If you’ve got a phone and a face, you’re likely looking for the perfect selfie app – something that’s fun, flattering, and will wow your friends. Depending on what you’re after, there are plenty of choices out there. So we’ve curated a list of 10 great selfie apps that give you an array of visual effects.
This list is not meant to be exhaustive [1], so we’ve picked out photo apps that help your selfies really stand out. As a bonus, they’re all free.
1. Line Selfie Sticker
Get app: iOS; Android
While most of the apps on this list focus on photos, this one turns your selfie into a comic creation. Line Selfie Sticker has over 100 templates for free. There’s the option to add text bubbles.
As its name implies, this app turns your cartoonified selfie into a sticker for use in Line messaging app (because this is made by Line Corp), but you’re free to share it on other social networks like Instagram or Facebook.
2. B612
Get app: iOS
This is also made by the Line crew. The idea behind this very new app is to make selfies look more slick than usual. It has more than 40 filters designed for use with faces. It even supports live filter previews if you prefer not to do post-processing.
3. PIP Camera
Get app: iOS; Android
If you want an array of slightly surreal special effects for your selfies, PIP Camera is one of the best choices. All the filters are in a pic-in-pic style, allowing your face to pop up inside a bubble, or a glass bottle, or on a polaroid snap that someone’s holding.
4. Photo Wonder
Get app: iOS; Android
As with a number of other selfie-centric apps, this puts an emphasis on cosmetic tweaks. Aside from the usual filters, Photo Wonder has some very detailed and specific tools for changing the tone of your skin, make-up, or hiding blemishes. There’s also a ‘thinify’ option and a recently added ‘beauty leg’ feature that makes your legs longer.
The app also offers skin whitening. That’s not something that all cultures will appreciate, but it’s in big demand from some women across Asia.
This seems to be one of the most popular beautification photo apps out there, with over 100 million users. It’s made by Chinese search engine giant Baidu, and works in several languages. It also packs in an Instagram-style social network.
See: Can’t get the perfect angle for your selfies? Worry not, the selfie stick is here)
5. MeituPic
Get app: iOS; Android; Windows Phone
MeituPic is similar to Photo Wonder, with a focus on beauty tweaks, whitening, slimming, and hiding skin blemishes. It also packs in an effect that makes you look taller and makes your eyes bigger.
The MeituPic team claims to have over 300 million users around the world.
6. MomentCam
Get app: iOS; Android
Here’s another cartoony one. This will make your selfies look like hand-drawn caricatures, and it even works for a small group of people. The two main options are to turn your photos into a comic (with optional speech bubbles and captions) or into emoticons.
If you opt for making emoticons, you can save them as animated GIFs that can be used in WeChat messaging app.
7. Frontback
Get app: iOS; Android
This is where we shift to selfie apps made outside of Asia. While Asia claims to be the home of the selfie, I think it’s fair to say that these apps are more interesting and diverse than those made within the region. They’re also more social.
Frontback is good example of that diversity. It takes two photos simultaneously – one from the rear camera and one from the front. That adds in an interesting element of your reaction to what you’re up to. There’s the option of taking a five-second reaction video rather than a self-pic.
Other options include public posts, geo-tagging, and captions.
8. Selfies
Get app: Android
Selfies is a social network dedicated to… well, you know. It doesn’t have much in the way of unique customization – just a handful of simple filters – but it’s a nice looking community.
Selfies is made by Automattic, the same team behind WordPress.
See: 8 emerging technologies that kids born today will take for granted
9. Dubble
Get app: iOS
Dubble adds in an organic soupçon of hipsterism by allowing you to overlay and blend other images into your selfie. The final result is that you’re the star of a Bon Iver album cover. Or something.
And, yes, there’s a social network built in as well.
10. Funimate
Get app: iOS
Let’s end on an animated note with Funimate, which makes GIFs and looped videos of your selfie – or anything, really.
Funimate has 15 animation effects and you’ve got the option of adding music if you’re crafting a video. You’ll need the $1.99 in-app purchase to remove the app’s logo, so this is the only app in the list that’s not truly free.
There are tons more out there, but they’re mostly doing the same kind of thing, such as helping women look more sparkly, or making it easy to put text on your images. These apps get really same-y and repetitive after a while. ↩
Ready for your close-up? Here are 10 great selfie apps
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