Filters for iPhone is for sale
It has tremendous potential and lots of room for growth if only someone were to give it some love. Is that someone you?
[Filters has been sold! Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word!]
In October 2013, I started working on a photo editing app for iOS focused on amazing filters. At the time (and this is still the case) photo apps on the App Store were selling small handfuls — or just one at a time — of filters as in-app purchases and this business model just didn’t sit well with me. I thought they were nickel-and-diming customers. I put together some interesting technology experiments around image data processing and advanced filter effects, and thought that with a really simple user interface, I could build an incredible photo filters app that users would love.
That app became Filters for iPhone, and was launched in March of this year.
Filters Everywhere
Most photo editing apps have a dozen or so filters. Filters for iPhone has over 800 professionally-designed filters, textures, vintage film recreations and visual effects. These are not neon-colored clown filters that some apps have, these were all either designed 1) by me, 2) by other designers or 3) by other photographers. Every filter was hand-tweaked and tuned and optimized and I’m proud of every single one.
Here are some examples of photos that were edited using Filters. (More examples can be found at the Filters for iPhone website.)
Filters Sales
I priced Filters at $0.99 with no in-app purchases. This was a deliberate decision as I wanted to dethrone the big photo editing apps, and for the first few days of sales I mostly did that according to the App Store: it peaked at #3 in Paid Photo apps and #16 in Top Paid in the U.S. overall. Since it launched in March 2015, it has sold a total of ~30,500 copies with just under $21k in proceeds after Apple’s cut. The majority of those sales came in the first month after launch.
Filters Marketing & Reception
I didn’t do any paid marketing of the app. I sent emails and messages to my friends and I tweeted about the launch but that was it. However, the reception was pretty incredible.
Lifehacker: “A single filter app to rule them all”
The Next Web: “Filters for iPhone is absolutely one of the best interfaces I’ve used for editing photos” … “It’s a lot more fun and friendly than the likes of VSCO Cam.”
9to5Mac: “Over 800 image effects with a stunning design.”
Beautiful Pixels: “Filters has an absolutely gorgeous UI.”
HYPEBEAST: “Filters might be the only one you ever need.”
Filters also hit #1 on Product Hunt and also did very well in various Reddit communities related to apps and photography.
Apple featured Filters in “Best New Apps” and is in the “Edit Your Photos” App Store featurette.
The Future of Filters
Filters could have an incredibly bright future, with lots of interesting updates and features still to come, but I just don’t have the time it needs. I have a full-time job, 2 small children, and Filters was a side passion project that ended up being pretty great, and it really needs someone (or a team) to take it to the next level and give it the attention it deserves. Right now it’s just for iPhone but it could easily be updated to be amazing for the iPad as well. If it provided an iOS photo extension, that’d be a huge boost too. There could be a social feed added in similar to VSCO, there could be additional editing tools similar to Enlight, it could be adapted to process video, etc. etc.
Or, if you’re currently building an app that needs a set of photo effects/filters features, you could bundle Filters functionality into your app instead of paying a few engineers to build it for you.
I’m selling all the code, all the design assets, the website (you’ll put it on your own domain) and a few hours of my time to walk through the codebase with you or your team. I will also transfer the app to you in iTunes Connect (if you want.) The price is $10,000. If you’re interested please shoot me an email mike.rundle@gmail.com. Feel free to ask me questions too, over email, or over on Twitter.
