Common Sense Media Review
Photo editing tool promotes vanity, has privacy concerns.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Gradient Photo Editor
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
GRADIENT PHOTO EDITOR is an app that lets kids take new selfies or upload existing ones to find a celebrity lookalike. The result is displayed as a story, which is a progressive set of photos that gradually shows the similarities between the selfie and the celebrity photo. Kids can also create customized self-portraits by adding different hair colors, resizing eyes and lips, and adjusting skin tone. Younger kids will likely have fun with additional tools that allow them to add emojis and text to their photos. Stories and photos can be shared directly from the app. According to the developer, new tools, textures, and filters are added every week. In order to try the app for free, users must sign up for a three-day trial using some form of payment method such as Apple Pay.
Is It Any Good?
While the app may be amusing at first, concerns about its shallow message and privacy issues are reasons to give pause. Getting matched with a celebrity lookalike can generate some laughs, but the match is not very accurate and should not be taken too seriously. Different photos of the same person typically result in different matches. And the wording in the terms of use is somewhat unclear. A message within the app about the importance of embracing all forms of beauty, along with more clarity about the privacy and ownership of user photos, could go a long way.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why someone might want to alter their photos on Gradient Photo Editor by resizing their facial features and changing their skin tone. While it might be fun to see edited versions of selfies, it's important for kids to celebrate their own inner and outer beauty.
Talk about the importance of privacy and appropriateness in terms of photos. What's OK to share?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure : Free to try ($3.99/mo.)
- Release date : October 11, 2019
- Genre : Entertainment
- Publisher : Ticket to the Moon, Inc.
- Version : 1.4.2
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 11.0 or later; Android 5.0 and up
- Last updated : November 6, 2019
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