Comparison

A«iD vs Liquid Lens

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

Head to head
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.

About

Liquid Lens

Transform your phone's camera into a live effects studio. Apply real-time distortions, color grades, and glitches directly in the viewfinder. Edit existing photos with the same powerful tools.

Highlights
  • Real-time camera effects
  • Distortion and color grading
  • Stackable effects
  • Adjustable effect intensity
  • Edit existing photos
  • Exposure control
Read full description

Liquid Lens is a camera built around one idea: layer effects live, save the look, shoot it again in one tap. Most camera apps make you pick a single filter. Liquid Lens lets you stack chromatic aberration, film grain, warped glass, and a hand-tuned gradient map all at once — and watch it composite in real time on your screen before you ever press the shutter. When you land on a combination you love, save it as a named preset and it's one tap away forever. No rebuilding your look shot by shot. EVERYTHING RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE Every effect is a custom Metal shader running locally through your GPU. Nothing is uploaded, nothing routes through a server — your photos and video never leave your phone. That also means zero lag between moving a slider and seeing the result on screen. LAYER YOUR EFFECTS, LIVE Combine any number of effects at once and see the composited result in the viewfinder in real time — not a preview render, not a "processing" screen. What you see is what gets captured, at full 48MP resolution. SAVE YOUR LOOK AS A ONE-TAP PRESET Dial in a stack of effects exactly how you want it, then save it and name it. Every slider value, every palette choice, and your warp level are stored together. Tap a saved Look and your entire stack snaps back instantly — no more re-dragging six sliders to match a look you had yesterday. EDIT PHOTOS FROM YOUR LIBRARY, TOO Effects aren't just for new shots. Pull any photo from your camera roll into the same live editor — same sliders, same presets, same Metal pipeline — and apply your layered look to photos you already have. 20+ EFFECTS TO STACK Color grading: Chromatic Aberration — edge-weighted RGB split Halation — warm highlight bloom Hyper — saturation that pushes color while crushing shadows Pink & Glow — a two-part beauty grade (faded-film color shift + dreamy highlight bloom) Blacks — shadow crush Oil Slick — drifting thin-film iridescence on highlights Solar — Sabattier tone-inversion on highlights Gradient Maps — 10 cinematic color-grade palettes (Sunset, Vapor, Ocean, Neon, Aurora, Ice, Acid, Rose, Noir, Matcha) Texture & distortion: Grain — animated film grain Sharpen Zoom Blur — radial motion blur from center Mesh — live 3D wireframe displacement Chrome — liquid-metal relief effect Polar — polar coordinate warp Trails — light trail smearing Ripple — animated water rings Fractal — reeded shower-glass refraction Marble — flowing ink/marble domain warp Warp — 4-level reverse-fisheye distortion, tap to cycle BUILT FOR ACTUALLY TAKING PHOTOS Full-resolution capture Photo and video capture, front and back camera Drag-to-adjust exposure control (-2 to +2 EV), right on the live preview Three aspect ratios: 4:5, 5:7 and 9:16 Flash for back camera, simulated screen-flash for front camera selfies Built-in gallery for everything you shoot in-app ONE PRICE, NOTHING ELSE TO BUY $2.99, once. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads, no account required.

Screenshots

A«iD4 screens
Liquid Lens4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: A«iD at Free against Liquid Lens's $2.99. A«iD also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.5). Liquid Lens's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 8 days). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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

A«iD is free to download; Liquid Lens costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for A«iD against 5.0 for Liquid Lens. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

A«iD ships an update every 8 days, Liquid Lens daily. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
A«iD versus Liquid Lens: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterA«iDLiquid Lens
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJOEL CHRISTOPHER RAKOWSKISydney Bryn

Customer experience

A«iD

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

Liquid Lens

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

A«iD

No in-app purchases

None

Liquid Lens

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is A«iD free?
A«iD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Liquid Lens free?
Liquid Lens costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, A«iD or Liquid Lens?
A«iD and Liquid Lens are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5 and 4 ratings respectively.
Do A«iD or Liquid Lens have ads?
Neither A«iD nor Liquid Lens shows ads.
Which is updated more often, A«iD or Liquid Lens?
A«iD ships an update every 8 days, and Liquid Lens daily. Most recently, A«iD was updated on October 24, 2026 and Liquid Lens on October 24, 2026.

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