The right date for Android image editor Aviary

Easy Photo Editor used to be the only free image editor for Android that didn't mess up the time and date tags in your exif data.

But not anymore. Aviary added exif preservation a while ago, but failed to keep the date you shot your pictures. The latest update fixes this issue. The new edition of Aviary lets you choose which date you want: date of picture taken or date of picture edited. It works for the exif (android) tag, but not (yet?) for exif (IFD0). Use Jpeg Exif Viewer to check the difference.

Why do exif date tags matter? First, they remind you when you shot that World Press Photo winning picture. Second, having the right date in the exif tags makes your pictures appear in the right sequence in gallery apps like Androids built-in image gallery.

Other reasons to use Aviary: it saves your original image resolution up to 12 megapixels, and I couldn't find any ad banners in it (unlike Easy Photo Editor, which is adware). The recent update adds a level too, so now you can straighten up your pictures.

Aviary also lets you choose your own picture output folder, but there's a catch. When I tried to set my own folder, Aviary complained that I didn't have OI File Manager installed. I have ES File Explorer and X-plore, but Aviary refuses to work with them. So there's something left to fix in a future update.

Even with the file manager annoyance, Aviary has jumped ahead of its competitor. I wonder what the maker of Easy Photo Editor will do to catch up?

• Aviary