The Pikazo mobile app encourages us to create endless personal art in just two taps. It was created in 2015 using neural-style transfer algorithms. Now what this translates into plain English is that it’ll transform even the simplest of your phone’s pictures into out-of-the-ordinary little pieces of art.
This artsy mobile app is available on both iOS and Android and it’s free. There are some in-app purchases available for the more dedicated of us, but you still get all the fun in the free version of the app as well.
Creating with the Pikazo mobile app
The app is pretty simple. It’s centred around the idea of creating something beautiful with the pictures you have in your iOS or Android device.
The main menu consists of the “creation zone”. The screen is split into two parts. The lower one is your camera roll, while the upper one is where you’ll be making your selections: the subject you want to transform and the style you’ll be using to do the transformation.
The subject is therefore one of the pictures in your camera roll. Now onto the style, you’ll be choosing, there is a lot to choose from. There are four categories of readymades – preset picture styles the app offers, like Classics, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Graffiti. Pick out whichever one you like. After the two creation boxes are filled out, the magical Paint button will make its appearance. Click on it and wait for the Pikazo computers to do their work. After a small wait, your piece of art will be ready for its unveiling.
What’s hot?
Custom picture styles
We told you about the readymades, the picture styles the app offers. But there is also the possibility of creating your own custom picture style to work with. When you’re in the Style menu, hit the Custom section in the middle of the screen. You can pick out whichever picture in your camera roll to use as a style – meaning you can combine two of your own pictures. Now, this got a little messy for us personally, since we just wanted to give the feature a try and didn’t really think long and hard about it. But if you manage to pick out just the right one, we imagine the results to be spectacular?
Variety
There are a lot of picture styles to choose from and hello – you may very well use a picture of your own. Just search the world wide web for images of paintings and let your artsy side run free.
Particular logo
We couldn’t help but notice the intriguing logo the creators have set for the app. It’s really interesting and we think it’s a really nice part of the Pikazo package.
What’s not?
Old school UI
We have to admit, we were hoping for a more clean and modern UI. The textures and shadows give it a vintage look. And the buttons inside the app are a tad small. Closing a screen of the app or navigating to any other one has to be a very precise movement in order for it works, which is not something anyone is eager to pay attention to. Still, it’s pretty easy to use and get around in.
The wait
The app prides itself with high-quality results. Thus, the results won’t be available in the blink of an eye, rather a couple of minutes. Which is not the end of the world, to be honest, we’re just not used to apps taking so long to do what they’re supposed to. But good things take time and this app is definitely a good addition to your mobile app collection.
For the rather restless of you, there are of course alternatives. One that definitely stands out is the Prisma iOS mobile app. That’s right, it’s only available to the iOS users among us. It’s a really good app, featuring the clean UI we are lacking in the Pikazo app and similar options. You’re adding modern artsy filters to your pictures and it’s ready in no-time.
Bottom line
We really like this app. We like the idea behind it and we don’t mind waiting a bit because the results are really interesting. It’s a cool mobile app to play around with and discover the artist in you. Do we recommend it to everyone?
(Note: We are not affiliated or endorsed by this app. We just really love mobile apps and we want to share them with the world and give people great mobile experiences)
Get the Pikazo iOS mobile app here. And the Android version of the Pikazo mobile app right here.
Sinziana Chitea
Content Marketer
Content Marketing Specialist, teasing everyone into taking cute pictures for Instagram. Discovering the tech world bit by bit, and writing it all down on the agency's blog. Enthusiastic about everything visual. And sweets and dogs.
