The overnight success of Lensa AI, a photo editing app powered by artifical intelligence, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who remembers the rapid rise and subsequent fall of FaceApp in 2019. Back then, FaceApp went viral after users all across social media had shared 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 them and their loved ones.
According to Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, 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.
This chart shows the share of smartphone users in selected countries who regularly use camera/photo editing apps.
