Up your selfie game with photo-editing app Meitu

By Mikah Sargent
last updated

You've probably spotted a few photos on social media that caught your eye (or stabbed your eye) with heavy blurs, bubbles, stars, and oddly enlarged eyes. This sudden invasion of over-beautified selfies is thanks to an app called Meitu.

What is Meitu?

Meitu is a feature-packed photo editing app for iOS that offers up stickers, filters, and some Photoshop-level image manipulation. Whether you're looking to smooth out your skin, whiten your eyes, slim your face, add makeup, blur out your background, add stickers, turn your photo into a drawing or painting, create a collage, make yourself look taller, add text, or do just about anything you'd do in a photo-editing app, Meitu can do it for you … in droves.

Meitu - Free - Download Now (opens in new tab)

iMore tries Meitu

It's very easy to get carried away with Meitu — not least because it has a confusing interface. That said, it's still fun to explore the app and tinker with all the different effects. I asked the team to send me some of their Meitu selfies. They're as outrageous as they are adorable. 😂

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Something to keep in mind …

The app got some extra attention on social media today, because it does some not-entirely-above-board stuff when you install it. It uses a method not currently allowed in the App Store to check if your phone is jailbroken. It's not super, incredibly, terribly nefarious, but it's worth noting.

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Show me your Meitu selfies

If you decide to give the app a go, I'd love to see your most outrageous Meitu selfies and photos! Send 'em to me over on Twitter or tag iMore on Instagram!

Mikah Sargent
Mikah Sargent

Mikah Sargent is Senior Editor at Mobile Nations. When he's not bothering his chihuahuas, Mikah spends entirely too much time and money on HomeKit products. You can follow him on Twitter at @mikahsargent if you're so inclined.

18 Comments
  • No wonder this generation is a collection of narcissistic sociopaths. They'd rather take pictures of themselves, alone in whatever dismal existence they lead & then post it, expecting approval & gushing praise. Yyyyyyyyyyyuck. Sent from the iMore App
  • This is why it's perfect for the iMore team. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Don't install this. It sends tons of data to unknown locations. http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/01/19/popular-photo-app-meitu-sending-...
  • IMore recommended!! Lol Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • To be fair iOS is a lot more restrictive with what can be sent, however the app does check if your iPhone is jailbroken, and will probably do these things on an jailbroken iOS device
  • Echoing Andrew Soukup above.
    https://www.slashgear.com/beware-the-meitu-photo-filter-app-it-just-stol... ... and no, iOS devices are not in the clear, jailbroken or not. Do not install this app. If you already did so, uninstall it immediately and change all passwords of apps/accounts/services associated to your phone, just to be safe.
  • This article barely mentions anything about the iOS version apart from saying "Apple-made iOS devices like iPhone or iPad are not immune to this situation" without explaining why, and saying that it has Jailbreak detection. The iOS version can't take nearly as much information as the Android version because it's sandboxed. The data that can be sent on the iOS version is limited by Apple, hard-coded into iOS and applies to every app. So you're fine with the iOS version unless you're jailbroken.
  • I guess privacy and data integrity get thrown out the window when apps are super fun and allow lit selfies to make us super happy about ourselves... Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Depends how much you care about your privacy. Also, this website is about the iOS version, which has a lot more restrictions as to what can be sent (albeit I wouldn't install it if your device is jailbroken, especially since it checks for that)
  • Part of the sandbox iOS lives in is the hardened rules and restrictions that Apple has in the App store. This very article notes that the app is skirting those rules. You are very trusting of what goes on in your phone based on what Apple sells on its permissions meanwhile other apps have been expelled after already launching when it is realised other permissions are being circumvented. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Permissions ≠ App Store Restrictions. iOS simply won't allow for certain information to be collected because there will be no way that Apple has provided without an exploit. The app is skirting the rules of the App Store, not the permissions. To skirt the rules of the App Store, it's just a matter of hoping that Apple won't notice, however to skirt iOS's hard-coded permission restrictions, it'd require an exploit and that's pretty unlikely. So yes, I am trusting of Apple because I know how operating systems work…
  • There's a high chance the App Store review process failed to detect the use of private APIs for UUID or IMEI collection without the need for root (jailbreak) access. Why take the risk?
  • iOS blocks private APIs that are not allowed, even if there's some strange code that got through the App Store review process. How do you know there's a "high chance"? What's your source on this? And the "risk" can't be that severe if iMore are posting an article about this app
  • Shame you are so gullible Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Nope I just know how sandboxing works
  • Tons of apps use private APIs and frameworks for crash analytics alone. Can't wait for iMore to tell you it's safe to jump off a building.
  • Regardless it's still sandboxed with limits as to what it can pull from the OS, so you're fine
  • Thousands of thousands users around the world using this app, is that bad??????