Less than a year after Lensa AI, a photo editing app powered by artifical intelligence, took the internet by storm in late 2022, AI-generated, 90s-style yearbook pictures became the latest social media craze this fall, as photo-editing app Epik went viral. The same happened with FaceApp in 2019, when users had flooded social media with pictures of their older/younger selves generated by the app, quickly luring millions of people to try it themselves.
It seems like many smartphone users have a soft spot for photo editing apps, maybe because they appeal to people's inherent vanity. Regardless of the reasons behind it, camera and photo editing apps are among the most popular app categories, often high up the rankings of the highest-grossing apps. It appears as if many people are more than willing to spend a few dollars to brush up their digital presence or to create some nice pictures of themselves and their loved ones.
According to Statista's Consumer Insights, photo editing apps are regularly used by roughly 4 in 10 smartphone users across several major markets, putting them behind basic apps such as email, browsers and social media/messenger apps but way ahead of news, video, dating and fitness apps.
