About Old Me: AI Age & Future Aging
I downloaded Old Me on a whim after seeing a friend’s hilarious “aged” photo on Instagram. The promise was simple: upload a selfie and let AI show you your future face. As someone who’s both curious and a bit vain, I was instantly hooked by the idea. I wanted to see if it would give me dignified silver fox vibes or just scare me into using more sunscreen. Right off the bat, the app feels like one of those fun party tricks, but I quickly learned its charm has some serious limits.
Features & Highlights
The core feature is, of course, the aging filter. You pick a timeline—10, 20, or 30 years—and the app gets to work. I found the 20-year projection to be the most believable on my face; it added realistic wrinkles around my eyes and some subtle graying at the temples. The side-by-side comparison tool is genuinely the best part. I spent a solid ten minutes just staring at my current face next to my 60-year-old doppelgänger, wondering if I should finally invest in a better skincare routine. I also messed around with the custom sliders for hair color and wrinkle intensity, which let me create a version of my future self that looked like a weathered sailor, which was good for a chuckle. The one-tap share to Instagram Stories worked perfectly when I finally got a result I didn’t hate.
User Experience
My experience was a real rollercoaster. The initial excitement faded fast when my first photo processed. The AI made my face look weirdly lumpy and asymmetrical, like it had melted slightly. I had to take three different well-lit, head-on selfies before I got a result that even remotely looked like a human being. The biggest buzzkill, though, is the ads. I’m talking a full-screen video ad after every single action—upload a photo, see an ad; apply a filter, see an ad; try to save the picture, see another ad. I actually put my phone down at one point because the interruption was so aggressive. The interface is simple enough, but the ad bombardment makes it feel clunky and cheap, not smooth or fun.
Pricing
The app is free, which explains the ad avalanche. There’s no premium or paid version mentioned within the app itself, so you’re stuck with the ad-supported experience. For a silly, one-off bit of fun, “free” is the right price. But if you plan on playing with it for more than five minutes, the trade-off isn’t worth it. The constant interruptions completely break any immersion or fun. I wouldn’t pay for this app in its current state, but I’d maybe tolerate a single ad per session if it meant a smoother process.
Updates & Support
Looking at the app store page, the developer, happy.ai.app, pushes updates fairly regularly, mostly marked as “bug fixes and performance improvements.” I didn’t notice any major new features from recent updates. As for support, I didn’t have a reason to contact them, but there’s no obvious “Contact Us” section inside the app. Any support would likely be through standard app store channels. Given the simple nature of the app, I don’t expect much hand-holding, but the lack of visible support options doesn’t inspire confidence if something went really wrong.
Security & Privacy
This is my biggest concern with Old Me. The app asks for permission to access your photos, which is expected, but its privacy policy (which I had to search for online) is vague. It states that uploaded photos are used to provide the service and may be stored temporarily. While it says they aren’t shared with third parties for marketing, the policy leaves a lot of room for interpretation about data processing. I downloaded it from the official Google Play Store, so it’s not malware, but I’m not comfortable with the idea of my face being processed on some server for a trivial filter. The ads are also clearly tracking user activity. After using the app, I started seeing ads for other photo-editing apps. I’d recommend using a photo you don’t mind being in the cloud and maybe turning off personalized ads on your device before diving in.