Pic Stitch for Windows Phone 8 - Joe Belfiore recommended

By George Ponder
last updated

Pic Stitch is a new Windows Phone 8 photography app that has seen a bit of success over on iOS. It is part photo editor, part collage maker, and part photo sharing app. It caught the eye of Microsoft's Joe Belfiore (opens in new tab) and we have to admit, it does make a nice first impression.

Belfiore tweets about Pic Stitch

Pic Stitch has 31 different collage layouts and a single image frame. Your first step is to choose your frame and customize it. Frame customizations includes your aspect ratio, adding a colored pattern, setting the width of your frame, round the corners and changing the frames color.

From there you double tap each area of the frame to add photos. You can either import images from your Pictures Hub or launch the camera app to capture a new image. Either way, once you choose your image you are sent to a photo editor powered by Aviary (same editor we've seen with Instagraph and other Windows Phone photo apps) to fine tune your photo.

Pic Stitch

Photo editing tools include filters, effects, stickers, and your standard editing controls (brightness, contrasts, crop, saturation, etc.). Once you get your photo fine tuned, tap save and it is placed in your Pic Stitch frame.  Once you complete your Pic Stitch frame, the finished product can be saved to your Pictures Hub or shared via email, messaging, Facebook, Twitter or any other sharing method your Windows Phone supports.  You also have lockscreen support but that feature is a bit of a mystery right now.

In just tinkering with Pic Stitch for a short time, it is an very nice photo editing app for your Windows Phone 8 device. The only slight downside we can see is that Pic Stitch lacks a trial version.

Give us a few days and we'll get a review up on the site with a video walkthrough to help you decide if Pic Stitch is worth the investment. Or if you want to go ahead and take the plunge, Pic Stitch is currently running $1.49 and you can find it here (opens in new tab) in the Windows Phone Store.

Thanks, pbroy, for the tip!

