PhotoTune Is PhotoTune safe to use?
Your photos are edited on your iPhone. The one exception is the AI tools, which send the photo you have open to our service when you tap one, and it is not stored. Everything below is either measured or enforced in the app's code, and each says how it is known.
Does PhotoTune send my photos anywhere?
Retouching does not. Face detection, smoothing, healing, whitening, lighting, colour grades and export all run on the phone and work with no connection. The 10 AI tools are different — Makeup, Color, Haircuts, Hairstyles, Beards, Eyebrows, Vanish, Clothes, Headshots, Backdrop — because their models are far too large for a phone. Tapping one sends that photo, at the size shown on screen, to our service, which passes it to Google's Gemini and keeps no copy.
What the network audit measured
The app includes a recorder that logs every network request it makes. On 30 August 2026 it recorded one complete session: launch, sign in, choose a photo, detect the face, edit and export.
- 5 network requests in a complete session. Launch, sign in, pick a photo, detect the face, edit, export to the camera roll. Recorded 30 August 2026.
- 1,551 bytes — the largest thing sent anywhere in that session. An exported photo from this app is hundreds of thousands of bytes. Nothing that size was sent.
- 0 requests carrying image data. Nothing at or above 64 KB left the device. Two hosts were contacted in total, both of them Google Firebase.
- 0.35 the floor under how much skin texture survives. Smoothing splits the photo into fine detail and tone, smooths the tone, then puts the detail back. At maximum strength it still puts back 35% of it — a floor no setting can go under.
- 0 Presets or auto adjustments that can change a shape. Reshape moves only what your finger drags. A Preset cannot carry a reshape to another photo, and an automated check fails any build in which a Preset or an auto adjustment can change one.
- 2 third-party services in the app: one for crashes, one for anonymous usage. Sentry, added 2 September 2026, reports crashes and is configured never to attach a screenshot or the view hierarchy — the only two settings that could put your photo in a crash report. PostHog counts a fixed list of app actions and is never told who you are. Photo paths, tokens and email addresses are stripped before either sends anything. No advertising identifier, no session recording, and nothing on this page.
One limit worth stating: the recorder watches the app’s own network calls and cannot see traffic from the Apple and Google components it is built on. Neither of those ever receives a photo, but this measurement does not prove it — a full network inspection is still to come. The recording also predates usage analytics, which adds requests to PostHog carrying only the events the privacy policy lists.
Privacy and your data
An account is required, and it stores your sign-in identity, how many AI edits you have used and when each was made — no photos, and no Presets, which stay on your phone. Payments, and the free trial, go through Apple and RevenueCat. You can delete the account yourself from Settings, straight away. The privacy policy lists every service involved and what each receives.
Does it change how my face or body looks?
Only where you choose to. There are no one-tap face or body shape controls. Reshape is a manual brush that moves what you drag, it is never saved into a Preset, and an automated check fails any build in which a Preset or an automatic adjustment could change a shape. The AI tools are each instructed to keep face shape, body proportions and skin texture exactly as they are, and every AI edit can be undone.
FAQ
Is PhotoTune safe? Common questions
Still have a question?
Anything not answered here — a device, a photo it struggled with, or how the trial works — reaches a person at this address.
Ask a questionIs PhotoTune safe to use?
Yes, and the parts that matter can be checked. Retouching, face detection and export run on your iPhone. Only the 10 AI tools send a photo, only when you tap one, and our service does not store it. There is no advertising identifier in the app.
Does PhotoTune upload my photos?
Only if you use an AI tool. Smoothing, healing, whitening, lighting, colour, face detection and export never touch a server. Tapping an AI tool — makeup, hair, clothes, backdrops, headshots or object removal — sends that one photo, at the size shown on screen rather than the full-resolution original.
Does PhotoTune store my photos?
No. Photos stay in your camera roll. When an AI tool runs, the photo exists in memory for the length of the request; our service has no bucket, no database and no cache for images.
Who sees a photo sent to an AI tool?
Our service passes it to Google's Gemini, which returns the edited photo; Google handles it under its own terms. We log that an edit happened, which tool, your account identifier and the size in bytes — never the image and never a filename.
What does PhotoTune keep about me?
Your sign-in identity (with your name, if you sign in with Google), a count of the AI edits you have used, and a record of each one: when, which tool and what it cost us to run, never the photo. Saved Presets stay on your phone. Subscriptions, free trials included, go through Apple and RevenueCat, and we never see payment details.
How do I delete my account and data?
In the app, open Settings and tap Delete account at the bottom. It removes your account and clears the Presets saved on that phone straight away. The AI edit counts stay, with no email or name, kept against a one-way code made from your sign-in so the free edits are given once per person. Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription, which Apple holds — cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Photos in your camera roll are not touched. You can also email [email protected] and we will do it.
Does PhotoTune change my face shape?
Not unless you drag it. There are no one-tap face-shape controls, no automatic adjustment can change a shape, and a Preset never carries a reshape to another photo. The manual Reshape brush moves only what your finger moves.
Is PhotoTune a scam, or does the free trial charge me?
It is not a scam, and the free trial does charge if you keep it — so here is exactly how. It is on the annual plan: you confirm the subscription with Apple, pay nothing for 3 days, and are charged $99.99 when the trial ends unless you cancel at least 24 hours before, in your Apple Account settings. Apple shows the price before you confirm. The other plans have no trial and are charged when you subscribe. Exports have no watermark, including during the trial.