FaceApp allows you to edit your personal photos or those of your friends and family to make them look older or remove facial wrinkles by changing facial features using neural networks and artificial intelligence. So what is FaceApp, how does it work, and are there any security or privacy concerns users should be aware of before using the app?

Here is everything you need to know about the FaceApp for editing and altering facial features:

What is FaceApp and how does it work?

FaceApp is a photo editing app that uses artificial intelligence to change facial features, add smiles to faces, make young people look older, or make older people look younger.

In addition to adding filters and other effects to photos, the app can use images from your library, or you can take photos through the app. You can also allow the app to scan your phone's photo library and pull only the images that contain faces.

The app uses its own server-side technologies to process your photos and apply filters. This means that the images you want to edit are first uploaded to the app's servers for processing, and then the final result is shown to you.

How can you use the app?

FaceApp offers a simple and easy-to-use interface that allows you to edit both new photos taken with the phone's camera and old photos already in your photo library.

Once you open the main screen of the app, you have two options: either select a photo from your phone's photo library by pressing the 'All Photos' option at the bottom of the screen and choosing the image you want to edit, or take a new photo using the phone's camera.

The image you select will start with a filter called 'Original,' but you can swipe to the right side of the screen to reveal a variety of sub-menus you can choose from, including: Impression, Smiles, Beards, Gender, Hair Styles, Hair Colors, Age, Sizes, Glasses, Morphing and Makeup.

Within these sub-menus, you will find a variety of filters that you can apply to your photo, such as changing beard color. You can also press the 'Age' tab to modify the image by adding wrinkles to make yourself look older.

If you swipe to the left side of the screen, you will also find options for editing the image, such as merging all the edited images into one. Then press the save button in the top right corner of the screen to save the image to your phone. You will then have the option to share it on various social media platforms or through messaging apps like WhatsApp.

Does the app threaten user privacy?

Nikolaos Chryssaidis, a security expert at Avast, says: 'I don't see any sign that the app threatens user privacy in abnormal ways. While the app does collect data and photos because that's its business model, this type of risk already exists in many other apps that people use on their devices and that require access to specific data such as location, camera, and microphone to function.'

As for the app's developer, they stated: 'They delete photos from their servers within 48 hours, and all app features are available for use without logging in. As a result, 99% of users do not log in; therefore, we cannot access any data that could identify someone.'

The app is available for free for Android users on Google Play and for iPhone and iPad users on the App Store.

Tags

FaceApp iPhone Android Apps Smartphones Privacy Protection

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June 19, 2020 Last updated: June 19, 2020

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