AI Video Generator-HiCut

Review by eFreeware

If you take a lot of portraits and want them to look like something other than photographs, HiCut is built for exactly that. It is a free app from developer Songzan that restyles pictures using AI filters and also handles video creation, so the same session can produce a still and a short clip. It has passed a million installs and holds a 3.0 average from 5,832 ratings, which suggests a lot of people have tried it and a fair number have come away with reservations.

The pull here is variety. Rather than one signature look, the app gathers anime, cartoon and game-character styles into a single place, plus a hugging video feature that the developer describes as its own technology. For anyone who posts stylized images regularly, that range is more useful than a single filter that wears thin after a week.

I would think of it as a creative toy with a practical streak. It is not trying to be a full editing suite for professional work; it is aimed at people who want a striking result quickly and are happy to let the app decide most of the look.

An app for portraits that need a different look

The clearest fit is someone who wants a profile picture, a themed avatar or a set of images for a group chat and does not want to learn a desktop editor to get them. Uploading a portrait and choosing a style is the whole idea, and the app covers enough ground that you can produce several distinct results from one photo.

It also suits people making small keepsakes. The hugging video feature is aimed at moments between two people, and the developer pitches it as a way to create an embrace between loved ones, including those who have passed away. That framing will appeal to anyone putting together a tribute or a sentimental clip, and it explains why the app leans on emotional use cases rather than technical ones.

Groups are another natural audience. Cartoon avatars and game-character looks work well when several people want matching images, and the vacation templates added in the latest version point in the same direction: quick, themed content tied to a trip or an occasion.

What ties these together is that the app works from photos you already have. You are not shooting anything new or building a scene from scratch; you are feeding in a portrait and letting the filters rework it.

Anime, cartoon and game character filters

The photo side of HiCut is organized around style families. The anime filters turn a portrait into a two-dimensional image, and the developer says there are hundreds of styles to choose from, which is a large enough set that the results should not all look alike. Cartoon filters push the same photo toward a comic-book treatment, and the app also produces cartoon avatars from them.

The game character maker is the most distinctive of the three. It generates figures in retro, film noir, cyberpunk, pixel art, simulation and blocky world styles, so the output ranges from flat and nostalgic to heavily shaded. Anyone who wants to appear as a character in a game-like scene has a clear starting point here.

The quality of the source photo matters more than any setting you choose. A clear, well-lit portrait gives the style conversion more to work with.

The developer groups all of this under photo editing and video creation driven by AI, and the phrasing suggests the app handles the heavy lifting rather than asking you to adjust parameters. That is convenient, though it also means you are trusting the app's judgment on how far to push each look.

The hugging video and its limits

The hugging video is the feature the app leads with. You supply two photos, each showing a single person, and the app produces a clip of the two embracing. The app is designed to let people share an embrace across distance or time.

That requirement is worth taking literally: two single-person photos are what the feature is built around.

The emotional pitch is strong, and it is the part of the app most likely to divide people. Some will find a virtual embrace between loved ones genuinely moving; others will find the idea of a synthesized hug uncomfortable. Either reaction is reasonable, and it is the feature that most clearly defines what kind of app this is.

The recent update also added a set of vacation templates, covering scenes such as surfing at sea and walking on the beach. Those sit alongside the hugging video as ready-made setups rather than blank canvases, which should make themed clips faster to produce.

Free to install, with purchases inside

HiCut costs nothing to download, and there is no advertising in the app. That combination is rarer than it used to be and makes trying it a low-commitment decision. You can install it, run a photo through a filter and see whether the results match your taste without sitting through interruptions.

The app does offer in-app purchases, so some part of what it does sits behind a payment. What those purchases cover is not set out, so if a particular style or the hugging video is the reason you want the app, it is worth checking before you commit to it.

The rating is the other number to weigh. A 3.0 average across 5,832 ratings is middling, and while that does not tell you which features people were reacting to, it does suggest the experience is uneven for a meaningful share of users. With over a million installs, the sample is large enough to take seriously.

My read is that the free download, with no ads, makes HiCut easy to evaluate on your own terms. Install it, test the styles you actually care about, and let the results decide.

How it compares with other editing tools

The obvious comparison is a general-purpose photo editor. Those give you control over exposure, color and cropping, and they can be used for any image you own. HiCut is narrower by design: it is built around style conversion and short video effects, so its value depends on whether you want that specific transformation rather than broad editing control.

A second alternative is a dedicated anime or avatar app. Those tend to do one thing and do it thoroughly, often with a single visual signature. HiCut's advantage is breadth, since anime, cartoon and game-character looks live in the same place, along with the hugging video. If you want one consistent look across everything you post, a single-purpose tool may feel more coherent.

The hugging video is closer to a novelty video maker than to a photo editor, and it is the feature most likely to be the reason someone chooses this app over another.

Where HiCut sits is somewhere in the middle: broader than a single-style filter app, less controllable than a full editor, and free enough that the trade-off costs you little to explore.

A free experiment for stylized portraits

HiCut is worth installing if you want to see your own portraits rendered as anime, cartoon or game characters, or if the hugging video is the feature that brought you here. It is free, it carries no ads, and the range of styles means there is enough to explore before you decide whether it earns a permanent spot on your phone.

The caveats are straightforward. In-app purchases mean not everything is open to you at no cost, the 3.0 rating signals that results vary for users, and the hugging video depends on having two clean single-person photos to work from. Those are real constraints, but none of them make the app hard to try.

I would treat it as a creative tool for occasional use rather than a daily editor. If you enjoy turning photos into stylized versions of themselves and want a quick way to do it, this is a reasonable place to start. Install it, run a favorite portrait through a couple of styles, and judge the output for yourself.

What's new in version 2.5.2

New version is here! We’ve optimized some processes to make your experience smoother. New templates alert! A huge collection of vacation-themed templates—from surfing at sea to strolling on the beach—is now available. Come and try them out!