B612 launched in 2014 as a joint product of LINE and Naver, named after the asteroid from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince." The app embraced cute aesthetics, playful filters, and youth-oriented design while quietly building serious AI technology underneath. In 2026, B612 is one of the most popular selfie apps in Asia with hundreds of millions of users, alongside sister app SNOW.
This review covers B612 in 2026: the features, the aesthetic, the AI technology, and whether it's worth downloading for users considering selfie and photo apps.
- Huge variety of cute and creative filters
- Strong AI beautification with natural-looking results
- Makeup application that looks realistic
- Regular filter updates tied to trending aesthetics
- Free tier offers most features
- Quick mobile-first workflow
- Aesthetic skews young — less appealing to older users
- Some features duplicate SNOW (sister app)
- Ads in free tier can be intrusive
- Less relevant outside Asian markets
- Chinese/Korean companies process face data on servers
- Teens and young adults who love cute aesthetics
- Fans of kawaii, anime, and K-pop filter trends
- Casual selfie users who want fun transformations
- Users in Korea, Japan, and other Asian markets
- Content creators for TikTok and Asian social platforms
- You prefer mature, professional photo aesthetics
- You're primarily on Western social platforms
- You prefer natural selfies without heavy filtering
- You have privacy concerns about cloud face processing
- You already use SNOW or similar (significant overlap)
Pricing
Most filters and features with ads, basic AI tools, HD export.
No ads, all premium filters, exclusive effects, HD+ export.
What B612 is
B612 is a mobile camera and photo editing app (iOS and Android) with a distinctive aesthetic identity. The core features:
AR Filters. Face filters with real-time effects — cute animal ears, makeup, face transformations.
Beauty Filters. AI-powered face beautification with natural-looking results.
Makeup Filters. Apply realistic virtual makeup — lipstick, eyeliner, blush, eyeshadow.
AI Features. AI portraits, style transfers, generative effects.
Video Creation. Short-form video with filters and effects for TikTok-style content.
Photo Collage. Multi-photo layouts with themed templates.
Stickers. Huge library of cute stickers for adding to photos.
Social Sharing. Direct integration with major platforms.
What distinguishes B612 is the consistent aesthetic identity — cute, youthful, playful, kawaii-inflected. Competitors may have similar features but usually a different vibe.
The aesthetic identity
B612's aesthetic is arguably its most important feature. The app feels consistently:
Cute. Stickers, filters, and design elements lean cute and playful.
Youth-oriented. Target audience is teens and young adults, though older users use it too.
Pop-culture-aware. Filters align with trending Asian pop culture — K-pop, J-pop, anime, kawaii aesthetics.
Whimsical. Compared to mature photo apps (Lightroom, VSCO), B612 feels like a different universe — more fun, less serious.
Feminine-coded. Though used by all genders, marketing and default aesthetic lean toward feminine presentation.
For users who identify with this aesthetic, B612 is irreplaceable. No other app quite captures this specific identity. For users who don't, B612 can feel either charming or out of step depending on taste.
AI features
Behind the cute surface, B612 uses solid AI technology:
Beauty AI. Automatic skin smoothing, blemish removal, face shape refinement. Natural-looking results rather than obvious over-filtering (though intensity can be dialed up).
Makeup AI. Apply realistic virtual makeup that tracks face movement. Works for photos and video.
Face Tracking. Real-time face tracking for AR filters that follow facial movement.
Style Transfer. Apply artistic styles to photos (oil painting, sketch, anime, etc.).
AI Portraits. Generate stylized portraits from reference photos.
AI Effects. Various generative transformations.
Quality is competitive with SNOW, Meitu, and other leaders in this category. The AI specifically for makeup application is particularly strong in B612 — this is an area where the app has focused heavily.
Pricing
B612's pricing in 2026:
Free. Most filters and features. Ads included. Basic AI tools. HD export.
VIP at $3.99/month. No ads, all premium filters, exclusive effects, HD+ export.
At under $4/month, VIP is one of the cheapest photo app subscriptions available. For any regular user, it's easy to justify. The free tier is generous enough that many users never upgrade.
How B612 compares
Against SNOW: Both from the same parent. B612 skews younger and more aesthetic-focused; SNOW is more general-purpose. Features overlap significantly. Some users prefer one, some the other, many use both.
Against Snapchat: Snapchat has broader social features and Western user base. B612 has stronger beauty/makeup filters and Asian aesthetic. Different markets and use cases in practice.
Against BeautyCam: Chinese equivalent. Similar target market (Asian users wanting beauty filters) but different specific cultural flavor. Meitu and BeautyCam for Chinese context; B612 and SNOW for Korean/Japanese context.
Against Meitu: Meitu is more adult-oriented and broader in features. B612 is narrower (selfie/face focus) and younger-feeling. Different target users.
Against Instagram: Instagram camera has improved AR filters and built-in editing. More integrated with social; less specialized. For users who mainly share on Instagram, Instagram's camera may suffice. For cute filter aesthetics, B612 still wins.
Privacy considerations
Like SNOW, B612 is owned by Naver's subsidiary and processes images on servers for AI features. Korean/Japanese data handling standards apply.
For teens (a big user demographic), parental awareness is reasonable but the privacy profile isn't more concerning than other similar apps. For privacy-sensitive users, cloud processing of face data is always a consideration.
Who should use B612
Teens and young adults who love cute and playful aesthetics.
K-pop, J-pop, anime fans enjoying culturally aligned filters.
Users wanting strong makeup filters — B612 excels here.
Casual selfie users in Asian markets where B612 is standard.
Content creators for TikTok and Asian social platforms.
Users who enjoy kawaii aesthetic generally — this is a differentiator.
Who should skip B612
Users wanting mature, professional aesthetics — B612's identity won't fit.
Primary Snapchat/Instagram users — less reason to add B612.
Users preferring unfiltered selfies — app defaults push beautification.
Users already using SNOW happily — significant overlap.
Privacy-sensitive users — cloud face processing considerations.
The verdict
B612 is the best selfie app for users who love cute, playful, youth-oriented aesthetics in 2026. The combination of strong AI beauty/makeup features with a distinctive kawaii identity gives it a clear place in the selfie app landscape.
At $3.99/month for VIP or a generous free tier, B612 is affordable and accessible. The free tier alone is sufficient for most casual users. VIP removes ads and adds exclusive filters for users who want the full experience.
For users outside the target aesthetic — those preferring mature, professional, or minimalist looks — B612 will feel off. For users within that aesthetic, no alternative quite replicates the specific B612 identity. SNOW is closest as the sister app but positions itself more broadly; Snapchat has a different cultural flavor; Meitu leans older.
In the AI selfie app landscape, B612 has found and kept a distinctive niche. That's harder than it sounds — most apps either broaden to chase wider audiences and lose identity, or stay narrow and fade. B612 has stayed recognizably itself for over a decade while continuing to add modern AI features. For its target users, that consistency is valuable and deserves ongoing consideration in 2026.
