
I’ve always been fascinated by those "10-year transformation" videos. But when I tried to make my own, I realized most apps were missing the technical precision needed for a smooth result.
So, I decided to build Daily Selfie, a Photo Everyday app designed to be the most feature-complete tool for documenting growth—whether it’s fitness, pregnancy, or just life.
I’ve spent months packing in every feature I could think of. Now, I’m laying it all out for the IH community to see what’s missing.
1. The Most Precise Camera for "Photo Everyday"
Consistency is the hardest part of a daily photo habit. I built a camera suite that ensures every shot aligns with the last one:
ML-Powered Face Detection: Uses Google ML Kit to detect your face in real-time. It won't let you take a bad shot—it tells you if you are "Too Far," "No Face Detected," or if you need to "Look at Camera."
Three Pro Overlays:
Ghost Overlay: See your previous photo at 50% opacity so you can align your eyes/mouth perfectly.
Grid Overlay: Rule-of-thirds for perfect centering.
Face Circle: A smart guide that can be moved (Top/Bottom) with a simple swipe.
Flash for Every Scenario: Includes a Hardware Flash (Back), a Screen Flash (Front/Selfie), and a "Torch" mode for low-light environments.
Precision Zoom: Supports 0.5x (Ultrawide) up to 10x digital zoom.
Smart Timer: Customizable 1 to 10-second delay for hands-free shots.
This isn't just a slideshow. I built a dedicated pipeline to turn photos into cinema-quality content:
AI Face Morphing: Using MediaPipe and OpenCV, the app calculates facial landmarks to create ultra-smooth transitions between faces.
Multiple Modes: Choose between AI Morph, Simple Timelapse, or Template-based videos.
Professional Transitions: Includes high-quality Crossfade and Cut options.
Music & Audio: Add curated background tracks to your transformations.
Pro Exports: Export in 720p or 1080p (Full HD) with no watermarks and optional Date Overlays burned into the video.
I wanted the app to feel like your journal, not a generic tool:
Multiple Collections: Keep your "Gym Progress" separate from your "Beard Growth" or "Baby’s First Year."
Gallery Import: Already have photos? Import them with Automatic Date Detection based on EXIF metadata.
20+ Professional Filters: Vintage, Cinematic, B&W, Vivid, Sunset, and more.
Manual Editing: Fine-tune Brightness, Saturation, and Contrast.
Theming Engine: Choose from 12 different UI themes and full Dark/Light mode support.
Multilingual: Full support for English and Arabic (RTL).
For the fellow builders, here is how the "Photo Everyday" engine works under the hood:

To prove I’m serious about "Every Feature," here is the rest:
Daily Reminders: Customizable push notifications.
Privacy First: Full GDPR compliance and "Delete Account" functionality.
Smart Caching: Fast loading of thousands of photos using Dio and CachedNetworkImage.
Orientation Handling: Works in Portrait and Landscape.
Progress Tracking: Visual "Day 1," "Day 100" counters.
Secure Backup: Everything is synced to the cloud so you never lose years of work.
With Face Alignment (No Face Morphing) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9CGhTYIQPg
With Face Alignment and Face Morphing :
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6hDNpAt0-jo
I’ve reached the point where I’ve built every feature I personally wanted. But I know the IH community sees things differently.
Should I add AI-generated aging/prediction?
Would you want a "Shared Collection" to do a timelapse with a partner?
Better social sharing templates (TikTok/Reels style)?
I’d love your brutal feedback. What is the one thing that would make you start a Photo Everyday journey today?
Check out the live app: Official Website | iOS App Store | Google Play
Cool idea and straightforward experience.
I’m curious how you’re approaching retention. With daily photo apps, the challenge often becomes keeping users engaged week after week. Are you experimenting with reminders or any other hooks?
Thanks for sharing this.
This is a seriously impressive feature list.
One thing I’m curious about: how do users currently decide what success looks like in the app?
For example, do you see people sticking around because of the final video, or because the daily habit itself feels rewarding?
My instinct is that the next big lever might be less about more features and more about reinforcing the habit loop (streaks, milestones, “don’t break the chain”).
Curious what you’re seeing from real usage so far.
This is a spot on observation.
To answer your question: Users come for the Video (the '10-year transformation' dream), but they churn because the Habit is hard work. The 'Reward' (the video) usually comes too late—after 30 days of effort.
You're absolutely right about the 'Don't break the chain' mechanic. I currently visualize 'Missing Days' as empty cards in the UI to create that psychological itch to fill the gap, but I think gamifying that streak even more (maybe unlocking Pro features via streaks?) is the next logical step.
Thanks for the feedback—it confirms I should focus less on new filters and more on retention mechanics!
38 upvotes not a single comment. Sure, not fraud at all 🤣
Actually i have shared this in a story and asked for upvotes 🤳
Love the focus — “daily selfie” is a clear habit product and that’s a huge advantage. If I were choosing the next feature, I’d optimize for retention, not complexity: add a simple streak + gentle reminders + 1-line reflection/mood note so users build a daily ritual. The biggest win is getting people to their “first meaningful moment” within 24 hours.
Looks awesome man. Aside from "delete account", how else did you ensure privacy ? Also how do you earn money from this?
I like this a lot. Simple idea, yet a lot of advanced fun features. I’m kind of a cause-and-effect-data-geek, and would love to see a connection between changes in physical apperance and other measures — ”these are my sleeping data and these are the physical effects of that. As you can see I was sleep deprived during week x and check out my face”
Cool idea — and I like that you’re thinking about what to build next instead of just adding random features.
Before building more, I’d focus on retention: what makes someone come back daily?
My suggestion: add a streak + reminder loop (simple daily prompt + notification) and a weekly recap (“here’s your week in 7 photos”). That creates habit + emotional value.
