Slideshow Maker Apps for Android and Which Add a Watermark

A slideshow on a phone is a short video of your photos in order, with a song underneath. The Create tab in Google Photos builds one with nothing to install, and Google’s help page for it mentions no charge. Another app is for more control over timing and transitions, or a ready-made style Google does not offer, and then the thing to check is whose logo ends up on the video. YouCut is the pick for no watermark and your own song: its listing commits to both.

A highlight video in Google Photos

Google describes a highlight video as a video with music made from your photos and videos. To make one:

1. Open Google Photos and tap Create, then Highlight video.
2. Pick a template, or tap Select content to start from your own pictures.
3. Choose the photos and videos yourself, or type a few words such as “Birthday” or “Japan” and let Photos choose.
4. Review the video, change the clips, music or text if you want to, and tap Save.

Templates arrive with music, text and cuts matched to the beat. In the editor you can swap the song, choose which part of it plays, add text, reorder the clips and change the aspect ratio. To use a song stored on your phone, Google says you first have to allow Photos access to music and audio in Settings. There is a shortcut too: select several photos in the main grid, then tap Create and Highlight video.

The same help page gives two limits. An older phone may not be able to create highlight videos at all. And the music that comes with the feature is for personal, non-commercial use only, so keep it out of anything you plan to earn money from. The page says nothing about a watermark or a fee.

The other tool under Create is Animation: select your photos and tap Create. Google calls the result a quick-moving GIF. It has no music, its speed cannot be changed, and an animation cannot be edited once it is made. The help page lists no separate Movie tool.

To watch your photos on a television, Google’s streaming help describes a slideshow of your Google Photos library that you start and control by voice. It needs one of Google’s home devices: a Nest display, or a Chromecast or Google TV device linked to a Google speaker or display.

Which apps add a watermark

The last column is the range Google Play’s US listing shows for in-app purchases, from the cheapest item to the dearest. It is not the price of one upgrade, and it changes with your country.

Google Photos and YouTube Create are the two with no ads label and no in-app purchases on Google Play.

Apps that say they add none

YouCut, from InShot Video Editor, is the plainest about it. Its listing says the app is free and never adds a watermark to your video, and that no banner ads sit on the screen while you edit. It has a photo slideshow maker that merges photos into a video, music from YouCut’s own collection or from your phone, and export up to 4K. Google Play does show an ads label and in-app purchases, and the listing does not say what those purchases unlock.

FotoPlay makes the same promise: a free photo slideshow maker with music and no watermark. It offers built-in music with fade in and fade out, audio extracted from a video you already have, a voiceover, and frames sized for YouTube, TikTok and square posts. The same developer has a second app, Photo SlideShow & Video Maker, with a near-identical listing.

Canva is a design app with a slideshow maker inside it. Its listing uses the words “free, no ads, no watermarks” and counts thousands of watermark-free videos and pre-licensed music tracks in the free library. Premium templates, audio and images belong to Canva Pro, the paid side of the app.

Slideshows in a few taps

Scoompa Video does one thing. You select photos and videos and it plays them back at once as a slideshow, which you then adjust with styles, animated frames, stickers, text and filters. The listing ends with “Free with ads”, and the video can be edited again after saving.

Slideshow Maker from CloudEx lets you set how long each photo stays on screen and how long the whole slideshow runs. The free edition shows a single in-app purchase at $2.99 on the US store, and there is a separate Slideshow Maker Pro sold for the same price, for anyone who would pay once and be done. Neither listing says what the free edition holds back.

For a finished look, go with MoShow, from Picadelic, if you accept the logo or the VIP price. You pick the pictures and it applies a style, such as glitch, ripple or sparkle, with moving text. Its listing is clear about the free version’s limits because it lists what VIP adds: the MoShow watermark removed, saving in HD, longer slideshows with more pictures, and control over timing and the video’s shape. So expect the logo on a free export.

Pixgram is free with ads and in-app purchases. Its listing promises music on photo slideshows and filters, calls the app by several different names along the way, and says nothing about watermarks.

Grids and bigger video editors

PicPlayPost, from Mixcord, stitches photos and videos into a slideshow or a grid of up to nine frames, and shares in 1080p. The listing mentions adding a watermark or logo of your own. It does not say whether the free version adds one of its own.

YouTube Create is Google’s own video editor, for anyone willing to learn a proper one. It combines videos, photos and audio, has more than 40 transitions, matches clips to the beat of a soundtrack and exports up to 4K. It is built for making YouTube videos, so it asks more of you than a slideshow app does.

Filmora: AI Video Editor & Maker, once FilmoraGo, is free with in-app purchases. Its listing is now about AI video and timeline editing and no longer uses the word slideshow. It says the watermark and the logo roll are removed with a Filmora Pro subscription, so expect both on a free export.

CapCut, InShot and VN are full video editors that will also string photos together. None of their listings mentions watermarks.