Former TikTok execs built an app that uses AI to teach you how to pose for a photo

Two former TikTok employees have launched an iOS camera app that uses generative AI to help users pose for photos. Superpose lets someone take a selfie or a picture of a friend, then creates four suggested poses that can be saved or used with a match-pose feature that helps the subject align themselves to the recommended stance. Some of the generated poses are intentionally dramatic, and the team acknowledges that a subset can appear uncanny as the model improves.

The founders bring experience from consumer tech and computer-vision work. Melody Chu previously held product roles at companies including Meta, Nextdoor, Roblox, TikTok and Slack, while Jing Liu was a founding engineer at a 3D face-scanning startup and later worked on image and video models at TikTok. Chu says the idea emerged from a personal frustration with inconsistent photos and a belief that advances in computer vision and generative AI could address that problem.

Superpose offers a freemium model: users receive five free pose generations per day, and can purchase additional packs (five generations for $2.99 or 20 for $9.99). Since its July debut the app has been downloaded more than 22,000 times and users have produced over 190,000 poses. The company says it is focused on refining generation styles, personalization and in-viewfinder coaching rather than producing synthetic backgrounds or placing users into fantastical scenes.

The app joins other recent efforts to embed AI guidance into camera experiences, following features such as Google’s Camera Coach and an Adobe experimental camera capability that critiques photos and suggests capture changes. Superpose has raised $2.2 million in seed funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, Meitu and OVTR VC as it iterates on its pose guidance and user-facing coaching tools.