bitwave vs Altered States
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
bitwave
Transform photos and videos into retro-inspired pixel art with a variety of filters and effects. Create unique avatars, social media content, or game-inspired visuals with a creator-friendly interface.
- Real-time pixel art camera filters
- Pixelate photos and videos instantly
- Multiple pixel styles and resolutions
- Custom color palettes and retro effects
- Live camera preview
- Save and share directly to social media
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Description Transform your photos and videos into pixel art with Bitwave Pixel Cam. Create retro-inspired images and videos using carefully crafted pixel filters designed for creators, gamers, artists, and anyone who loves nostalgic aesthetics. Whether you're making pixel avatars, social media content, game-inspired portraits, or unique retro videos, MUT8 Pixel Cam lets you instantly convert ordinary footage into vibrant pixel art. Features • Real-time pixel art camera filters • Pixelate photos and videos instantly • Multiple pixel styles and resolutions • Custom color palettes and retro effects • Live camera preview • Fast image and video processing • Save and share directly to social media • Simple, creator-friendly interface Perfect For • Pixel art enthusiasts • Retro gaming fans • Content creators • Profile pictures and avatars • Social media posts and reels • Creative photography projects Why MUT8 Pixel Cam? Most pixel filters simply reduce image quality. Bitwave Pixel Cam is designed to create authentic pixel-art aesthetics with carefully tuned color reduction, pixel scaling, and retro-inspired visual styles. Create unique pixel art in seconds and bring a nostalgic 8-bit look to your photos and videos. Download Bitwave Pixel Cam and start creating today.
Altered States
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Altered States turns your iPhone camera into a real-time visual effects engine. Stack up to 30 effects across 6 independent layers, let music drive your visuals, and capture the result as full-resolution video. — EFFECTS — Over 30 GPU-powered effects in five categories: WARP: Ultrawarp, Shockwave, Wave, Vortex, Kaleidoscope, Cascade, Fisheye, Curl Drift, Mirror Warp GLITCH: Pixel Sort, Streak, Self-Glitch, JPEG Artefact, Chromatic Aberration, Feedback Loop, Radial Blur, CRT, Bloom COLOR: LSD, Neon, Thermal, Solarise, Curves, GORE, MAYHEM, LUST, Dither, Contour Lines FX: Datamosh, Halftone, ASCII Art, Blob Tracking, Pixelate, Numeric Art GEN: Plasma, Tunnel, Lattice, Pattern — MULTI-LAYER — Stack up to 6 independent source layers - live camera, imported photos, or looping videos - each with its own effect chain, blend mode, and opacity. Rearrange layers by dragging, or hide any layer instantly. — AUDIO REACTIVE — Connect the camera to your music. Bass, mid, highs, and beat transients each drive your effect parameters in real time. Map any parameter to any frequency band. Tweak sensitivity and depth on the fly. — RECORD — Record full-resolution video directly from the live canvas. Mic audio is captured alongside the visual effects and merged automatically. Save to your photo library with one tap. — PRESETS — Save your favourite effect stacks as presets with a thumbnail snapshot. Recall them instantly from the Presets panel. — TOOLS — - Shake to generate a random 3-5 effect combination instantly - Per-effect parameter curves editor - Canvas transform: pan, pinch, rotate each layer freely - 8 mirror modes: vertical, horizontal, triple, quad, diagonal - Cortex Gate: luminance-based per-layer masking - Undo history with a visual timeline Altered States is built for performers, creators, and anyone who wants their camera to do something it was never supposed to do. By subscribing, you agree to Apple's Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: bitwave at none against Altered States's 2. Altered States's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). 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
Both are free to download. Altered States sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. bitwave asks for nothing beyond the download.
bitwave ships an update every 5 weeks, Altered States every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | bitwave | Altered States |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Demian Nezhdanov | Kwong Wa Chu |
In-app purchases
bitwave
No in-app purchases
Altered States
- Altered States Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Altered States Pro Annual$39.991 Year









