Want to look more attractive on video? Or just different? Earlier this year, a company called Looksery popped up on Kickstarter to raise crowdfunding for a new kind of mobile video chat application that allows users to look more attractive on video using special effects that can remove blemishes, let you change your eye color, slim your face, and more. The app, which is live as of today on the iTunes App Store, also lets you transform your face into an avatar for a bit of fun, too.
While there are several tools that allow you to add avatars on top of your face when chatting over webcams on the desktop, there are fewer that work on mobile. Meanwhile, those that do – like Tango’s – are focused mainly on being silly, not on truly modifying your image in a believable way.
Of course, Looksery’s app lets you have fun, too – you can chat as a panda, a gecko, a grumpy cat, a zombie, a monster or even a flaming skull. (The kids might enjoy that one.) But for older users, Looksery’s bigger draw is its ability to let you chat via face-perfecting filters, including those that let you instantly remove any blemishes or zits, remove bags under your eyes, even out your skin tone, slim you face, remove lines, and change the color and size of your eyes.
The company, which was founded in August 2013, is similar in some ways to the popular photo-editing applications that allow users to adjust their looks in their selfie photos, such as FaceTune and Perfect365. These apps offer tools to make your images look better through face slimming techniques, new eye colors, virtually applied makeup and more. But they’re limited to photos, not real-time video chats.
Looksery, meanwhile, has been working on making a system that functions well without lagging, using software it developed that optimizes video files through its understanding of which parts of the face are moving and which aren’t. This allows Looksery to keep the file sizes smaller, and keep the video communication fast.
But even if the technology works as promised, Looksery knows that it may have a hard time attracting users to yet another mobile chatting application amid a sea of competitors. Besides, users don’t necessarily want others to know they’re adjusting their image – and that’s the main point of using this app.
That’s why the company is working to make its filters available to other camera solutions, apps, websites, carriers, handset manufacturers, and call center operators. Victor Shaburov, CEO at Looksery (previously the founder of Handster), says the company is already in discussions with several brands around licensing deals. But Looksery has nothing to announce on that front at this time.
In the meantime, you can give the Looksery app a try for yourself – it’s a free download here on iTunes.