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Android users can now harness the power of neural networks to alter faces

Android users can now harness the power of neural networks to alter faces

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Last month we told you about FaceApp, an iOS app that uses neural networks to tweak peoples’ facial expressions. Now, it’s available on Android, too; you can download it here from the Play Store.

The app is similar in technique to Prisma, which also uses neural networks to change photos; adding artistic filters in the style of famous painters or paintings. But while Prisma produces some pretty fantastic images, the changes it’s making are only superficial — it doesn’t actually alter the content of the photo, like FaceApp.

The images produced by FaceApp aren’t always convincing.
The images produced by FaceApp aren’t always convincing.
Photo: FaceApp / The Verge

That’s not to say that FaceApp’s results are always worth it. The app can add smiles, make a face look older or younger, and even swap genders; but its results are definitely hit-and-miss. As you can see above, the images it produces are hazy, low-quality, and sometimes just a little off.

Still, with Prisma, the AI work underpinning the app went from a research paper to turning up in Facebook’s own filters in about a year. Using neural nets to alter images is only going to get more popular.