Muzy is an intuitive image editing app that allows you to make collages with your own photos or ones from the web, plus you can can edit, crop, enhance with special effects add captions, and custom-frame your work.
But what good is the perfect photo arrangement if you can’t share it with everyone you know, right? Muzy lets you post your images directly to Facebook, so that others can marvel at your cool photos (and image editing genius).
Hit the jump and I’ll show you just what this app can (and can’t) do.
The Ins and Outs
The app is similar to Muzy.com (truth be told, I’m not sure which came first — the app or the dotcom) in that both provide a number of templates into which you can import photos, arrange them, add titles and captions, and share your creations with your social networks. The app actually offers more in the way of bells and whistles, but why the app only connects to Facebook while the website lets you send images to both Facebook and Twitter is confusing to me.
You can connect Muzy to your Facebook account or sign up for a Muzy account.
To share photos through the Muzy app, you’ll need to either connect your Facebook account or create a Muzy account using your email address. When I started the app the first time I noticed there was also an option labeled “Try it out first.” I really appreciate that, since it’s never fun to sign up for (yet another) account only to later discover I really don’t like the product or service.
Creating a Photobox
The main menu provides the following options: Photobox, Collage, Photo, Thoughts and Photobrush. I would think Photobox and Collage are where users are going to be spending most of their time, so let’s start there. Selecting Photobox calls up the three dozen layout options.
There are three dozen Photobox layouts to choose from.
After making your selection, you’ll be presented with the template and plus signs indicating areas where you can add things. Tap “Add Title” to name your creation. Then click any plus sign to start adding images. You can pick a photo from your iPhone’s photo albums, from your Facebook albums, from your friends’ Facebook photos, from Google Images, or you can even take a photo right then and there to add.
Tap the plus signs to add a title and photos from your library, Facebook or Google Images.
Once you’ve filled a placeholder with an image, you simply tap the image or title again to make any changes or swap out an image. Although you can’t add visual effects to the entire Photobox (fingers crossed for that option in a future update) with a single tap, you can edit individual photos one by one. To some, including myself, that’s a tedious way to do things; however, others might prefer it.
Tap on any photo in the Photobox to edit it, add effects, and make other changes.
When you launch the Photo Editor for one of your images, you’ll be given options for enhancing the image, adding effects, adding text, adding stickers or cropping the image. Play around and see what you like. Of course, you can always use the bottom left button to go back and choose a different layout. And you can even tap Background to further customize your creation.
You can also customize your background color before posting the creation to Muzy or Facebook.
Once your Photobox is perfect, tap Post in the top right corner. You can now add a caption and send the image to your Muzy account and/or Facebook.
Creating a Collage
After selecting Collage from the main menu, you’re presented with a blank canvas. Tap the camera icon to start adding images to your collage. Tapping the “T” allows you to add text to your collage, and the settings symbol on the right will allow you to change the background to a different color or texture.
Tap the camera icon to add photos to your collage, the “T” to add text, or the settings icon to change the background.
When adding text in the app, you have a dozen different fonts to choose from, including Neue Bold, Futura, Helvetica, Baskerville, AppleGothic, Handwritten, Palatino, Typewriter and others. When you get everything just so, you can send it to Muzy or Facebook.
There are a dozen different font choices available when you’re adding text to your work of art.
Additional Features
Other features in the Muzy app include an in-app camera, so that you can take and edit photos on the fly; a Thoughts template; and a Photobrush function.
The Thoughts template will really appeal to quotation enthusiasts who like to post inspiring (or comical, or whatever) phrases to Facebook. You have control over the font, the colors, and the words, obviously.
Two additional functions include Thoughts, for text creations, and Photobrush, for painting color on photographs.
The Photobrush function seems intriguing — reportedly, it allows you to paint colors over your photos. I would have loved to have seen it in action too, but it was completely unresponsive. (Are any other users having this problem?) Hopefully a future update can fix that bug.
Final Thoughts
Minus the Photobrush snag and the inability to apply effects to your whole Collage of Photobooth with a single tap, this is still a great little app. Making the photo compilations is super simple, and there are just enough options for customization without making the process lengthy.
My No. 1 complaint is that there aren’t more sharing options. If I were also given the ability to share my photo creations via my Twitter account, email and Tumblr, I’d be using this app every single day. I’m waiting, Muzy!