If you want a quick test: ask 5 users why they came back today — build the next feature around that answer.
Love the simplicity and intention behind this app. In a world where photo apps try to do everything, focusing on a daily selfie habit feels refreshingly specific and meaningful. It’s one of those ideas that makes you think about long term progress over instant gratification, and I can see it becoming something people genuinely look forward to opening every day.
The design and onboarding feel intuitive, which matters a lot for something you want people to stick with. Curious whether you’ve seen users adopt creative routines around it, like mood tracking or personal reflections alongside their photos. Either way, it’s a cool take on helping people capture moments without overwhelming them with options.
100% agree — this is exactly what makes it interesting. The niche is so clear that it can actually become a habit instead of another “feature-heavy” app people try once and forget.
I love the idea of lightweight mood/reflection prompts too — even something optional like 1 word or 1 line per day could add a lot of meaning without breaking the simplicity.
If they build anything next, I’d vote for a streak + weekly recap to reinforce that long-term progress feeling.
This is already really polished. ~
I think you are probably past the stage where extra features are the bottleneck.
The question is probably more about “What factors contribute to someone sticking after day 7?”
What does retention look like at the moment?
Thanks! It’s definitely time to switch gears from 'Building' to 'Growing.'
Retention is currently the classic battle: getting them past the 'Boring Phase' (Days 1-10) to the 'Reward Phase' (Day 30+ video).
I've noticed that if I can get a user to turn on Daily Reminders immediately during onboarding, their Day 7 retention doubles. It seems simple, but that nudge is often the difference between a habit and a deleted app.
This is seriously impressive; the camera precision + face alignment alone fixes why most “photo a day” apps fail.
If I had to pick one thing to add: shared collections. Doing a timelapse with a partner, trainer, or even a small challenge group would be a huge motivation boost.
I’d personally skip AI aging and lean more into AI insights (when change actually starts, biggest progress window, etc.). Social templates are nice, but private motivation matters more first.
As someone who’s built totally different stuff (I recently created vape site projects), this feels like the rare app where features aren’t the problem anymore, habit psychology is.
Really solid work.
Thank you! You really nailed the dilemma I'm facing: Feature-complete vs. Habit-complete.
Your point on AI Insights vs. AI Aging is brilliant. I already have the facial landmarks data (from the morphing engine), so I could technically calculate a 'Rate of Change' graph to show users exactly when their transformation accelerated. That is infinitely more valuable than a fake 'Old Face' filter.
And yes, Shared Collections is moving to the top of the list. Accountability is the only thing stronger than willpower. Appreciate the feedback!
Hi Mohammed,
Great work and congrats on 1k+ downloads on the Android Play Store.
What would you say are your most high-impact features?
I get the sense that the app takes it for granted that people want to take photos every day and just need to be reminded, i.e. the only friction point is forgetfulness.
My hunch is that people want to have a time-lapse video, because it communicates consistency, growth, and reflectiveness, and also it just looks cool on a feed. But as with most things, people want it but not the boring, chore-like stuff that goes into eventually getting one at the end of six months or a year or whatever period lends itself best to a hashtag.
That's where I suspect you haven't invested enough, friend.
I don't think there's enough emotional payoff to keep a person coming back to take a new photo every day. I've only just downloaded and tested it, so I could be wrong, but it feels like a fleshed-out app feature-wise, but not experience-wise.
In essence, I think you've inverted where you give users freedom and where you control/guide the experience.
Here's what I do:
Create different consistency periods with different earned rewards.
A person commits to taking pictures doing a certain thing (gym, for instance) 31 days in a row, they get a specific filter, video style, etc. that they can't get otherwise.
And if they commit to once a week, 52 times a year, they also get a corresponding filter, video style, etc.
I would also introduce stakes. If you don't show up three times in a row, consecutively or otherwise, you're out. All the photos are gone. You have to start again. (Maybe if you're PRO you get another chance).
Add short-term payoffs.
As things stand, the app lacks strategic friction in two ways:
I can install it, take 5 pictures, change the dates on them (that feature's available), and make a video.
If I log in every single day for 365 days and take pictures, I can make a video on any of those days, so what's the unique payoff on day 365?
That's why I'd say until a person reaches the "unveil" date by showing up consistently, they should get some form of encouragement or reward. It's possible and quite simple in hindsight if you really brainstorm it.
Tie it into people's goals/growth journeys
Yeah, the phrase "growth journeys" makes me cringe too, but anyway...
Right now, taking a photo every day is a goal unto itself. I think you could go further by making this app a part of the goals people are already striving for, a part of them showing up every day.
So when they get the video, they don't just have the video but also the real-world result of whatever they were consistent at. AND the app also served the function of helping them stay accountable. It became part of the ritual of "putting in work."
Shift to more emotive positioning.
Following from the above point, I think you can do a lot better than "Photo Everyday." That's the mechanism, but it's not the emotional job-to-be-done. People want to feel they've been through a journey, they've persevered, they've documented, they've accomplished, or maybe failed and learned.
In other words, there's a difference between the app's function and its purpose. Right now I think you're only communicating function, which is fine when a pain point is simple enough and acute, which isn't the case here.
I don't wanna go on too long so I'll stop there. Those are just my thoughts by the way. You have plenty more context.
All the best, mate.
Wow. I asked for brutal feedback and you delivered gold.
The distinction you made between 'Function' (taking a photo) and 'Purpose' (documenting a struggle/triumph) is the missing link in my marketing.
I'm going to implement your 'Earned Rewards' suggestion immediately. I think unlocking specific video styles for hitting a 30-day streak is the perfect carrot to keep people going through the boring days. Thanks for the insight!