NAU Social’s app picks
From templates to photo and video editing — here’s the tools we use everyday
Tried and true apps. Here are the apps our team swears by to make our work like a bit easier — especially on the go.
Maria DeCabooter| NAU Social Manager
StoryArt +MoStory
My go-to app? StoryArt. They have templates for every style.
I’m a big fan of their minimalist templates that let the photos do the talking. With multiple collage templates, these are great to showcase events and put the spotlight on the people behind the events/programs.
Bonus: MoStory is integrated StoryArt adding in an element of animation to your stories. A simple photo post can transform into a video story with the click of a template.
Remix by Buffer
Spend most of your time on Twitter? Wish there was an easy way to share a tweet on Instagram story or Facebook?
Remix gives you that option! You’re able to share the tweet and attribute it to the original author but then put your spin on it by changing up the background.
You can choose to use one of their backgrounds or upload your own making it even easier to adapt to your style, branding.
Simply copy the tweet link, paste in Remix and change the background. Use this feature to share info from other users on campus.
Unsplash
It’s been around for a while but shouldn’t be overlooked. When you’re needing to find a picture to go with a tweet or a background for a story post — Unsplash is always a great bet. For Medium users, it’s also integrated into the site so you can easily add photos from Unsplash while creating your blog.
Bonus: Search Flagstaff and you’ll find free pictures of Lumberjack Country to use.
Carla Betancourt |Junior| NAU Social Intern
One of the most helpful apps I have come across for story templates is Unfold. I normally don’t think app subscriptions are worth it, but with this app, it’s definitely worth it.
It saves me the time of having to go into Instagram or Snapchat to add gifs/stickers; I can do it right in the app. It also has a ton of templates with different styles depending on preferred aesthetic.
Dazzcam
“The Dazz camera is inspired by the retro film camera of the 80s. Based on the film proofs, we 100% restore the color, texture and noise of the film. There will also be interesting light leakage effects.”
Dazzcam creates a fun boomerang, film-aesthetic effect to your images making them eye-catching to viewers.
A Color Story
“A Color Story focuses on fresh photos and video, on-trend editing styles, and colors that pop.”
My favorite thing about A Color Story is all of the fun editing features it includes. Something this app has that I can compare to Adobe desktop editing software is that it allows me to edit a specific area in a photo with their Selective Edit feature.
You can also do grid planning for your Instagram, just to make sure your feed is looking pretty :)
Austin Young| Digital Communications Specialist
For the graphically-minded photographers
As a photographer and graphic designer who is always on the move, it helps to have the right tools for editing on the go without a computer. Here are some of my favorite apps to use:
VSCO allows you to edit photos whether directly from your phone or from a camera. It has a plethora of tools for adjusting things such as exposure, contrast, white balance, a HSL slider for colors, and more.
There is also a large library of presets that you can use to help you capture the right mood.
Bonus: Check out their Vimeo for tutorials on how to use their features
Snapseed
Snapseed is a photo editing app that allows you to fine tune images with features akin to Photoshop like a healing brush, selective editing, tone curves, perspectives, brushes, and more. You also have the option of adding things like text to your images.
When I don’t have access to a computer, I find that I can achieve things that you’d normally do on a desktop application.
Over
Over is an app that allows you to combine images and text to create graphics using a variety of templates, fonts, calligraphy, and visual elements.
Over is great for creating clean, visually compelling Instagram and Snapchat story posts that are diverse in color, fonts, composition, and overall look.
Karringtan| NAU Social Graduate Assistant
Canva
I use Canva to help create our My Life in 5 Insta stories, intro frames, and more.
The best part about this website is the drag and drop feature and layout designs. There’s also a mobile app to make things on the go.
InShot
Make it once — resize it for all platforms with InShot. Before stories became a mainstay, we used InShot for all our resizing and formatting needs.
Since then, the app has continued to add more features. If you haven’t tried out its video function — you should give it a try.
With stickers, doodles, animations and a wide variety of fonts, InShot gives you that YouTube style feel. It also comes with its own library of sounds.
