The Good
- More than 300 facial characteristics
- Impressive interface
- Easy and fun to use
The Bad
- Twitter/Facebook upload won't replace current avatar
Are you sick of using the same boring avatar? Uface (Blank, $1.99) is an iPhone app that creates portraits to use as avatars on social-networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. With more than 300 facial characteristics, Uface makes it remarkably easy to create a realistic-looking avatar.
Uface is easy and fun to use
An avatar is a small thumbnail picture of yourself that illustrates your profile on social-networking sites. If you can’t find a good photo, there are a number of apps available for the iPhone that make cartoon or illustrated avatars. The Uface app creates hand-drawn avatars that look like they were drawn by professional illustrators.
When you open the app, you're prompted to select a male or female face. After that, it’s up to you to add the appropriate facial features. There are 300 to choose from, including dozens of eyes, eyebrows, noses, lips, ears, chins, and hairstyles. You can also add accessories like glasses, earrings, necklaces, or scarves.
There are a variety of backgrounds, and you can also insert hand gestures or speech bubbles. Uface has a good selection of facial characteristics, but I could use more hairstyles -- that section felt a little limited.
The interface is very slick, and the Uface app responds nearly instantaneously to any changes you make to your drawing. Once you’ve perfected your avatar, you can save it and upload it to your social-networking sites. I tried to upload the avatar to my Twitter account, but Uface posted it as a link instead of replacing my current avatar. It’s not a huge deal to upload the avatar yourself, but it’d be nice if the app could do it for you.
The Bottom Line
Uface is fun to use and has a gorgeous interface, so it’s no surprise that the app is one of the top downloads in the social-networking category at the App Store. The Uface app can only get better as the developers add additional characteristics (more hairstyles please!), but it’s certainly worth a recommendation as it is. Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
The Uface app works with the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, but you’ll need iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
