Retake AI is one of those photo editing apps that focuses specifically on fixing and enhancing human faces rather than doing everything at once. It's a pretty focused tool in the crowded photo app space on Google Play and the App Store. You download it, install it, and it's free to start with, though there are in-app purchases if you want the full set of features. When you first launch it, the clean design actually makes a decent first impression—it's not bombarding you with a thousand options right away. Instead, it just asks you to pick a photo, and that straightforwardness feels refreshing compared to other editors that feel like a cluttered toolbox.

Once you actually start using it, the flow makes a lot of sense. You import a selfie or a group shot, and the AI automatically detects faces. From there, you get sliders for things like skin smoothing, removing blemishes, adjusting eye bags, or even tweaking facial symmetry. Moving through the app feels pretty natural—tap a face, adjust a slider, see the preview update in real time. One thing I noticed is that the changes can sometimes be a little too strong by default, so manually dialing everything down gives a much better, more realistic look. For group photos, the app handles multiple faces really well, letting you edit each person separately without it getting messy after a few steps.

After using this for about a week or two, I think it works best if you take a lot of selfies and want quick, natural-looking fixes without manually cloning out spots in other apps. But if you just snap occasional pics with friends and don't really stress about minor skin details, you could easily skip it. What stands out is how it handles group face edits—most apps make you do each person one by one with the same tool, but Retake AI pretty much automates that part. Compared to something like Facetune, it feels more focused and less overwhelming. I kept it installed because it's genuinely useful for those "bad lighting day" photos, but I could see someone uninstalling it if they prefer full manual control or don't take many self-portraits.

• 🧠 One of the best things about Retake AI is how it handles multiple faces in a single photo. In apps like Snapseed or even Adobe Lightroom, you'd have to manually edit each face separately or hope a global filter works. Retake AI detects everyone, lets you adjust each person's skin and features independently, and somehow keeps the edits looking natural across the whole group.
• 🧠 The face retouch sliders are really fine-tuned. Instead of just a "smooth" toggle that ruins texture, you get separate controls for skin tone, blemishes, under-eye circles, and even a light re-lighting effect. That level of control beats most one-tap beauty filters you find in apps like YouCam Perfect.
• 🧠 Its re-lighting feature stands out. It can adjust the lighting on just the face region to make it brighter or warmer, which is something most basic editors can't do. This alone can turn a poorly lit selfie into something usable without touching the background.

• 👍 The biggest strength is how simple and quick the workflow is. Unlike Photoshop Express or Facetune where you jump between menus, Retake AI keeps the entire editing process inside one main screen. You pick a photo, the AI does the heavy lifting, and you just tweak sliders.
• 👍 It handles skin texture remarkably well. Other apps often make faces look plastic or over-processed, but Retake AI seems to preserve pores and natural grain better, especially when you keep the smoothing slider around 30-40%.
• 👍 The app runs smoothly even on older phones. I tested it on a device from 2019, and it didn't crash or lag badly during the AI analysis, which can't be said for some heavier tools like Picsart.

• 👎 The free version feels quite restrictive. You only get a handful of edits before hitting a paywall, and that can be annoying after the initial wow factor wears off. Facetune offers a bit more free functionality before asking for money.
• 👎 Sometimes the AI can't handle very unusual angles or extreme expressions. If you take a selfie with a weird tilt or a wide open mouth, it might not detect the face at all, forcing you to go back to a more traditional editor.
• 👎 The export quality isn't the best unless you pay. Free exports look slightly compressed, which defeats the purpose of fixing a photo in the first place. Snapseed gives you full resolution exports for free, so that's a fair comparison.