A LooksMax AI alternative. Looksmaxxing AI that measures your face.

The app, from its App Store page

LooksMax AI is made by Mnkybrain Labs, Inc. (Delaware). It is listed for iPhone only, rated 13+, in the Lifestyle category, free with in-app purchases. Its description lists three steps: upload your photos, the app analyses your traits, and you get results and personal advice. Its App Store rating is 4.5 out of 5 from 43K ratings (Apple's lookup API gives 4.517 from 42,782 ratings). Its homepage claims over 2 million users.

A later update added “Chadify”. The app came out in December 2023 and was last updated in April 2024.

Its store screenshots show an overall result such as “You're a 8”, six traits scored out of 10 (masculinity, cheekbones, jawline, eyes, hair, skin), trait scores out of 100 with labels like “Top 1%” and “Below Avg”, and tip cards such as “Use shampoo 2x a week”.

LooksMax AI's prices

In-app purchases listed on the US App Store: LooksMax Pro $3.99; LooksMax AI - Weekly $3.99; Hairstyles Pack $4.99; Chad Pack $0.99; 3 Boosts $2.99; 5 Boosts $3.99; 9 Boosts $5.99 (USD). The store does not say how often “LooksMax Pro” bills; one early review calls the price “4$ a month”.

Privacy and sign‑in, from its own pages

Its privacy policy says face data is used only for the rating, is not shared and is deleted from its servers automatically after 30 days. The App Store privacy label says usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

Its terms say you may have to register and give some personal details to use all of the app's features.

What we could not check

We read LooksMax AI's public pages only, with no account and no purchase. So we could not confirm whether you must sign in, what the free part shows, whether there is a free trial, which price a new user sees first, or how long results take (one review mentions slow load times). The Google Play link on looksmax.ai leads to a page that says the app was not found.

The other apps' facts come from their own pages. Umax's App Store page says results need a subscription and extra scans cost extra. PinkMirror's privacy policy says it may use uploaded photos to train or improve its machine-learning models. PrettyScale's homepage says photos are not saved or shared.

Why photo distance matters

A phone held close makes the nose look bigger than it is (Ward et al. 2018), and the lens and camera distance change both the shape of a face in a photo and how people judge it (Třebický et al. 2016). In our own selfie study, a phone at arm's length (about 30 cm) made the nose look about 4% wider and the jaw about 3% narrower than a photo from 1.5 m. This is why CEVO asks for a retake when a photo is too close, instead of correcting it. It reads the size of the iris to tell.

Proportions like face width against face height are compared with measured adults, because typical values differ between groups (Farkas et al. 2005).

Sources

LooksMax AI facts: its US App Store page (description, in-app purchases, ratings, privacy label, version history, reviews), looksmax.ai, its privacy policy and terms, and Apple's public lookup API and review feed. Other apps: Umax on the App Store, PinkMirror pricing and privacy policy, PrettyScale. Photo and measurement science:

1. Ward B, Ward M, Fried O, Paskhover B (2018). Nasal Distortion in Short-Distance Photographs: The Selfie Effect. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, 20(4), 333–335.

   DOI: 10.1001/jamafacial.2018.0009

2. Třebický V, Fialová J, Kleisner K, Havlíček J (2016). Focal Length Affects Depicted Shape and Perception of Facial Images. PLoS ONE, 11(2), e0149313.

   DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149313

3. Farkas LG, Katic MJ, Forrest CR (2005). International anthropometric study of facial morphology in various ethnic groups/races. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, 16(4), 615–646.

   DOI: 10.1097/01.scs.0000171847.58031.9e