Remember when “editing a photo” meant scrolling through the same five filters until you gave up and posted it anyway? These days, AI tools let us have a lot more fun.
There are a ton of AI image creation and editing apps out there right now, and thankfully, they’re not all overloaded with fancy controls for professional creators or brand marketers. Some are just made for those of us who want to see what our cat would look like as the star of its own meme, or how far we can push the surrealism in our favorite selfie.
These apps are fast, they’re fun, and they make you feel like you’ve got a tiny digital art studio living in your phone.
So, in the spirit of creative chaos, I’ve rounded up the most entertaining AI image creation apps to try out, whether you want something jaw-dropping, playful, or just plain unhinged. Some of these will blow your mind. Some might make you question reality. All of them are worth a try.
1. Revive
This little mobile app looks pretty simple on the surface, and honestly, it is. The idea is that Revive lets you bring life to your photos in just a few seconds. Open the app, choose a still photo (like your breakfast selfie or your dog mid-blink), and apply your effects.
You can turn an image into a moving gif, transform yourself into a mermaid, warrior, or prison convict, swap your gender, or even make pictures sing and talk. Once you get started, it’s way too easy to lose hours to this app, creating your own memes and animations you can share anywhere.
The people behind the app keep adding fresh looks, new sounds, and seasonal themes, so each time you open it there’s something different waiting to try.
Pros:
- Quick to use, minimal setup, fast results.
- Lots of fun effects (dance, talk, holiday themes) that feel playful.
- Gives still photos unexpected life, with a magical vibe.
Cons:
- The animations are a bit glitchy at times.
- Some features require “pro” access.
- Because it’s focused on animation, you lose some control over the final look.
Verdict: If you’ve got a photo and just want to see it move, sing or go wild, Revive is a strong pick. It’s fun and fast.
2. Reface
Reface has been hanging around for years, and people still love it. The app has close to half a million ratings on the Apple store, which says a lot. It’s built for swapping faces, animating them, trying on hairstyles, and dropping yourself into clips from movies or shows. There are filters, effects, and a bunch of lip-sync options that line your photo up with songs or lines from viral videos.
I tried swapping my face into a short clip of a movie hero. A few taps. Done. It’s weird watching your face in someone else’s body, but also awesome. Then I went into hairstyle mode, trying a bob, fade, curly hair, and it all worked, pretty convincingly.
The casual user will appreciate how accessible and playful this is. Turn your face into something else entirely, without hours of learning Photoshop.
Pros:
- Super fun for face swaps, quick transformations, viral content.
- Lots of filters, hairstyle try-ons, animations.
- Very accessible for casual use.
Cons:
- Free users face lots of ads and limited content unless you subscribe.
- The filters don’t always work perfectly.
Verdict: Reface is perfect when you want to mess around, make something shareable, or just play with your face and the concept of identity.
3. Delulu
Developed by Decart, Delulu has no demands when it comes to rules, structure, or paragraph-long prompts. You throw it a photo, and it throws you back a new reality every time you tap. My first try: a normal beach picture of my friend. One tap later, she’s a disco goddess surrounded by seagulls in sunglasses. Tap again, and suddenly she’s made of jellybeans.
That’s the loop. Tap, surprise, laugh, repeat. There’s no prompt box or endless back-and-forth. The app just goes. It’s like playing with TikTok filters that never become dull. You’re just endlessly remixing whatever image you start with until you’re ten taps deep and can’t remember what reality looked like.
You also get some fantastic animation options. The “Make It Move” feature takes those still images and adds motion. In seconds your static selfie is blinking, floating, or winking. The whole experience feels wild, messy, and weirdly relaxing.
Pros:
- Unhinged creativity with almost no effort. No typing, no menus, just tap and see what happens.
- Surprisingly addictive. You get that “just one more” feeling.
- The motion feature makes even weird results oddly mesmerizing.
Cons:
- Some remixes look like AI dreams after too much caffeine.
- Easy to lose track of time (and storage space).
Verdict: If you’re into meme energy, surreal humor, or just want to turn boredom into something beautiful, Delulu is your app. It doesn’t feel like editing. It feels like creative madness bottled up for your thumbs.
4. Ideogram
You do need prompts for Ideogram, but that doesn’t make it hard work. You basically just type a sentence and wait to see how weird the image is. What makes it different is that it can do something simple that most AI apps still can’t: actually spell.
That sounds small, but if you’ve ever asked a generator to make a meme or poster with words on it, you know what a miracle that is. Ideogram actually understands lettering. I wrote “Sunday Vinyl Club” and it gave me a design that looked ready to print on a tote bag.
Everything about it feels stripped back, too. You type, you pick a mood: realistic, graphic, cinematic, or anything else, and a few seconds later, you get four clean images.
Pros:
- Text actually looks like text. That’s huge.
- The interface stays out of your way.
- Great for fake ads, album art, memes or mood boards.
Cons:
- You’ve got to feed it a clear idea; it won’t guess for you.
- Some of the styles start blending together after a while.
- It feels more like “tool” than “toy.”
Verdict: If you like your images tidy and legible, this one’s worth keeping open in a browser tab, or on your phone.
5. Lensa
Lensa blew up a while ago when everyone was posting dreamy AI portraits that looked like something out of a fantasy movie. It’s changed a bit since then, but it still nails portraits and headshots. You upload a picture, pick a style, and it hands you a bunch of versions in seconds. Some come out glossy, some are just odd, but most are good enough that you’ll save them.
What keeps people coming back is how simple it is. It looks like any other photo editor with sliders for light and color, but the AI quietly fixes everything in the background. A quick upload turns a selfie into a painting or a cartoon version of you without much effort. It’s fast, forgiving and usually better quality than you might expect.
Pros:
- Still one of the most reliable apps for portraits and stylized avatars.
- Polished, quick, and simple to use.
- Works well on mobile with no steep learning curve.
Cons:
- Can over-edit faces into uncanny territory.
- Focuses mainly on people, not general image generation.
- Some features are locked behind premium tiers.
Verdict: Lensa still owns its niche: quick, flattering AI portraits that make you look vaguely famous. It’s perfect when you want your profile photo to have that “maybe I could be in a movie” energy.
The AI Apps that Make Photos Fun Again
There’s no single winner here. Each app does something different and that’s part of the fun. Some feel like games, others lean toward creative tools, and a few are just plain weird. What ties them together is how easy they are to use. You don’t need any training or experience.
Just open one, tap a few buttons, and suddenly a new image appears on your screen. The best part is that you’re not trying to make something perfect. You’re just playing, experimenting, and seeing where it goes. That’s what keeps me opening them, and probably what will get you hooked too.
