Amateur mobile photographers (like me) rejoice! Google, which purchased Nik Software, creators of Snapseed earlier this fall, has re released this application into the Play Store for free. Originally the app was five dollars for iOS users, but now it's free for them as well. This is not your father's Instagram, this is a richer and more involved application. Here's what you can and cannot do out the gate:

Basic Adjustments

• Auto Correct - Automatically analyzes your photo and adjusts color and exposure to perfection.
  
• Selective Adjust - Make precise selections and enhancements to specific areas of your photos in seconds with Nik Software’s revolutionary U Point technology.
  
• Tune Image - Use Ambiance to create depth and vibrancy that uniquely adapts to colors and textures. Adjust White Balance, Saturation, Contrast, more.
  
• Straighten & Rotate - Rotate 90° and/or straighten photos with simple gesture controls.
  
• Crop - Easily crop images to remove distracting parts of your photo with standard aspect ratios, or a free crop.

Creative Enhancements

• Black & White - Get that classic Black and White look with this darkroom-inspired filter.
  
• Vintage Films - Make any photo look like a vintage color film photo from the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s.
  
• Drama - Add style with a custom effect specifically tailored to your photos, ranging from subtle textures to wildly artistic effects.
  
• Grunge - Give your photos a totally unique, hip, and dingy look.
  
• Tilt-Shift - Create a narrow in-focus area designed to simulate depth of field, common in a Miniature Scene look.
  
• Details - Enhance details with traditional sharpening or the unique Structure control found in the Nik Software professional products.
  
• Center Focus - Draw attention to the subject of your photo by blurring and adjusting the brightness of the surrounding background.
  
• Organic Frames - Add stylized borders to photos for the perfect finishing touch.

Snapseed isn't a minuscule app, with the download clocking in at over 24MB; data plan sharers, you've been warned. Once you get the app installed, we're instantly taken into editing software with a sample photo for testing. With the sample photo comes instructions laid over each section. Once I tapped across each section and made adjustments, I have options to save my photo, share it with Google Plus, tag a G+ user, email or share with another network.

The application itself reminds me of Photoshop Express. The edits can be done by dragging a finger across the screen or up and down for toggles. Once that desired edit is reached, just tap to the next item and it changes. I have never been keen on the drag to edit features, but it seems organic within Snapseed.

After a few minutes, I know that this is going to replace PicSay Pro for me, at least in the short term. Google is going to put a lot of effort into an application like this to compete with the Facebook-owned Instagram. It's certainly more involved than just tapping pre selected filters, so for those enthusiasts that like to really tweak their photos, this is completely worth the large installation. The photo shown here was taken with my lacking Nexus S camera and the improvements are noticeable even after a few simple tweaks.

Snapseed is currently only available for devices running Android 4.0 and higher; with over 50% of Android devices still stuck in 2010 running Gingerbread (2.3), expect slow adoption of the app and low initial interest. Initially, I could not install the app from the Play Store to my Nexus 7; thanks to a quick update of the app by Google, it's now on my tablet. I also had to search for that share feature outside of Google Plus by tapping the dreaded menu button. Considering it's now a free application, I think it's pretty great.

Is Snapseed really going to be an app that will whittle away the Instagram user base, or has Google simply released another image editing tool onto an already saturated public? We welcome your comments below!