AI image generation technology is being harnessed by companies to help people improve their photography abilities. Google introduced a feature called Camera Coach on Pixel phones last year, designed to assist users with framing and composition. In July, Adobe added a tool to its experimental camera app that uses AI to evaluate photos and recommend adjustments for better shots. Along similar lines, two former TikTok employees, Melody Chu and Jing Liu, are releasing a new iOS app named Superpose that employs an AI guide to teach users how to pose for photographs.

Superpose functions primarily as a camera app. After users snap a selfie or photograph a friend, the app produces four possible poses through AI. Certain poses are quite elaborate, and occasionally the results can appear strange.

Users have the option to save the generated poses or utilize the match-pose feature to position themselves in the frame according to the app's recommendations. Before starting Superpose, Chu held multiple product positions at companies including Meta, Nextdoor, Roblox, TikTok, and Slack. Liu, in the meantime, served as a founding engineer at a 3D face-scanning startup before working on image and video models at TikTok. Chu explained that the app's concept came from a personal frustration: her husband couldn't take decent photos of her. "My husband just takes awful photos of me. It was a true pain point in our marriage where I don't understand how he gets me to look just so terrible all the time. And I thought to myself, there has to be a way to solve this problem with advancements in computer vision and generative AI."

Superpose became available in July and has accumulated over 22,000 downloads so far. According to the company, its users have created more than 190,000 poses. The app offers five free generations daily, with additional packs available—five more for $2.99 or 20 for $9.99. Loading the player…

Although Chu recognized that other companies are also moving into the AI-guided photography arena, she emphasized that Superpose aims to become the premier camera for taking portrait photos by following AI instructions. The startup has no interest in generating AI backgrounds or images, and instead wants to concentrate on real-life photography, she noted. "We want to lean into the core of memory capture versus, say, putting you in a fantastical place that you've never been. I think there are so many apps that do that well already, but we really wanna focus on actually capturing the lived moment and experience," Chu stated. She also admitted that certain pose suggestions may come across as uncanny, and the company is actively working to enhance that aspect. The startup reports it is focused on refining its generation styles, personalization, and methods to better guide users directly from the viewfinder. Superpose has secured $2.2 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, Chinese smartphone and selfie app developer Meitu, and OVTR VC.