Comparison

CUBE vs A«iD

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

Head to head
About

CUBE

Create visually stunning videos and photos with unique, real-time effects inspired by popular movies. Apply motion trails, LiDAR-generated particles, and liquid metal transformations to your content. Easily customize and capture in Full HD.

Highlights
  • Motion Trail Effect
  • LiDAR Scanning Effect
  • Matrix Effect
  • Liquid Metal Effect
  • Real-time effect application
  • Customizable effects
  • Full HD video capture
Read full description

Motion Trail Effect: Inspired by "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners", CUBE copies the trail effect when David using the Sandevistan implant. LiDAR Scanning Effect: Sample real-time images and depth maps created by LiDAR Scanner to generate 3D particles (point clouds). Up to 3,000,000 points can be generated. Mixing the 3D particles with real-world scenes will make you feel like entering a surreal world. Matrix Effect: Inspired by Code Rain from the movie "The Matrix". This time, blue pill or red pill? Liquid Metal Effect: Take a trip back to 1991 and become the Terminator T-1000 of the movie "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" by James Cameron. CUBE is an app that combines the powerful capabilities of Metal and ARKit, allowing you to easily create fun videos and photos with real-time effects. Using CUBE, you can: - Instantly switch between effects - Apply effects to people, background or entire image - Customize effects with a range of options - Capture Full HD & High Bitrate Videos Body segmentation is only supported on iPhone XR/XS (A12) and above. LiDAR Scanning is supported on devices with LiDAR Scanner. Support for new features of iOS 16: - Enable HDR by default: HDR is enabled by default on devices running iOS 16, allowing photos and videos to have improved dynamic range. - Introduce 2K photo mode: Photos can be taken at a resolution of 2880 * 1620 for improved clarity.

About

A«iD

This app synthesizes video in real time, reacting to audio input. It offers a modular chain of effects to manipulate visuals, allowing for custom masks and intricate distortions. Create unique, psychedelic visual experiences inspired by vintage video synthesizers.

Highlights
  • Audio-reactive video synthesis
  • Modular effects chain
  • Customizable masks (SVG, PNG, PDF)
  • Real-time feedback and distortion
  • Color manipulation and remap
  • CRT phosphor and DV tape emulation
  • Edge detection and raster effects
Features
Read full description

A«iD is an audio-reactive video synthesizer inspired by Eric Siegel's legendary EVS Electronic Video Synthesizer from the 1970s. ——— THE CHAIN ——— Modules process the video signal in real time. Stack them in any order, tap to open controls, drag to reorder, long-press to bypass. GEOMETRY SOURCE — Generate a synthetic shape and composite it over the signal. Circle, diamond, bar, cross, ring, triangle, hexagon — or load your own SVG, PNG, or PDF as a custom mask. Position, size, hue, and edge softness are all independently audio-modulatable. FEEDBACK — Route the processed signal back into itself. Pinch and rotate on the canvas to control zoom and spin in real time. KEYER — Unified luma and chroma key in a single module. Cut foreground from background by luminance or isolate a color as a matte. Tap the eyedropper to sample any color directly from the screen. Pairs visually with COMPOSITE in the chain — the signal knows where it's going. COMPOSITE — Layer the processed chain behind a clean camera cut using luma and chroma mattes simultaneously. COLOR MATRIX — Rotate, invert, and cross-channel the RGB color space. Strange colors guaranteed. HUE LFO — Oscillate the hue channel at tempo-synced rates. Psychedelic pulsing locked to the beat. PHOSPHOR DECAY — Emulate CRT phosphor persistence. Past frames linger like burned afterimages. BURN ECHO — Additive frame echo that saturates toward white. Motion leaves a scorched trail. DV TAPE — Analog dropout and compression artifacts from the era of consumer DV camcorders. HALATION — Film halation glow on bright areas. Warm blooming on highlights. CHROMA SMEAR — Horizontal chroma bleed and compression fringing. SCAN DISPLACE — Rutt/Etra-inspired raster displacement. Each scanline shifts horizontally by audio frequency content mapped to vertical position — bass warps the bottom, treble the top. The entire frame becomes a spectrum warp field. EDGE OUTLINE — Sobel edge detection with colored glow, inspired by Stephen Beck's Direct Video Synthesizer. Flat areas go dark; edges light up in the chosen hue and bloom outward. COLORMAP — Remap luminance to color. Five palettes: Thermal (heat vision), Psychedelic (full hue rotation, classic Siegel PCS), Phosphor (P1 green CRT), Ice, and Neon. Every pixel's brightness becomes a new color. RASTER BEND — Distort the scan lines. Warp the geometry of the image itself. MIRROR — Fold, flip, and tile the frame into kaleidoscopic symmetry. TILE — Repeat, scale, and rearrange the frame in a grid. POSTERIZE — Reduce color depth. Hard edges, flat planes, screen-print aesthetics. TRANSFORM — Rotate, scale, and reposition with full affine control. CHANNEL MIX — Blend and cross-route RGB channels independently. ENCODER — NTSC-style composite encoding. Color bleeding and luminance separation. ——— AUDIO REACTOR ——— Every knob can be wired to the live audio signal. A»iD listens constantly and extracts amplitude, bass, mid and treble bands, beat phase, BPM, onset triggers, and spectral centroid. Seven LFOs run at BPM subdivisions. Open the Patch Bay to wire any source to any parameter in any module. Stack multiple sources on one knob. Set amount and polarity per patch. ——— RANDOMIZE ——— Shake the device (or hit the die) to randomize the whole chain. Palette Lock freezes hue and saturation through dice rolls. Sleeper Mode locks each module's bypass state — sleeping modules stay asleep, active modules stay awake. Everything re-rolls around your intention. ——— SYNC & CONTROL ——— ABLETON LINK — Lock BPM and beat phase with Ableton Live, AUM, Loopy, and any Link-compatible app on your network. MIDI — Auto-learns CC from any wired or Bluetooth MIDI controller. Long-press any knob to assign. OSC — Receive /aid/ messages from TouchOSC or Max/MSP over Wi-Fi.

Screenshots

CUBE4 screens
A«iD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: A«iD at none against CUBE's 3. A«iD also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly). CUBE's advantage is ratings volume (16 vs 3). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. CUBE sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. A«iD asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

A«iD holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CUBE has 16 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of CUBE's written reviews are positive against 100% of A«iD's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CUBE ships an update monthly, A«iD every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
CUBE versus A«iD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCUBEA«iD
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (16 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings16 — better3
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer银凯 朱JOEL CHRISTOPHER RAKOWSKI

Customer experience

CUBE

All ratings16 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

A«iD

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

CUBE

One-time3
  • Matrix Effect$1.99
  • LiDAR Scanning Effect$1.99
  • Liquid Metal Effect$1.99
None

A«iD

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CUBE free?
CUBE is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is A«iD free?
A«iD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CUBE or A«iD?
A«iD is rated higher. CUBE averages 4.7 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while A«iD averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do CUBE or A«iD have ads?
Neither CUBE nor A«iD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CUBE or A«iD?
CUBE ships an update monthly, and A«iD every 8 days. Most recently, CUBE was updated on October 19, 2026 and A«iD on October 7, 2026.

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