For years, smartphone photography has
been shaped as much by editing apps as by camera hardware. Airbrush, a
long-running portrait retouching app, built its early following on quick,
mobile-first beautification, think skin refinement, blemish cleanup, teeth
brightening, face reshaping, presets, and simple background edits, designed for
users who want social-ready results with minimal effort.
Airbrush launched as a mobile photo-editing
app in 2015, riding the global shift toward “camera-to-share” workflows where a
photo is expected to be polished before it’s posted. Over time, its toolkit
moved beyond basic portrait retouching into a broader, more AI-assisted editing
set. That includes utility-style features such as AI Eraser (removing
unwanted people or objects), background removal and replacement, and AI
Expand that extends the photo’s edges to create a wider frame. It also
leans into lifestyle and creator-friendly effects like digital makeup, body
reshaping, and, in some versions of the category, virtual try-on
experiences that let users preview different looks. More recently, the value
proposition has expanded further into “quality fixes” like image enhancement
and even video enhancement, reflecting how photo apps are trying to
cover more of the content pipeline.
That evolution has accelerated as the
company behind Airbrush has pushed beyond mobile. In 2025, Pixocial Technology
announced Airbrush Studio, a desktop portrait editing application for Windows
and macOS. The move signals an ambition to serve heavier workflows, creators
who want more screen space, smoother precision work, batch-friendly output, or
a more “workstation-like” experience, without fully adopting the complexity of
professional suites.
Pixocial is described in public
disclosures as an overseas-focused unit within the Meitu group, with a product
lineup that includes BeautyPlus and Airbrush. In 2023, Pixocial reported
completing a US$22 million Series A round that brought in external investors,
including Eight Roads, with the stated goal of supporting global operations and
product development.
The strategy reflects a wider pattern in consumer creative software: apps that began as phone-based utilities are now becoming cross-platform “editing stacks.” Airbrush’s ecosystem spans mobile apps, web tools, and now desktop software, typically offered through a freemium model where subscriptions or in-app purchases unlock premium tools, higher-quality exports, and more advanced AI features.
What “AI editing” looks like in practice
In apps like Airbrush, “AI” usually means
the software can identify faces, segment people from backgrounds, and apply
multi-step improvements automatically. For users, that translates into fewer
decisions and faster results: an edit that might once have required careful
masking, manual retouching, and several adjustments can now be approximated
with a couple of taps. That speed, especially on portraits, product shots, and
social content, is a big reason why these apps remain popular with casual users
and creators who prioritize output over technique.
Reception and the trade-offs
Airbrush is commonly described as easy to
use and fast, strengths that fit its core audience. The trade-off is control.
Automation can be limiting for users who want exact masking boundaries, precise
color grading, or layer-based workflows. And as with most AI-driven editors,
results can vary depending on the input: tricky hair edges, transparent objects,
complex lighting, motion blur, or crowded backgrounds can expose the limits of
one-tap editing. User feedback tends to reflect that split,convenience and
speed on one side, and debates over realism, consistency, and creative control
on the other.
The bigger debate: beautification and realism
Portrait retouching apps also sit inside
a wider cultural argument about beauty standards and authenticity. As
enhancements become more realistic and harder to detect, concerns grow about
idealised images, social pressure, and the psychological effects of constant
self-optimization. This isn’t unique to Airbrush, it’s a category-wide issue,
but it shapes how these tools are discussed and how users evaluate them,
especially when “beauty” features blend into everyday photography rather than
being treated as obvious effects.
Where it stands now
Airbrush’s push toward desktop tools
signals how quickly consumer photo editing is evolving. The next phase may
depend less on adding another preset and more on balancing three competing
demands: speed, user control, and trust. That includes
clearer expectations about how edits are generated, how consistent they are
across platforms, and how user images and data are handled when tools span
mobile, web, and desktop.