Comparison

Weird Type vs altDQ LACMA

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Weird Type

Create unique visual art by writing words in augmented reality. Type custom phrases and explore various creative modes to see your text transform in innovative ways. Record and share your AR text creations.

Highlights
  • Draw with text in AR
  • Type custom phrases
  • Multiple creative modes
  • Record and share videos
  • Multi-lingual input support
Read full description

Have you ever wanted to draw with words? Weird Type is an AR app that lets you paint with text in space! You can type your own phrases and pick from multiple modes and see your text in completely new ways. You can record videos of your messages and share them or save them to you camera roll. It's based on a series of AR experiments that the authors Zach Lieberman and Molmol Kuo have been posting to Instagram over the last few months. People kept asking, "is that an app?" Now, together with our collaborator Design Indaba, which helped produce this, we're packaging some of these experiments into app and we hope you enjoy them! The app is designed by Richard The, with iOS help from Ying Quan Tan, Robby Kraft, and Peter Sibley Note the app now supports multi-lingual input.

About

altDQ LACMA

Explore a groundbreaking 1986 digital art installation in an immersive 3D space. View artwork from all angles, revealing hidden code, hypertext, and behind-the-scenes stories of its creation.

Highlights
  • Immersive 3D artwork viewing
  • Reveal related code and hypertext
  • View artwork from all sides
  • Explore dimensional photos
  • Watch process videos and images
Read full description

April Greiman's Does it Make Sense?, created in 1986 for Design Quarterly is on display at LACMA's Digital Witness exhibit. The work explored the use of Apple's Macintosh computer to assemble a collage of illustrative assets and words -- delivered on paper, Z space implied. Now this work can be viewed in X | Y | Z space using a smartphone or tablet. Here are features to explore: tap the screen to reveal related code and hypertext tap again to turn them off see inside photos that have become dimensional witness this display on both sides of the artwork video and images on the back side present stories of the process of making of the original work

Screenshots

Weird Type4 screens
altDQ LACMA4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: altDQ LACMA at Free against Weird Type's $0.99. altDQ LACMA also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 months). Weird Type's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (814 vs 2). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

altDQ LACMA is free to download; Weird Type costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Weird Type holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Weird Type has 814 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Weird Type ships an update every 3 months, altDQ LACMA every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Weird Type versus altDQ LACMA: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWeird TypealtDQ LACMA
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (814 ratings) — better3.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings814 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB449 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperZach LiebermanIsovist Limited (UK)

Customer experience

Weird Type

All ratings814 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral0.9%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews155 reviews
Positive87.1%
Neutral7.1%
Negative5.8%

altDQ LACMA

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Weird Type

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Orientation issues when sharing videos
  • Inconsistent performance on older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more languages
  • Allow custom font/color options
  • Implement selfie camera mode
  • Add audio recording capabilities
  • Improve video export quality

altDQ LACMA

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Weird Type

No in-app purchases

None

altDQ LACMA

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Weird Type free?
Weird Type costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is altDQ LACMA free?
altDQ LACMA is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Weird Type or altDQ LACMA?
Weird Type is rated higher. Weird Type averages 4.9 out of 5 from 814 ratings, while altDQ LACMA averages 3.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Weird Type or altDQ LACMA have ads?
Neither Weird Type nor altDQ LACMA shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Weird Type or altDQ LACMA?
Weird Type ships an update every 3 months, and altDQ LACMA every 2 days. Most recently, Weird Type was updated on November 6, 2026 and altDQ LACMA on October 30, 2026.

Other comparisons