How much difference does the camera app make for photo's quality? I have just bought a Moto X Play, which comes with the proprietary Motorola camera app. I am wondering, how much difference does the camera app make for the basic photo quality like:


automatic determining of exposure
automatic white balance
automatic ISO settings
noise correction for low-light shots


I understand that some 3rd party apps give the users a lot more manual control over the settings, apply some post-processing, make sharing of the photos easier, etc. I am, however, mostly interested in using the phone as a point-and-shoot simple camera, so I would like to get the best quality out of the box in different conditions (especially in low-light).

So the question is, how many of the aspects I listed above and controlled by the hardware/lower level drivers, and how much is controlled by the camera application?
Base on my experience with my Samsung Galaxy J7, the best camera app is build-in camera app you can adjust any parameter manually. Then you can modify your photo by other apps like Photo wonder , etc..

Some selfie app will take your photo with the small size (960x500) and you cannot adjust any setting.