterest is a never-ending source of inspiration for content creators. Use the Pinterest mobile app to save appealing examples, organize them into boards, and revisit whenever you need fresh ideas.
Key features:
- Visual search to find similar images
- Lens camera feature identifies objects in the real world
- Create unlimited boards to categorize saved Pins
- Get tailored recommendations based on what you save
Pricing: Free, with paid promotion options for brands
11. Over
Over offers design templates and editing tools built specifically for creating share-worthy social media content. Kick-start your creativity with professionally designed assets you can remix and customize.
Key features:
- Templates for social posts, stories, ads and more
- Fonts, graphics, stock photos and videos
- Apply brand presets across multiple projects
- Schedule and share directly to social platforms
Pricing: Free 30-day trial, then $14.99/month or $99.99/year
12. Foodie
Foodie is a photo editing app focused on making food photos look irresistible. It‘s a great tool for restaurants and food brands looking to tantalize taste buds on social media.
Key features:
- 30+ food-specific filters like Yum, Tropical and Sweet
- Smart alignment tool to straighten images
- Adjust brightness, contrast, and color saturation
- Add text and stickers
Pricing: Free with in-app purchases
Save time with design inspiration from these apps:
| App | Best For | Key Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovering creative ideas | Visual search, boards, personalized recommendations | Free | |
| Over | Customizable social media templates | Templates, brand presets, scheduling | $14.99/mo |
| Foodie | Editing drool-worthy food photos | 30+ filters, alignment tool, adjustable settings | Free |
By incorporating a mix of these tools into your content creation process, you‘ll be able to produce a steady stream of stunning, on-brand social media visuals. The key is developing a clear visual identity and using these apps to execute your vision consistently across all touchpoints.
When selecting visuals, always keep your target audience and objectives in mind. You want to use images that will resonate with your specific followers while laddering up to your big picture goals.
It‘s also important to maintain a cohesive look and feel across all the content you post. Develop a brand style guide that defines your key colors, fonts, logo usage, photo editing approach, and overall aesthetic. Then customize the templates and tools in these apps to bring your brand to life.
Of course, producing great visuals is just one piece of the puzzle – you also need a solid distribution strategy. Take advantage of scheduling tools to maintain a steady cadence and analyze your top performing posts to see what visual approaches drive the most engagement. Keep tweaking and optimizing your visual strategy based on these real-time insights.
Some specific visual trends to incorporate this year:
- Interactive and animated elements
- Authentic, behind-the-scenes photos and videos
- Infographics that make data more accessible
- Memes and GIFs to show your brand‘s personality
- High-contrast, colorful palettes to grab attention
- User-generated content
With a strong visual strategy and these powerful creation tools, you‘ll be well-equipped to produce scroll-stopping social media posts in 2024 and beyond. Get creative, show your brand‘s unique personality, and have fun with it! Your audience will reward you with those precious likes, comments, and shares.