QR: Pic Stitch

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

86 Comments
  • Reminds me of phototastic.
  • reminds me of a ripoff.  Free on iOS, $1.49 grifters on Windows Phone.
  • Just wait for price drop...
  • What can you expect, when our superior WP platform is not the current top 2 POPULAR one.  This is a way to at least get the App.  I'd rather have the App to choose from, and pay a few bucks, than whine about not having the App in the first place.  We have been there, done that, and it isn't fun.  PEACE!
  • Reminds me of Instagram.
  • pic stitch is a great app for instagram use. I see a bit of foreshadowing...
  • Awesome tea leaves dude.
  • I'm confused?
  • Reminds me of PhotoGrid.
  • PhotoGrid is awesome and it runs on WP7.8 :-D
  • 7.8 Reminds me of 7 ;)
  • Just because its on IOS doesn't mean we need it on Windows. Lets get some Windows exclusives' and stop trying to be like IOS. Were better than that. "Ooooo IOS has it, I want it." is this you?
  • So we can get users to make those new windows exclusive apps
  • Stop
  • Go
  • How could we start getting exclusives when we don't even have most official apps...
  • Obviously you don't get it.
  • Nope I'm clueless :D
  • How about Memorylage for a Windows Phone exclusive?  It's way faster to create collages, and even makes browsing through your photos looks better.
    P.S. I'm the developer, so I am obviously biased.  :)
  • Just downloaded and had a quick look. Initial impression is very positive. Nice work.
  • Just gave it a try - nice work! Question, which pays you more, the Ad supported free version or the paid for version? Don't answer if you don't want too - I can understand ! My question is directed to making sure I support the Devs of good Apps the way that encourages them to stick with WP
  • Sorry I disagree. Windows Phones user base isn't nearly as big as iOS. If we wanna pull people from Android and iOS we have to at the very least offer what they offer. That's the first thing people look at when leaving a platform. They wanna know that the apps they use will be available when they make the switch
  • sorry I disagree, with shit like this, people are going to come from iOS where this is FREE and say, "I gotta pay for that?" This is a big fail.
  • Better than "IT DOENST EVEN EXIST?!"
  • Photogrid existed already....FOR FREE
  • True day! But an Ad Supported iOS app isn't going to make enough $ on WP to be worth the devs time in many cases. What totally turns me off is the lack of a trial. If you look at the MS WP page, trials if Apps is one if the things they crow about. Something like this that I'm not even sure I would use is not going to get looked at without a Trial.
  • Chicken n egg, which one should come first.. users or great apps?
  • I can see your point; while its good to have well known apps to attract users to WP it seems MS doesn't care to promote those unique apps that do exist on WP. There should be a good balance but all efforts only seem to be targeting one side.
  • Seriously?
  • This doesn't make sense.
  • Pretty shortsighted post you've made here.
  • I'm going to disregard this...even though by typing this I'm actually doing the opposite...
  • Hmmm, the irony
  • Dun dun dun...
  • This app is real old on Ios and android. But nice to see it get here.
  • A bit pricy, [+] Lockscreen style does the same job but app is free :)
  • +1000
  • A stripped down version. I mean really $1.50?
  • What is it with these limitations I keep hearing about and developers are writing in there write UPS. "do to OS limitations" I see it all the time. It's like the developer is saying, here is my app, it could and should be better but this is all Microsoft lets me do. Take the reigns off Microsoft, let the developers develop the app the way they and we want. I don't see that on IOS. Everytime we get an app that Android or IOS has it seems to be striped down plain and dull, due to "OS" limitations. Whats up with that? I do love Microsoft and Windows OS, that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated at times. Its almost like a love hate relationship. I want an OS without limitations. I pay good money to have an OS without limitations. I can always stray somewhere where there is no OS limitations. Ya feel me.
  • But that's the thing... is it OS restrictions or are the devs just lazy to learn the RIGHT way to do it?  WP doesn't have many restrictions unless it's related to the security of the platform.  If the devs learned to develop it the correct way (for WP), then there wouldn't be an issue.  But rather than admit that, they blame the OS in many cases.
  • +1 thaman04
  • I guess some developers are looking for just a quick buck instead of learning the OS and putting out a quality app.
  • Wp8 has no more limitation than iOS, Android is more open..to virus and spyware. Definitively these developers are crying too much ;)
  • Photogrid is free too
  • Isn't this free on iOS?
  • exactly
  • Wow! An app I kinda want!! Jk lol, but I've wanted to use this app on my iPod but it needed to be updated.
  • I like phototastic
  • +1
  • To me this blatanly says instagram is coming. I mean why would the Number 1 collage app want to come to Windows Phone without they're number one reason for existence, instagram!?
  • It also means to me that when Instagram does get released, it will be WP8 only.
  • Would have been nice if there was a trial version
  • Phototastic remade for WP8? Okay...
  • Lol!
  • Is this what he meant as giving us a little something that he mentioned in an earlier post? If so, LMFAO!!!!
  • Hey Joe, just get us the firmware updates faster (still don't have 1308 in apac), and fix windows phone store issues. (I'm using an unlocked apac version of Lumia 920 from Phils. Storage check has never worked. Just installed this new update of Extras, but Storage check still not working. Anxiously awaiting firmware 1308. Hopefully this will fix this and my other issues - camera button and camera app don't work (luckily proshot can access the camera hardware and work), unit won't rotate to landscape mode. All this after a hard reset, needed because I was having the screen freeze issues. On top of it all, I haven't been able to purchase any app through windows phone store for two weeks. Microsoft support has been terrible and after 4 chats and numerous emails, still can't figure it out. Time to consider a switch.)
