Comparison

Smilophone vs Hoverophone

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

Head to head
About

Smilophone

This app uses facial recognition to generate music based on your emotions. Express yourself through happy or sad sounds, and control the tone with your eyebrows. Create unique musical pieces simply by showing your face.

Highlights
  • Facial expression to music conversion
  • Emotional intelligence powered by Affectiva
  • Tone control via eyebrow movement
  • Real-time music generation
  • Supports iPhone and iPad
Features
Read full description

Smilophone - music is in your face! Using emotional intelligence powered by Affectiva, Smilophone converts your expressions into music. Hold your iPhone or iPad up so it can see your face, and the music will play. Happy faces make happy sounds, sad faces make sad sounds. Raise or lower your eyebrows to raise or lower the tone. Have fun and make music as beautiful as you are!

About

Hoverophone

This app reimagines the theremin for your iPhone, allowing you to play music by waving your hands in the air without touching the screen. It offers a polyphonic synthesizer with various sound options and microtonal capabilities for unique musical exploration.

Highlights
  • Air-based theremin playing with front camera hand tracking
  • Polyphonic synthesizer with multiple voice options
  • Microtonal keyboard with 12-TET or 24-TET quarter tones
  • Stack up to twelve notes by pinning voices
  • Continuous pitch glide and volume control
  • Fully offline functionality
Features
Read full description

Play a theremin in the air with your hands—no screen taps, controller, or antenna required. Hoverophone uses the front camera to follow your hands. Raise or lower a hand to glide the pitch, change the distance between your thumb and any finger to control volume, and move from side to side to pan the sound. Raise a hand and you are already playing that unmistakable, otherworldly theremin voice. A POLYPHONIC SYNTH Choose a sine, triangle, saw, or square wave, then add drive and ring modulation. Movement across the camera controls the stereo field. Hoverophone tracks up to four hands at once, so you can play chords instead of a single melody. Bring two sounding hands together to pin a note in place. Pinned notes continue to ring while you play, giving you as many as twelve simultaneous voices: four live and eight sustained. MICROTONAL NOTES IN THE AIR Leave the note grid off for the classic continuous theremin glide. Turn it on to snap the pitch to 12-TET notes or 24-TET quarter tones on an isomorphic hexagonal grid. Move your hand into a cell and the note lands in tune without touching the screen. The 24-TET mode opens the door to microtonal and xenharmonic music while preserving the instrument's in-air control. FEATURES - Front-camera hand tracking with no screen contact - Continuous theremin pitch or an isomorphic note grid - 12-TET and 24-TET tuning with quarter tones - Up to four tracked hands and twelve simultaneous voices - Four waveforms, drive, ring modulation, and stereo panning - Sound through the speaker or headphones, even in silent mode - No account required; plays without a network connection HOW TO PLAY THE THEREMIN A theremin is an electronic musical instrument played without physical contact. In Hoverophone, simply raise a hand in front of the camera. Move up and down to change pitch, open and close the space between your fingers to shape volume, and move left or right to place the sound in the stereo field. If you are learning how to play the theremin, start in continuous mode and practice smooth pitch glides. Switch to 12-TET when you want help landing on familiar notes, or choose 24-TET to play quarter tones and explore microtonal music. Hoverophone is a touch-free theremin app and polyphonic synthesizer app for iPhone and iPad, built for musicians who want expressive camera control without extra hardware. Camera frames are processed entirely on your device and never leave it. Hoverophone does not use the microphone. Create a soft ambient pad, build a dense drone, or summon the eerie sweep of a science-fiction soundtrack. For the most reliable tracking, play in a well-lit room where the camera can see your hands clearly.

Screenshots

Smilophone4 screens
Hoverophone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Hoverophone at 50% against Smilophone's 0%. Hoverophone also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 11 months) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). Smilophone's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and iOS requirement (8.2 vs 17.6). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Smilophone holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of Smilophone's written reviews are positive against 50% of Hoverophone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Smilophone ships an update every 11 months, Hoverophone every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Smilophone versus Hoverophone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSmilophoneHoverophone
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.3 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.2 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size79 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSimon BoothMaxim Oransky

Customer experience

Smilophone

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Hoverophone

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Smilophone

No in-app purchases

None

Hoverophone

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Smilophone free?
Smilophone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hoverophone free?
Hoverophone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Smilophone or Hoverophone?
Smilophone is rated higher. Smilophone averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Hoverophone averages 4.3 from 3 ratings.
Do Smilophone or Hoverophone have ads?
Neither Smilophone nor Hoverophone shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Smilophone or Hoverophone?
Smilophone ships an update every 11 months, and Hoverophone every 10 days. Most recently, Smilophone was updated on October 14, 2026 and Hoverophone on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons