Lensa is a photo app for smartphones and similar devices that came into increased focus in the winter of 2022. The app includes classic functions to edit, beautify, and transform portraits and selfies.
At the heart of the app, however, is an AI that can transform users‘ images into digitized works of art. These artistic images are called Magic Avatars. For this function, the user loads several pictures of himself into the app and ultimately receives those popular images from the AI, which are not free in this form, however.
Lensa developed into a trendy app, which in the meantime became one of the most downloaded apps in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store for Android. However, the increased popularity of the software was not without its critics. There were critical comments about partly idealized and sexualized depictions and doubts about privacy, which were discussed in various newspapers and online editorials.
How does Lensa work? Explanation
In principle, Lensa is a classic photo app that allows users to digitally edit selfies and portraits according to their own preferences. This includes an accessible one-tap editor, digital retouching functions, smoothing wrinkles and editing options for dark circles and the like. In short, anyone who wants to revise their portrait for external presentation can access Lensa via smartphone or tablet. The app is available in many app stores as a free app, which, strictly speaking, only applies to some functions.
What sets Lensa apart from other photo apps is its Magic Avatars: stylized images of users that resemble works of art, sometimes in comic and illustration aesthetics. The portrait, which is usually stylized in striking colors, is usually strikingly similar in its contours to the person’s face. But behind the Magic Avatars is an AI that artfully processes the images.
Lensa thus taps into the trend of AI or AI-based functions that are enjoying increased popularity among digital image generators. Lensa is one of the first apps to integrate this technology so extensively into the design tool. So if you want to create a highly stylized avatar of yourself, you have reasons to reach for Lensa’s features.
The success of Lensa – popularity and criticism of the app
Lensa comes from a company called Prisma Labs from Sunnyvale, California. Prisma Labs and its founders, as well as Russian developers Andrey Usoltsev and Alexey Moiseenkov, also created the AI photo software Prisma. After the launch of Magic Avatars in November 2022, the app rose to become the most popular free app in many app stores. Lensa became a highlight for users who were looking for artistic avatars or wanted to cause amusement and excitement at a party.
However, Lensa’s success was also accompanied by criticism from established newspapers and media. From newspapers like Die Zeit or Süddeutsche Zeitung to trade magazines like t3n or Mashable to established TV channels like Bayerischer Rundfunk or the US ABC News – everyone was simply talking about the app after its release. Among other things, of course, this was due to the app’s atypical and popular features. But it was also due to journalistic curiosity versus the background behind the phenomenon.
One widespread criticism of the app after its release was its cost: Although Lensa was originally listed as a free app in many app stores, not all of its functions sometimes presented themselves as free. Those who wanted to access the aesthetics of the popular Magic Avatar not only had to take several pictures of themselves, but also pay a fee. This led to criticism of the payment model as well as data protection, including the question of copyright. However, the company behind Lensa emphasized that the images would be deleted from the servers shortly after they were created. A widespread criticism of the app also referred to the fact that the app transforms average people into immaculate and aesthetically highly polished avatars, to which some commentators attributed sexualized or sexist traits. However, the latter criticism could be extended to many of the image generators of this kind.
Overview – What is the significance of Lensa?
Whether you want to accept the criticism of the app – or not – the success of Lensa unquestionably heralds a new era of image generators for smartphones and the like. The use of modern AI and the realization that users are willing to pay for such images will certainly inspire one or two successor apps in the future. Lensa is helping image editors and digital portrait generators gain increased attention with this popularity.
To sum up: Lensa is a modern photo app, with powerful AI features that creates artistic Magic Avatars. The trending software thus took the app stores for smartphones and the like by storm in November and December 2022. The app has become a cause for both enthusiasm and criticism – from data privacy to cost to idealized image display. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Lensa is one of the hit apps of winter 2022.