Companion apps made by camera manufacturers are usually terrible: hard to use or just plain unreliable. But that's not the case anymore.

Fujifilm’s new XApp lets you control your camera remotely from your phone, transfer images, and back up your camera’s custom settings. And guess what? These features actually work, and in our testing so far, they do so reliably. In fact, the app is so not bad that I’m actually excited about its capabilities. To make this app work, Fujifilm actually rewrote the firmware for its cameras, which might explain why it all works so well. This could be pretty big.

"Camera companion apps have historically had their share of problems. They're often treated as an afterthought, secondary to the camera itself, and it's usually pretty clear that camera manufacturers don't typically specialize in software development. The result? Apps that aren't particularly user-friendly, intuitive, or stable. But it seems Fujifilm has flipped the script with XApp," photographer Mal Hellyer told Lifewire via email.

If you’ve ever used a companion app for your camera or small photo printer, you know how bad they can be. Canon’s print apps for their Selphy printers, for example, are among the worst on my phone. They use a custom photo picker to access your library that’s slower, rickier, and offers fewer features than the built-in one.