If you've suddenly seen glamorous selfies popping up everywhere on social media, you can thank Meitu, a Chinese photo-editing app that has suddenly become an overnight hit in the West.
While adding a discreet Instagram filter to a selfie to cover up a blemish is a well-worn trick, Meitu goes several steps further by turning headshots almost into cartoons.
The app has been a hit in Asia for years but was only recently released in the UK and elsewhere in January. As well as offering the typical features of photo apps such as borders and red-eye removal, the real magic of the app is a bizarre "hand-drawn" mode that turns photos into portrait-like images.
Users first upload a photo and apply one of several beauty filters to touch their pictures up. When it goes into the drawing mode, the app will change its subject's eye colour and add make-up, whiten teeth and introduce other effects. Users choose one of seven filters - Angelic, Blossoms, Fairy Tale, New Year, Petals, Mermaid and Baroness - each slightly more disturbing than the last.
The app is marketed at women (and those with long hair at that - it instructs users that hair should fall below the ears when taking photos), but unsurprisingly it has been commandeered by those wishing to publicly degrade the rich and famous, including a certain president-elect.
Here's Donald Trump in the Meitu app HAPPY NIGHTMARES! pic.twitter.com/eSTyrAgMXt
— Sam Stryker (@sbstryker) January 18, 2017
I am having waaayyy too much fun with this #meitu app!!! pic.twitter.com/8vjQYzk2Xi
— Mistress Evilyne (@MsEvilyne) January 19, 2017
The app is marketed at women (and those with long hair at that - it instructs users that hair should fall below the ears when taking photos), but unsurprisingly it has been commandeered by those wishing to publicly degrade the rich and famous, including a certain president-elect.
If you keep feeding the pictures from the Meitu app back into itself, things escalate very quickly pic.twitter.com/9BIJhENwkk
— Laura Hudson (@laura_hudson) January 18, 2017
Was able to meitu myself about 8 times before it said I didn't have a face... things got weird. pic.twitter.com/84L5PlBZVZ
— Tim Holman (@twholman) January 19, 2017
While Meitu has just caught on in the West, it is one of China's most popular apps. As well as its photo-editing software the company sells phones specially designed for taking selfies and a livestreaming video service.
The company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange at a valuation of around 4.9bn Hong Kong dollars (£500m).
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