FaceRefresh is an old photo restoration and recovery app, published on the App Store by developer 嘉琦 沈, in the Photo & Video category, with an age rating of 4+, and an interface language of English. Its core positioning is to let users safely recover and restore precious old photo memories on their own devices.
Purpose The app is aimed at users who need to repair, enhance, and colorize old photos, such as restoring blurry portraits of ancestors, removing mosaics or pixelation from faces, removing scratches from photos, and colorizing black-and-white photos.
Main capabilities According to the official description, the main features include:
- Fully on-device processing: all computation is completed on the user's device, and data does not leave the phone.
- Face sharpening: turn blurry faces into clear, sharp focal points.
- Mosaic removal: specifically eliminate pixelation on faces to make the appearance smoother.
- Scratch repair: remove scratches from old photos.
- Color correction: convert black-and-white photos into color photos. The version history also shows that version 1.1.0 added Upscale and Colorize features, version 1.0.3 added support for enhancing the entire image, and version 1.0.2 improved portrait naturalness and detail and introduced subscription options.
How to use After downloading and installing through the App Store, users import old photos within the app and use the above restoration features. The app is designed for iPad, and also supports iPhone and Mac with Apple M1 chip and above (macOS 13.0 or later). iPhone and iPad require iOS/iPadOS 16.1 or later.
Pricing The app can be downloaded for free and includes in-app purchases. The official listing states "Buy once use forever," and the listed prices include: PRO mode lifetime $4.99, PRO mode quarterly (3 months) $1.99, and PRO mode monthly (1 month) $0.99.
Use cases Suitable for individual users to restore old family photos on their device, colorize black-and-white portraits, improve the clarity of blurry faces, remove facial pixelation or scratches, and more. The developer states that no data is collected, making it suitable for privacy-sensitive users.
Limitations and known issues Processing is done on-device, so batch processing multiple photos may cause the phone to heat up, and some users report needing to wait for it to cool down before continuing. In October 2024, a user reported that the app crashed on first run on iOS 18.0.1, and the developer said the bug had been identified and was being fixed. In addition, the official information does not state supported accessibility features, and related privacy practice information has not been verified by Apple. Other details such as the upper limit of specific restoration effects and supported photo formats are not yet provided.
