FaceApp: Perfect Face Editor

Review by eFreeware

FaceApp's pitch is simple: a photorealistic edit in a single tap, without the hours of manual retouching that serious photo editing usually demands. That one-tap approach is the most distinctive thing about it, and it shapes everything else. The app is free to install, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases on top of the free download.

The scale is hard to ignore. More than 500 million installs and a 4.3 average from over 5.3 million ratings put it among the most widely used photo editors on Android. It has been available since February 2017, and the developer still ships updates, with the most recent one in September 2026 covering fixes and stability work.

This review is for people deciding whether to install it. If you take a lot of selfies and portraits and want them to look polished without learning a desktop editing workflow, FaceApp is built for exactly that. If you want fine manual control over every pixel, the one-tap model will feel like the wrong fit.

Retouching that stays close to the original

The core of the app is portrait cleanup. It removes acne and blemishes, smooths wrinkles, and lets you enlarge or minimize individual facial features. There is a color lens, and you get control over temperature, saturation and similar adjustments. You pick a filter and it applies.

The Impression filters are the developer's headline set for selfies, and they are aimed at the kind of subtle enhancement that reads as a good photo rather than an obvious edit. Each step includes a Compare tool, letting you review the change before you save it. That matters more than it sounds: retouching apps live or die on whether the result still looks like the person in the photo.

The developer describes the output as photorealistic, and the whole catalog is built around that claim. Whether a given filter crosses into uncanny territory is something you judge per photo, and the Compare tool is the practical way to do it.

Hair, makeup and the playful filters

Beyond cleanup, FaceApp covers styling. You can add a beard or mustache, change hair color and hairstyle, and add volume to hair. Makeup filters are included, along with creative light effects. The developer also offers a feature that suggests a hairstyle and color for you, which is useful if you are curious but do not want to go through the full list manually.

Then there is the entertainment side. With Gender Swap, you can preview a version of yourself as another gender. The Old and Young filters age you forward or backward. Weight filters let you appear bigger or smaller. You can also borrow a style from another photo.

These are the filters people share, and the app supports that directly: edits can be posted to your social media accounts from within it. With more than 60 filters in total, the catalog is broad enough that the fun options and the practical ones sit side by side rather than in separate modes.

What you need before you start

Getting going is straightforward. FaceApp is a free download for Android, rated for Everyone. You open a photo, choose a filter, and the edit is applied.

The app does offer in-app purchases. The download itself costs nothing and there are no ads, so the free experience is not interrupted by advertising. What the paid options cover is something to check on the purchase screen if cost matters to you.

Every feature here, from blemish removal to Gender Swap, is built around portraits, so the app is at its best with a clear selfie or headshot rather than a landscape or a group shot.

The kind of person this fits

FaceApp suits someone who wants a good portrait without becoming a photo editor. If your routine is taking a selfie, wanting it to look a bit better, and posting it, the one-tap model removes the friction that usually sits between those steps. The Compare tool means you can keep the edit subtle when you want subtle.

It also suits people who enjoy the playful side. Gender Swap, the aging filters and the weight filters are made for sharing, and the app is set up to push results straight to social media. If your interest is in seeing a transformed version of a familiar face, that is a large part of what the catalog offers.

The people it fits less well are those who want to build an edit from the ground up, adjusting curves, masks and selections by hand. FaceApp works in the opposite direction: it does the work and shows you the result. That is the appeal, and it is also the boundary.

A free editor worth trying for portraits

FaceApp earns its install numbers by being genuinely easy to use and broad in what it covers. Over 60 filters, a compare tool at every step, and a free download with no ads make it an easy thing to try. The 4.3 average across more than 5.3 million ratings suggests the approach lands with most people who use it.

The trade-offs are the ones built into the format. Edits are one-tap and filter-driven rather than manual, so the app decides a lot of the result. There are in-app purchases, which means the free download is not the whole picture if you want everything on offer.

If you want to do the retouching yourself, a manual editor will serve you better. For everyone in between, the free download makes it a low-risk thing to try.

What's new

Minor fixes and stability improvements are here for a smoother FaceApp experience.