  • Maybe you should have your phone checked out, no problems on my 920 from Hong Kong. Also just got the 1308 update.
  • Yes, I will have to bring it in (see my reply above). Glad to hear you received the update. Hopefully, all of apac will have it soon.
  • Thanks to all the replies.  As it is an unlocked phone directly purchased through a Nokia reseller (neither of the two mobile carriers in Philippines cariies Nokia Lumia 900/920), the unit had to be returned directly to Nokia Care center.
    The unit escalated from level 1 to level 2 to level 3 within 48 hours.  It has now been shipped off somewhere for hardware repair. 
    For all of you attesting to how great your phone is working, the true test of a brand is how well they handle you when there are problems.  As mentioned earlier, the carriers in the Philippines do not carry Nokia Lumia 900/920 and I had to purchase outright at full price, $600+
    I am sure all of you would agree that no one expects to pay $600 for the newest "flagship" phone of any brand, just to end up with a refurb unit after less than three months.  Point is, it should have been an immediate replacement by Nokia.
    Updates to come, as I doubt my story is going to end well.
  • Thanks to all the replies. As it is an unlocked phone directly purchased through a Nokia reseller (neither of the two mobile carriers in Philippines cariies Nokia Lumia900/920), the unit had to be returned directly to Nokia Care center.
    The unit escalated from level 1 to level 2 to level 3 within 48 hours. It has now been shipped off somewhere for hardware repair.
    For all of you attesting to how great your phone is working, the true test of a brand is how well they handle you when there are problems. As mentioned earlier, the carriers in the Philippines do not carry Nokia Lumia 900/920 and I had to purchase outright at full price, $600+
    I am sure all of you would agree that no one expects to pay $600 for the newest "flagship" phone of any brand, just to end up with a refurb unit after less than three months. Point is, it should have been an immediate replacement by Nokia.
    Updates to come, as I doubt my story is going to end well.
  • Doesn't it seems like Joe B. has been in hiding until today? Could he really be that busy?
  • FYI, based on the screen shots at the Windows Phone Store, it shows options for changing the borders of the collages. In the iOS version this is an add-on that costs $0.99 so maybe the $1.49 isn't so bad. Plus, this isn't even offered on Android so that is a plus :) It also appears that iOS users have to purchase a frames pack add-on to get to the maximum number of collage layouts listed in their app description. Basically the only thing that WP8 users are missing is the ability to share to instagram and twitter and to print to Walgreens (which might be kind of cool). Please correct me if something here is wrong. I don't actually own the iOS version; I'm just going by the bigblueclip.com website.
  • Users coming from iPhone won't care, they will see 1.49 and say f that.
  • I wish it had free trial, again it's a shame it's $1.99 in australia not $1.49
  • Don't buy it if it is too expensive for you. There are free alternatives. Please stop these silly comments..
  • Phototastic Free does it the same way for free
  • Since when did iTunes also sells apps ? I thought only appstore had apps
  • I use Photosastic for stuff like this. There is also a free version.
  • PhotoGrid is awesome and free.
  • What computer is that?
  • No trial on WP? But free on iOS - meh
    Say it ain't so Joe!
  • I used to use diptic, very similar, i like stitching pics in mini montages, cool to see on the this platform..
  • Folks, the market share held by windows phone is too miniscule for the plethora of free apps we see on iOS. These guys risk a lot by porting to a seemingly niche audience and platform. The only way to offset this risk is by placing a fee on the app in the case that it doesn't "catch on" and the fee mitigates that dilemma/risk. Meanwhile we single handedly tear down developers with our words instead of building them. How do we build them up? Buy the app, or refrain from negative comments.
  • Well said
  • Its not about the price. 1.49 is chump change but the fact that it is free on iOS is almost racist.
  • Wish I hadn't bought this honestly. If you crop or resize the image any it looks like a grainy mess from a 1mp digital camera when they first came out.
  • Same results here- worthless. But I'm happy for this discussion because otherwise I'd never have discovered Artile, which is superb.
  • Pretty aggressive pricing. I didn't buy this app.
    On the other hand, I've downloaded all the other free alternatives available from the Store now. So news like this is always more commotion and goodness for the entire ecosystem.
  •  
    Artile does what Pic Stitch does and more, and does it better. It has been available on WP8 for a while now with lots of 5-star reviews. Check it out:  http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/artile/2293677d-03d9-440e-9fcd-44fc12f0c8d8
    Disclaimer: I am the developer of Artile :)
  • Good job man
  • +1
  • Dick stitch love it
  • Output looks HORRENDOUS. Damn. 01mggt is right. How can Joe recommend it? Haven't he tried the app. The resolution in the final photo is really really bad..
    I hope a fix will come. I bought half part to support the coming of "big app" from istore....but honestly its useless. Trying Artile and photosastic...
  • He recommended this app cause he uses it on his daily iPhone.
  • I hope this isn't the something nice be Joe tweeted about the other day
  • Hello there i am very very new to my windows phone,nokia 928..i know this is an old thread but im just looking to get an app like pic stitch ..something i can use to make collages for instagram..i see a few listed here what would be the best for me