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Google Play's favorite app of the year amps up your videos for TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat

Glitch Video Effects offers more than 100 filters for your videos.

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome
2 min read
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Glitch Video Effects

Google named Glitch Video Effects the Play Users' Choice App of 2019 on Tuesday, as part of Google Play's Best of 2019 awards. Google's top picks followed the news of Apple's first annual App Store Best Apps and Games awards earlier in the day. 

Glitch Video Editor, from developer InShot, allows users to take photos and videos and add more than 100 filters and effects in real time, including Retro VHS, Shadow, Xray and Neon. You can import your own music from your phone and add it to your videos. You can also import videos from your personal gallery and add filters, change aspect ratios and export high-resolution videos to share across social media like TikTok, Instagram, IGTV, Facebook and Snapchat. 

Read more: iPhone app of the year Spectre Camera uses AI to take photos that usually require a DSLR 

More than 10 million people have downloaded Glitch Video Effects, according to its Play Store listing. As of today, more than 62,000 people have rated the app, which has 4.6 out of 5 stars in the Play Store. Glitch Video requires Android 5.0 and up. It costs $10 to download, but you can try it free for seven days. 

Other nominees for the Users' Choice App award included Ablo, Peloton, Post-it and Concepts -- Sketch, Design, Illustrate. 

From those contenders, Ablo won the Google Play Best App of 2019 award, as selected by the Google team. The app from MassiveMedia helps you connect with random people all over the world, and translates your chats and video calls in real time. The app can help you practice a language you are learning with a real person, or connect with people to travel with worldwide. 

Ablo may sound like another version of the notorious Chatroulette, an online chat site that pairs random users for conversations via webcam. Ablo sets ground rules at the start, however: No flirting without consent, no pushing others to send pictures or contact details, no sexual or abusive behavior, and no racism, bullying or violence. If rules are broken, the offender gets kicked off the app. 

After you agree to the rules, Ablo connects you with someone elsewhere in the world, and gives you a prompt to start the conversation, such as, "Tell each other about your favorite movie." You can choose to leave a conversation at any time, and the app will take you to another location and user. You can also use it to chat with friends you already know. 

Ablo has more than 1 million downloads, according to its Play Store listing, and more than 86,000 users have rated it, with an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars. It's free to download and use. 

Glitch and Ablo didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the awards. 

For more, check out Awesome phone photography: How to take great-looking pictures on iPhone or Android

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