What it does
Renew is an AI-powered mobile app designed to breathe new life into old photographs. Its core functions include restoring damaged images, colorizing black-and-white photos, and enhancing blurry faces. The app also offers advanced features to remove scratches, correct lighting, and even recreate severely damaged portraits from a source image.
Where it shines
The app excels at demonstrating its value from the very first moments. The interactive onboarding (00:12) requires users to tap to see impressive photo restorations, making the AI's power feel tangible and immediate. The core editing experience is built around a simple and effective before-and-after slider (01:59), which provides instant, satisfying feedback on the improvements made to the user's photo.
UX highlights
- Interactive Onboarding: Instead of a passive carousel, users tap a button like "Restore photo" to see the transformation (00:16), which actively teaches the core interaction.
- Proactive Expectation Setting: Before each major edit, a "Tips" modal (01:19) shows suitable vs. unsuitable photos, guiding users and preventing errors.
- Clear Before/After Slider: The split-screen slider (e.g., at 02:34) is the central interaction for reviewing results, making the value proposition instantly clear and gratifying.
- Clutter-Free Editing Interface: The editing screen focuses on the image, with just a few power-level options like "Low", "Mid", "High" at the bottom (01:31), avoiding overwhelming users with complex tools.
- Consistent Action Feedback: The app uses simple modals like "Success!" (02:02) and "Deleted successfully" (02:14) to confirm that user actions have been completed.
- Smart Rating Prompt: After a successful save, a custom in-app modal (02:37) asks if the user is happy before triggering the official system rating prompt, a common best practice to garner higher ratings.
Monetization & growth
The app presents a soft paywall immediately after its brief onboarding carousel (00:32). A subscription is required to use any of the core photo editing features. The paywall highlights a yearly plan with a "Save 90%" discount and breaks down the cost to a weekly price to make it seem more affordable. A clever UI toggle at 00:57 allows users to enable a 3-day free trial, which dynamically updates the purchasing options to make the trial the primary call-to-action.
Who it’s for
This app is for anyone looking to digitize and restore their family photo archives without needing professional software. It is ideal for users who want a simple, one-tap solution for fixing old, faded, scratched, or blurry pictures. The straightforward interface makes it accessible to a non-technical audience whose primary goal is preserving memories.
Notes & opportunities
The constant display of "Tips" modals before every single editing action (01:19, 02:20, 02:52) could become repetitive for experienced users. Adding a "don't show this again" checkbox could improve the workflow for return visitors. Additionally, while the app has a History section for past edits (04:27), access to it is tucked away in the main menu and could be made more prominent on the home screen.