Lightricks, the developer of selfie editing service Facetune, looked to cash in on increasing demand for creativity tools driven by Covid-19 (coronavirus) lockdowns with the launch of a photo filtering app.

In a statement, Lightricks said the Quickart app blended “sophisticated AI tools with highly-curated content” and was suitable for users with no previous editing skills. The app was “born from user demand for easy-to-use creative resources during Covid-19”, it explained.

The offering enables users to add to existing images through a suite of photo filters and advanced effects including double exposure and fragmenting dispersion. AI is employed to analyse photos and apply various enhancement techniques or manipulations for highly-contextual effects.

“During the global shelter-in-place, we saw an increased demand for creative artistic-expression tools in our apps that were geared towards the casual photo-editor”, Lightricks CEO Zeev Farbman said.

A survey by the company found usage of its creativity apps including Photofox, Pixaloop, Videoleap and Quickshot in the US was up 90 per cent month-on-month in April, with Spain registering a 228 per cent rise.

Lightricks launched Quickart yesterday (8 July) for iOS devices.

The field for mobile photo and video editing services became increasingly competitive even before the global hit of the pandemic, with Byte, a successor to defunct video service Vine, launched in January, and the entry of RTRO in February.