iPhone apps for filing photos to an agency, compared
You need pictures on the desk's server and there's no laptop. Five iPhone apps can do some or all of it, and they work in quite different ways. This is a plain side-by-side, written by the person who makes one of them, so check each maker's own page before you choose.
If you want pictures leaving the camera while you're still shooting, use your camera maker's app: Nikon NX MobileAir and Sony Transfer & Tagging are free, Canon Content Transfer Professional is a subscription. ShutterSnitch receives pictures wirelessly from many cameras and Wi-Fi cards. If you file after the take, straight from the card, from any camera, and want to cull, edit, caption and send on the phone, that's the job Dispatches is built for. Nothing stops you using one of each.
Side by side
As each maker describes its app on its own page or App Store listing, 17 October 2026. Prices are from the US App Store and differ by country.
| App | Cameras | How pictures get in | Captions and metadata | Sends to | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikon NX MobileAir | Selected Nikon cameras | From the camera, as you shoot or after | IPTC presets, voice memos | FTP | Free since 9 July 2026 (Nikon) |
| Sony Transfer & Tagging | Supported Sony cameras | From the camera, while shooting | Up to 50 IPTC presets; voice memos turned into captions (uses a Google service) | FTP | Free (Sony) |
| Canon Content Transfer Professional | Compatible Canon cameras | From the camera | Photographer name and licence details, voice memos | FTP, FTPS, SFTP | $5.99 a month after a one-month trial |
| ShutterSnitch | Many brands, plus Wi-Fi SD cards | Wirelessly from cameras and Wi-Fi cards | Metadata presets and code replacement (Metadata Editor add-on) | FTP, Dropbox, Google Drive and more | Free download; $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, plus add-ons |
| Dispatches | Any camera that writes to a card | From an SD card reader, Files or the photo library | IPTC presets; one spoken or typed brief drafts the headline, caption and keywords for the whole event | FTP, FTPS, SFTP, email, HTTP, Files, social hand-off; several at once | 14-day free trial, then a subscription (see your App Store) |
Each app in a paragraph
Nikon NX MobileAir. Nikon's own app takes pictures from the camera over USB and uploads them to an FTP server over the phone's data, automatically as you shoot or after. It adds IPTC presets and voice memos and can crop and straighten. Nikon made it completely free on 9 July 2026. It works only with the Nikon models on Nikon's list.
Sony Transfer & Tagging. An add-on to Sony's Imaging Edge Mobile, made for sports and news photographers. It moves pictures from the camera to the phone while you shoot and on to an FTP server, with IPTC presets, caption glossaries and voice-to-text captions. It is made for Sony cameras.
Canon Content Transfer Professional. Canon's subscription app for compatible Canon cameras: FTP, FTPS and SFTP upload, voice memos and photographer and licence metadata. It replaces Canon's older Mobile File Transfer app, whose listing says that service will end.
ShutterSnitch. A long-running independent app that receives pictures wirelessly from Wi-Fi SD cards and from many cameras, checks exposure settings against rules you set, and sends on to FTP and cloud services. Metadata editing and image adjustments are paid add-ons on top of the subscription.
Dispatches. A filing desk on the phone: import every frame from the card, or filter by in-camera rating or flag; cull with stars, flags and colour labels; it edits RAW, non-destructively; caption the whole take from one brief; then send to one or several servers, email and social in one go. It doesn't pull pictures off the camera wirelessly: they come in from the card. FTP sends run while the app is open, so you stay in it until the summary appears.
Which one for which job
- Pictures need to move while you're still shooting, from one brand of camera: that maker's app.
- You shoot with a Wi-Fi card or several brands and want wireless transfer: ShutterSnitch.
- You file between frames or after the take, from any camera, and want the edit and the captions done on the phone before anything goes: Dispatches.
- You file to one agency every week: whichever app you choose, save the agency once as a destination. If it's Alamy, here's how to file to Alamy Live News from an iPhone.
Coming from a laptop instead? Photo Mechanic habits on the iPhone and the Photo Mechanic and Lightroom comparison.
Try the card-to-desk route on your next job
Dispatches is on the App Store for iPhone (iOS 26 or later), with a 14-day free trial.