Comparison

Backdrop vs Altered States

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

Head to head
About

Backdrop

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Pick a Look and the camera changes. Point it at a street and the street is already painted in oil, or broken into dots, or drawn by hand. You are not previewing a filter. That is the picture, and the shutter keeps it. THE LOOKS Brush. Painted stroke by stroke, coarse to fine, as you move. Mosaic. Rebuilt from its own colours. Cells split where there is detail. Drawn. The world drawn instead of photographed. Flat colour, inked lines. Matter. The picture as a field of grains that drift and settle. Fur. Combed strands that follow what the camera sees. Dither. Tone traded for dots on one fixed grid, nothing in between. Halftone. Print dots on a square or hex grid, in four shapes. Fluted. Seen through ribbed glass. The world arrives in strips. Water. Refraction and caustics, the scene read through moving water. Code. Digital rain over katakana, lit by whatever the camera sees. The list grows. New Looks arrive in updates. TAP OR HOLD Tap the shutter for a photo. Hold it to record, up to ten minutes. Video renders in the background at full quality, one frame at a time, using the exact settings you shot with. TUNE ANYTHING Every Look has its own knobs. Size, grain, relief, speed, depth, whatever that Look actually has. Drag the handle at the edge of the screen and the picture changes under your thumb. Tap a knob to put it back. BRING YOUR OWN Choose from Photos to run something you already have through a Look. For video, trim it first, pick the frame, then render. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE No account, nothing to sign in to. No servers. What you shoot sits in the Shelf on your device. Saving a copy to Photos is a switch, off until you turn it on. BACKDROP PREMIUM Dither, Water, Halftone and Drawn are free, and they record video too. Premium opens every Look, including the ones added later, and takes the Backdrop mark off everything you shoot. Monthly and annual. Payment goes to your Apple Accou renews unless you turn it off at least 24 hours befo Manage or cancel in Settings, Apple Account, Subscri Privacy: backdrop.wiki/privacy Terms: backdrop.wiki/terms Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ iPhone. iOS 18 and later.

About

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. โ€” EFFECTS โ€” 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 โ€” MULTI-LAYER โ€” 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. โ€” AUDIO REACTIVE โ€” 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. โ€” RECORD โ€” 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. โ€” PRESETS โ€” Save your favourite effect stacks as presets with a thumbnail snapshot. Recall them instantly from the Presets panel. โ€” TOOLS โ€” - 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

Backdrop4 screens
Altered States4 screens

Verdict

The call

Backdrop and Altered States are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters โ€” price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Backdrop sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Altered States sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Backdrop ships an update weekly, Altered States every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Backdrop versus Altered States: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBackdropAltered States
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad โ€” better
Requires iOS18.017.2 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size127 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShekhar UpadhayaKwong Wa Chu

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Backdrop

Subscriptions2
  • Backdrop Premium โ€” Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Backdrop Premium โ€” Annual$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Backdrop Premium โ€” Lifetime$79.99
2 purchases

Altered States

Subscriptions2
  • Altered States Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Altered States Pro Annual$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Backdrop free?
Backdrop is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Altered States free?
Altered States is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Backdrop or Altered States have ads?
Neither Backdrop nor Altered States shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Backdrop or Altered States?
Backdrop ships an update weekly, and Altered States every 5 days. Most recently, Backdrop was updated on October 25, 2026 and Altered States on October 24, 2026.

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