After the success of Meitu, another groundbreaking AI photo editing software has become popular.

This May Day, a new AI application called Remini quietly climbed to the top of the free list on the Apple App Store in China.

Remini's main feature is using AI to restore photos, commonly known as "old photo restoration." Perhaps somewhat unintentionally, Remini's sudden popularity is due to an AI filter in the app that can transform any photo into a clay-like style.

As a less common style, the clay-like style naturally carries a sense of storytelling. Even if the composition may not be outstanding, or even just a selfie, the clay figures generated easily exude a cinematic poster-like feeling, prompting people to imagine the stories behind them.

Remini first gained popularity in Japan, while in China, its special effects images started to spread on Douyin and Xiaohongshu before May 1st, and were spontaneously shared by users.

During the May 1st holiday, the number of downloads continued to increase, reaching around 240,000 on May 4th. As of May 7th, Remini has been ranked first in the Apple AppStore's free app rankings for several consecutive days.

How attractive is Remini really?

After seeing several posts about Remini, I couldn't help but download the app to see for myself.

The feeling of opening a blind box is addictive.

After the recent surge in popularity, Remini app has been updated. Upon opening the app, the first screen now introduces the clay special effects.

It seems that the entire app is not fully prepared for the surge in popularity in China. Although it was downloaded in the Chinese region, only half of the text in the app has been translated into Chinese, while the other half remains in English.

After clicking, it prompts to upload a picture. After it went viral, many posts mentioned that uploading a picture took a long time, but in my testing process, it could basically be completed in 10-30 seconds. The prompt when uploading photos is interesting – "Reshaping Reality." It really builds up anticipation at this stage.

Next, you enter the photo processing interface. Remini has used a unique design here, pulling to reveal the other half of the picture, giving it a surprise blind box effect.

I uploaded my own photo to test the effect.

It can be seen that the images generated by Remini are not simply adding a layer of filter to the original picture.

About ten years ago, when the first-generation AI image editing software that added filters to pictures became popular, many apps could create images with a "painting-like" or "sketch-like" style. However, at that time, the software would render the painting style exactly the same as the angle and expression of the uploaded original image. Remini, as a new generation of generative AI application, is different.

In the generated image, not only did the expression of the subject change – from looking down to making eye contact with the camera – the clothing of the subject also changed.

In fact, through multiple generations, I found that sometimes even the background of the image could be changed by AI. In a photo of a music festival, due to the stage being not very clear in the background, my photo was directly optimized by the app to be a large rock.

And for the same photo, with multiple generations, Remini would also generate different effects, creating a surprise blind box effect. Combined with the pulling effect of the app, it's very addictive – each AI generation will capture a different facial feature of the person, creating a clay doll that looks like you but also not like you, making you want to keep pulling to see what effect will be generated next.

By capturing the main features of the person's face but not generating an identical effect to the original picture, it not only increases the usability of the app – my main motivation for downloading Remini when first using it was to rescue some flawed photos with great scenery, but also adds to the app's entertainment value – users have even spontaneously generated many meme images using this feature.

In the blogger "Advanced Youth - Three Mu" post, he shared a picture he generated.

Ugly but cute becomes a breakthrough.

Both Remini and MiaoYa are popular AI photo tools.

The characters generated by Remini are hardly beautified. Instead, they often give people a sense of ugliness with cuteness in many images.

Some netizens have compared the clay-style photos generated by Remini with those generated by Meitu XiuXiu.

The image above is generated by Remini, while the one below is generated by Meitu.

The blogger mentioned that the images generated by Remini are sometimes very bizarre, with many exaggerated features, while Meitu's images are softer.

However, many comments express that this is the charm of this app.

The images generated by Remini have a more realistic clay-like feeling. Just looking at these two images, although the first one may not be "beautiful" in terms of facial features compared to the second one, the facial expression is more playful and vivid, with a sense of drama.

In order to rescue unattractive photos, there are also tutorials shared on Xiaohongshu—first beautify the image using cartoon filters, then upload it to Remini. However, this tutorial has also received opposition from some users.

