Over the past several months, AI-powered photo apps have been going viral on the App Store. However, new data from app intelligence firm Apptopia indicates consumer interest in AI photo apps have fallen as quickly as it rose.
Apptopia
Falling Consumer Interest in AI Photo Apps
Apptopia analyzed top AI photo apps worldwide, tracking both their download growth and in-app consumer spending.
The firm examined the leading AI photo app, Lensa AI, and others including Voi, Remini, Pixelup, Fotor, Wonder, FacePlay, Aiby, FaceApp, Gradient, Dawn AI, Facetune, Prequel, Voilà AI Artist, New Profile Pic Avatar Maker, and Meitu.
Peak Popularity During the Holiday Season
Apptopia found that this group of AI apps first began to take off around Thanksgiving, then hit their peak in terms of both downloads and in-app purchases around mid-December.
At their height of popularity, the apps topped 4.3 million daily downloads and ~$1.8 million per day in consumer spending via in-app purchases.
Significant Drop in Popularity
However, those numbers have significantly dropped since. On November 11, the apps saw their lowest revenue, at $0.37 million. And, a week later on November 19, they saw the lowest number of downloads, at 0.84 million.
As of yesterday, the same group of apps saw only around 952,000 combined downloads and around $507,000 in consumer spending, as the numbers continue to fall.
Lensa AI and the Ethics of Avatar Technology
Lensa AI’s breakout success began with its new avatar feature, which went viral from late November to early December 2022. This feature saw Lensa AI become the No. 1 app on the iOS App Store’s competitive “Photo & Video” charts, ahead of bigger apps like YouTube and Instagram.
Complaints About the App’s Use of Technology
The “magic avatars” feature leveraged the open-source Stable Diffusion model to process selfie photos and generate avatars that looked like they had been made by a digital artist. However, there were soon a number of complaints about how this technology had been put to use.
People found that it was too easy to trick the app into making NSFW images, and artists were upset that their work had opted into the training data without their consent. This resulted in many of the AI profile pics having similarities to artists’ own work, but they weren’t the ones profiting from it.
Backlash Against the App
Consumers seemed to respond to the ethical concerns being raised. Some people began to leave comments on AI photos and profile pictures posted on social media to tell people not to use an app that steals from artists.
This backlash likely quelled some of the demand for AI art, as it’s not much fun to use an AI pic for your profile if you’re essentially being accused of theft when doing so.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while AI photo apps enjoyed a surge in popularity towards the end of 2022, the trend appears to have fizzled out quickly. New data from app intelligence firm Apptopia indicates that consumer interest in AI photo apps has fallen just as rapidly as it rose.
Consumers seem to have lost interest in these apps due to concerns over ethical issues, lack of differentiation, and subscription fees. It remains to be seen whether the trend will re-emerge in the future or if it has truly come to an end.