Wombo, the makers of the viral AI-powered art app Dream by Wombo, is back with another new AI-powered app called Wombo Me. The new AI avatar app from the Canadian startup lets you turn a single selfie into multiple realistic avatars.
While there are already several popular AI avatar apps on the market, such as Lensa AI, Wombo wants to offer users a more streamlined experience when creating realistic avatars. Unlike other similar apps that require you to submit multiple selfies and wait a while before receiving your images, Wombo Me only requires one selfie and can generate images almost instantly, Wombo CEO Ben-Zion Benkhin told his interview with TechCrunch.
Wombo Me is meant to be more fun, as opposed to functional. The app description notes that you can share the avatars with your friends on social media as well, and maybe even use them on platforms like LinkedIn and Tinder to capture both your professionalism and personality.
The app lets you do things like test the personality of celebrities, movie characters or superheroes with a simple tap. You can also try new hair colors, styles or makeup trends, among others. In addition, you can create gender-swapped images of yourself or re-imagine yourself as an enchanted character.
“Once you install it, the first thing you see is a selfie screen, so it only asks you to provide one image, and then once you hit continue, you’ll see 10 images of you in unique alternate realities,” said Wombo’s Head of AI Parshant Loungani told TechCrunch. “And you can swipe right or left in a Tinder-like experience to like and save. We plan to use this feedback to improve user identity and the images we produce to fundamentally understand their preference and update it next time.”
After you’ve finished scanning through the set of images provided, you have the option to browse a catalog or five to 10 different avatar packs that include images of yourself in LinkedIn-like headshots, Instagrammable images, enchanted characters, animation. meme characters and more. Some avatar packs are free, while others cost $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, or $7.99.
Image Credits: Wombo
Benkhin says Wombo Me provides high-quality images that are comparable or even better than what is currently available on the market. Additionally, he believes that as the output is produced from a single image almost instantaneously, Wombo Me provides both ease of use and accessibility to users.
He also believes that while other similar apps have a short shelf life, the company sees a longer-term and ambitious plan for Wombo Me, where a user’s ability to create content from a single selfie ties into a deeper platform experience. For example, if a whole group of friends is in the app and has learned what each person looks like, it has the ability to create images with them.
“There’s a social aspect to it,” Benkhin said. “AI has learned what each of us looks like and can create images for us. Now you can start automatically creating content for social networks where many people are doing something interesting. So we see the accessibility and advantage of single selfie as a first step. The long-term of the product is where all the other differentiation will happen.”
Loungani noted that in the future, users of the app could be asked to provide a 10- to 20-second voice clip along with video of them moving their head in a certain way, in order to then create a multimodal identity of themselves. The identity could then be used to create content such as dance videos or interactions with friends.
Benkhin believes that while AI already plays a huge role in consumer apps like Instagram and TikTok in curating streams, the technology will increasingly be used to create media in the future.
“We think the next stage of this is artificial intelligence for media creation, not just curation,” Benkhin said. “And increasingly, users will create AI media that they post to social media. And also the platforms themselves will create personalized content for users using AI. And we believe this is the next era in social media. We think it’s a huge opportunity, and with every product and feature we make, we’re taking a step in that direction.”
Wombo Me is available worldwide in both iOS and Android starting today.
The new app has some big shoes to fill, as its predecessor Dream by Wombo was a big hit and was named Google’s “Best App” in the United States last year. The app has been downloaded more than 47 million times and has grossed $4.3 million, according to data provided to TechCrunch by mobile intelligence company, data.ai. The app is currently ranked #30 for downloads in Graphics & Design in the US App Store.
