You need RAW support only if you shoot in your phone’s RAW or ProRAW mode and want to make significant edits afterwards; for ordinary phone photos saved as JPEG or HEIC, an app that does not support RAW files will work just fine.
Who needs to care about RAW
- Everyday phone photographers: an app without RAW support suits you if your camera app is left on its normal automatic mode, since it saves standard JPEG or HEIC files that any photo app can open and edit.
- Photographers who shoot in RAW or ProRAW mode: an app with RAW support suits you if you have turned on your phone’s RAW or ProRAW setting, because those files need software that understands the RAW format to open, preview and export them properly.
- Anyone unsure which mode they use: checking your camera app’s settings suits you before choosing software, since many phones only turn on RAW capture if you have switched it on deliberately.
What a RAW file actually is
- A RAW file stores the unprocessed data straight from the camera sensor, with far more information about colour and brightness than a JPEG, which is already compressed and processed in the camera.
- RAW files are much larger than JPEGs, often three to six times the file size, which matters for storage space and upload times if you shoot RAW regularly.
- Apps without RAW support will either refuse to open a RAW file, or show only a low-quality preview thumbnail instead of the full-quality image.
- Editing a RAW file lets you recover more detail in very bright or very dark areas of a photo than editing an already-compressed JPEG, which is the main reason photographers choose RAW in the first place.
- Some phones save both a JPEG and a RAW version of the same shot, so you may already have a usable JPEG even if your editing app cannot open the RAW file.
Questions to ask about your phone and app
- Open your phone’s camera settings and check whether RAW or ProRAW capture is turned on.
- Look at a recent photo’s file details: a RAW file will usually end in .dng, .raw, .cr2, .nef or a similar extension rather than .jpg or .heic.
- Do you plan to do serious editing (recovering shadows, adjusting white balance significantly) or just basic brightness and crop adjustments?
- Do you have enough storage space for RAW files, which take up noticeably more room than JPEGs?
- Does the app’s product page or help section specifically mention RAW support, or list the file formats it accepts?
A way to test without deciding yet
If you are not sure whether you shoot in RAW, check your camera app’s settings first — most phones default to JPEG or HEIC unless you have switched on a RAW or ProRAW mode yourself. If you have never changed this setting, you almost certainly do not need RAW support and can pick software based on other features instead.
Next step
Check your phone’s camera settings for a RAW or ProRAW toggle, then look at a recent photo’s file extension to confirm which format you are actually shooting in before choosing an editing app.
Sources and date checked
Researched from phone manufacturers’ own camera documentation and photo-app feature pages, not a hands-on test performed for this article. Date checked: 22 September 2026.