Building on a growing trend of tech giants leveraging artificial intelligence for photographic instruction, two former TikTok employees have introduced Superpose, a new iOS application designed to teach users how to pose effectively for photos.
The launch follows recent moves by major industry players: Google introduced Camera Coach on Pixel devices last year to assist with framing, while Adobe released an AI-driven feature in July to critique and improve photo captures.
Superpose, available at superposelabs.ai, functions as a camera application where users capture a selfie or a shot of a companion. The app then utilizes AI to generate four distinct pose suggestions. While some generated poses are described as extravagant or uncanny, users can save these options or utilize a “match pose” feature to replicate the positioning.
Melody Chu, who has held product roles at Meta, Nextdoor, Roblox, and Slack, co-founded the app with Jing Liu, a founding engineer at a 3D face-scanning startup and former TikTok image and video model specialist. Chu revealed that the concept originated from a personal frustration: her husband struggled to take flattering photographs of her.
“My husband just takes awful photos of me. It was a true pain point in our marriage… I thought to myself, there has to be a way to solve this problem with advancements in computer vision and generative AI,” Chu told TechCrunch.
Since its July debut, Superpose has been downloaded over 22,000 times, with users generating more than 190,000 poses. The app offers five free generations daily, with additional packs available for purchase at $2.99 for five generations or $9.99 for twenty.
Chu emphasized that the startup intends to distinguish itself by focusing on real-life portrait photography rather than generating fantastical AI backgrounds. “We want to lean into the core of memory capture versus, say, putting you in a fantastical place that you’ve never been,” she stated, noting that while other apps excel at virtual scenarios, Superpose aims to capture lived moments.
The company acknowledges that some pose suggestions may currently appear unnatural and is actively working on enhancements to generation styles, personalization, and viewfinder coaching. Superpose has secured $2.2 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Meitu, and OVTR Ventures.
Is $9.99 for twenty poses steep? I’d rather just ask a stranger to help me.
I tried it, but the AI poses look pretty uncanny. Hope they fix the realism soon.
Finally, someone solving the husband-takes-awful-photos crisis. That personal origin story is gold!