Getting old is inevitable, but many of us the past few days were shocked by some of the photos in our feeds of friends and family that seemed to have aged overnight. Rest assured, these old and wrinkly photos were not the result of some disease, but rather the FaceApp, an application that has filters to change the appearance of your face.
Who are you choosing with #FaceApp
— OLADIMEJI ? (@Dimz_i_am) July 17, 2019
RT for Messi
Like for Ronaldo#faceappchallenge pic.twitter.com/NIacDgncie
An Overnight Sensation
The most popular filter on the FaceApp, which has given rise to the #FaceAppChallenge, is the old filter. Take or upload a photo of yourself, and you can see the same image, but aged 20 years or more in the future. The hashtag has gotten over 100,000 posts on Instagram alone. Considering the amount of undereye bags and wrinkles some of us unfortunately had from the filter, we truly hope it is more than 20 years!
Celebrities Get Old And Wrinkly, Too
Countless celebrities decided to get on the fun, sharing their creepy, yet hilarious FaceApp photos of their future selves. And we must say, they do seem pretty accurate. It even changes your hairline and the color of your hair (sorry, men)!
Should We Be Worried About FaceApp?
As with any viral app that involves using personal pictures and data, the FaceApp has come under recent criticism and controversy as well. On Monday, software developer Joshua Nozzi tweeted his concerns, stating “BE CAREFUL WITH FACEAPP – the face aging fad app. It immediately uploads your photos without asking, whether you chose one or not.”
However, Nozzi has since retracted his statement after the developers responded with a justifiable statement. They said FaceApp only uploads the photos that are selected to be used for editing. Given it’s a photo editing app, this seems perfectly reasonable and necessary.
Is FaceApp A Repeat of The Facebook Data Scandals?
Additionally, some users were worried about their data being transferred to Russia, where there were data privacy scandals recently connected to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. However, FaceApp creators said the “user data is not transferred to Russia.”
Now you can sleep easy knowing your photos and data are safe, so that the stress and worry don’t make you actually age overnight! Or better yet, maybe it’s time to start investing in some good facial anti-aging cream?
Photos: Pixabay, cover photo Instagram: Jonas Brothers