MeltCam vs A«iD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MeltCam
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Point the camera, and watch your world melt, warp, and glow. MeltCam is a real-time psychedelic camera app. From trending VHS-style noise to glitch, kaleidoscope, neon, and tie-dye, switch between bold effects and reshape the world right inside your viewfinder. [What makes MeltCam different] ◆ Zero-lag real-time preview No heavy post-processing, no waiting. Effects transform your viewfinder the instant you tap them. You're not editing after the shot — the world is already warped before you press the shutter. ◆ Social-ready 1:1 square Preview and saved photo are pixel-perfect identical squares. Drop them straight into your Instagram or TikTok feed, profile, or thumbnail without second-guessing the crop. ◆ A bold lineup of effects - Melt: signs and shapes drip and flow like liquid - Tie-Dye: vivid tie-dye psychedelia - Wave: a sine-wave shimmer like looking through water - Mirror: symmetrical beauty born from a flip - Glitch: scanlines and noise, full digital decay - Acid: hue rotation paints the world in psychedelic colors - Plasma: undulating plasma light - Trip: a swirling vortex of mind-bending color - Vortex: a spiral that pulls everything inward - Kaleidoscope: peer into another world through a kaleidoscope - Neon Edge: outlines glow like neon signs - Prism Split: prism-shifted color separation - VHS Noise: gritty, retro 80s tape noise ◆ Photos and videos, ready to post Save photos and videos with the effect baked in, straight to your library. Record short videos up to 60 seconds. No extra editing step required. ◆ Front and rear camera Selfies or scenery, your call. Like the stock camera, the preview is mirrored while the saved photo is not — so what you share looks the way it should. [Made for you if you...] - Want photos and videos that don't look like everyone else's - Love glitch, psychedelic, and neon visuals - Shoot music, live shows, clubs, and festivals - Have outgrown standard filter apps - Want to play with the shot, not just edit it after [MeltCam Pro] Free users get unlimited use of the basic effects. Upgrade to Pro to unlock all the psychedelic, neon, and retro effects. [Supported languages] English, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), German, Spanish, Korean, French, Simplified Chinese Look through the lens, into another world. With MeltCam, turn what's in front of you into something that isn't quite real.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: A«iD at none against MeltCam's 2. A«iD also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. MeltCam sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. A«iD asks for nothing beyond the download.
MeltCam ships an update fortnightly, A«iD every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MeltCam | A«iD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 68 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CROSSBRIDGE INC. | JOEL CHRISTOPHER RAKOWSKI |
In-app purchases
MeltCam
- MeltCam Pro (Monthly)$1.991 Month
- MeltCam Pro (Yearly)$19.991 Year
A«iD
No in-app purchases








