I just tried a free photo-editing app and now I’ll never trust anyone’s selfies again

When I heard about an app that could make me look like a model, I was skeptical.

But that’s what Spring, a body-altering app for your phone, claims to do.

The app is free and available in iOS as well as Android. According to their app-store page, Spring claims to have over 4 million users in 217 countries. A coworker’s friend started using it and loved it, saying it made her “butt look amazing.”

So I had to try it — and now I’ll never trust anyone’s selfies ever again.

The app is very straightforward. First, you upload a picture of yourself and it gives you three options: making yourself taller, thinner, and resizing your face.

I started with the slimming portion. The app has you drag the circle around your face to make sure it doesn’t become misshapen and slide the white bars to flank your left and right sides.

If your face isn’t in the picture, you can click the face in the right hand corner to get rid of the circle.

Then I got to decide just how much slimmer I wanted to be. I did 100% for fun by sliding the icon all the way to the right, but you can also make yourself look wider by swiping to the left.

Next, I tried what I was most excited about as a 5’3’’ girl — the “spring” function that makes you look taller.

First, I aligned one white bar with my ankles, another with my hips, and the last one at my shoulder line to keep my picture from looking disproportionate.

The app also allows you to use two bars instead of three in case, for instance, you were shot from the waist up and your feet weren’t visible.

I made myself 100% taller. Just like with the slimming function, however, you can bring the arrow all the way down and make yourself look shorter, too.

Now I was left with a thinner, taller version of myself with a huge bobble head. The app recently added a head-resizing feature that also allows you to position it slightly higher or lower.

It’s barely noticeable, but I made my face a little smaller and shifted it up slightly.

Here’s the final result, in GIF form.

This entire process took me about five minutes to do once I got the hang of the app. I didn’t think it made that much of a difference until I clicked back and forth between the two Megans.

You can tell that the app compressed and stretched my body when you look at the before and after pictures, but nothing in the background looks distorted. This would probably be a huge plus for celebrities like Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian who use other apps that leave telltale signs in the background that prove they edited their image.

Even though it was easy to do, I can’t see myself using this app on a daily basis. It felt very narcissistic and disconnected from reality in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. It also sets unrealistic expectations for my own body since I can’t make myself thinner or taller by swiping my phone.

But I definitely see the appeal of this body-altering app and the others like it that can make your teeth whiter, change your features with digital plastic surgery, and slim you down. With a few swipes, I went from looking like me to looking like a slightly thinner, slightly taller version of myself — both things society says would make me look more attractive.

Either way, I’m never trusting anything I see on Facebook or Instagram ever again.

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