Charcoal Booth vs Portrait Play
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Charcoal Booth
Transform your photos into realistic charcoal sketches with this intuitive app. Easily select or capture an image, apply the charcoal effect, and fine-tune the tone with a simple slider. Save your artistic creations and share them with friends.
- Photo to charcoal effect
- Image selection from albums
- Built-in camera capture
- Adjustable tone slider
- Save to device
- Share with friends
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Create polished charcoal art in seconds with Charcoal Booth. Turn portraits and landscapes into expressive charcoal drawings with distinct paper-and-pencil styles. Designed for fast, visual editing: • Compare the original and edited image with a live split preview • Explore curated presets made for different photo styles • Blend the effect with your original for a subtle or bold finish • Save favorite effect settings in My Looks and reuse them • Share a labeled before-and-after image • Undo, redo, and resume your last edit • Save and share at high resolution • Edit across compact and expanded layouts with keyboard shortcuts • Process photos directly on your device Choose a photo, try a preset, and adjust until the result feels right. The focused editor keeps the image and its transformation visible throughout the process. Start creating for free in this ad-supported edition.
Portrait Play
Transform your selfies into artistic masterpieces inspired by famous painters. Explore background information on renowned artists and their works. Experience art in a new, interactive way.
- Selfie to masterpiece transformation
- Master painter styles
- Artist background information
- Interactive art experience
- Explore art collections
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With Portrait Play, magically transform a selfie into a masterpiece in the style of renowned painters. Visit The Phillips Collection’s exhibition Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland, The Staechelin and Im Obersteg Collections and see your selfie take on the bright colors and vivid brush strokes of paintings reminiscent of Edouard Manet’s Head of a Woman (1870) Ferdinand Hodler’s Portrait of Regina (1911) Alexej von Jawlensky’s Self-Portrait (1911) or Marc Chagall’s Self-Portrait (1914). Portrait Play also provides background information about these four major artists and their work. The portraits are on view at the Phillips from October 10, 2015, to January 10, 2106, marking the first occasion selections from the Staechelin and Im Obersteg collections are exhibited together in the United States. This app is brought to you by Switzerland and the City of Basel, where the arts are highly valued. Concept, design and technology are provided by appamics. To find out more about Switzerland and its arts scene, visit our portals Switzerland, Land of Art and Basel—Culture Unlimited. You will be surprised to discover how many of Switzerland’s artistic and architectural treasures can be found in New York, Miami, and San Francisco. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Charcoal Booth at every 3 weeks against Portrait Play's every 41 months. Portrait Play's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Charcoal Booth ships an update every 3 weeks, Portrait Play every 41 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Charcoal Booth | Portrait Play |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 10.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 41 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | 福恩 毛 | appamics GmbH |
Customer experience
Charcoal Booth
Portrait Play
In-app purchases
Charcoal Booth
No in-app purchases
Portrait Play
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Charcoal Booth free?
Is Portrait Play free?
Do Charcoal Booth or Portrait Play have ads?
Which is updated more often, Charcoal Booth or Portrait Play?
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