It can be seen that for many users, the attractiveness of this app lies in its ability to make them look less "white, young, and thin."

In a situation where there are already plenty of apps that make people look beautiful, the appeal of looking "ugly" can sometimes be a draw.

In my own use, I have also constantly experienced this. From the initial upload of a photo and the discovery that the generated picture is simply too ugly, causing frustration, to the irresistible urge to upload some group photos with friends to see how they have been "uglified" by AI, it is also a kind of fun.

Image processing remains an important commercial demand for AI.

The current pricing model for the Remini app is 70 yuan per week, but there is a free trial week available.

I have to say that this price is not very "internet" in China.

Taking the previously popular Meitu as an example, the price was only 9.9 yuan, and after Meitu became popular, similar apps emerged one after another. Meitu eventually launched a free version for users to use.

From the data, it is also similar. After Remini became popular in China, on May 4th, the revenue in the Chinese region was approximately $10,000 per day, which did not completely match the growth in the user base, and was only one-seventh of the revenue in the United States. After the May Day holiday, it is still unknown whether Remini can maintain this level of growth and popularity.

However, it is clear that Remini app has hit a real user demand.

Because currently, on the Android platform, Remini can only be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Under every post sharing Remini on Xiaohongshu, there are a large number of Android users posting their own pictures, asking other users to help generate a picture with a clay-like style.

And on Xianyu, some people have even turned it into a business.

1 yuan for two, 1 yuan for three, and many people are also clicking to buy.

After Meitu, Remini is the second AI photo processing app to go viral.

Compared to Meitu, which meets the demand for taking photos that look "like people" but more beautiful than the original, Remini stumbled upon another suitable area for AI photo processing—generating photos that don't look "like people" but are more interesting than the original.

In fact, although Remini's photo processing capabilities are already strong, in some cases, it still encounters inherent AI problems. For example, as mentioned earlier, in the same photo, Remini once generated a picture with two arms.

But because it does not generate a real person, such photos do not give me a sense of the uncanny valley effect. In some cases, they may even appear quite creative.

By utilizing the capabilities of AI and leveraging the advantages of the scenario, Remini has avoided the weaknesses of AI, making it a more easily accepted product among C-end consumers.

After Remini's explosive popularity, can it continue to evolve and become a sustainable AI product?

Relying solely on one function is probably not enough. In history, there have been many such photo processing apps that have gained popularity and then quickly faded away. Especially considering the current content provided by Remini, it may not be enough to support its subscription model.

However, Remini has already tapped into a correct demand. If it can continue to evolve, although it is a somewhat difficult path, it may also have the opportunity to become a new "beauty app" in the future.

Clearly, Remini is also making efforts. After the popularity of the clay filter, in response to some users feeling that the clay filter is not beautiful enough, a new filter called "Jade" was quickly released during the May Day holiday.

The "Jade" filter first entered internal testing in China and has now been updated in the app. From the name alone, it is clear that this filter meets the needs of Chinese users.

The same photo, the "Jade" filter retains the concept of shaping the characters into dolls, but it is obvious that due to the change in material, the characters' facial features are more in line with traditional Chinese aesthetics, with fair and smooth skin, and rosy lips and white teeth.

This filter is currently receiving more and more discussions on Xiaohongshu, and is labeled as "special effects more suitable for Chinese babies".

In addition to the filter, the Remini app itself also has many "internet celebrity" functions previously created, such as uploading multiple photos and using AI inference to help you create a video of the appearance changes from a child to an elderly person. These functions may not go unnoticed by bloggers after the filter function goes viral, causing more dissemination.

Releasing a second related filter immediately after going viral shows that the Remini team has high creativity and execution.

After going viral, can Remini maintain its popularity beyond the "seven-day trial" and continue to evolve, not becoming a flash-in-the-pan filter app? The subsequent actions of the Remini team are worth paying attention to.

*Cover image source: Remini APP