Phota Labs Turns Everyday Photos Into Pro-Looking Shots

Phota Labs, a new iOS app, uses artificial intelligence to rebuild a photo's composition rather than simply applying filters or touch-ups, according to TechCrunch. The app can turn a wide-angle group shot into a tighter portrait or convert a selfie into what looks like a photo taken by someone else, while trying to preserve how people actually appear.

What does the Phota Labs app actually do?

The app functions as what its founders describe as a personal AI photo assistant. "Phota is your personal photo assistant that can make great photos for any moment you want to keep before you even ask, which means that it's a very proactive experience," co-founder Cecilia Zhang told TechCrunch. Users can pick photography styles ranging from subtle edits that keep the original lens and composition intact to more dramatic transformations that add effects such as fisheye lenses or alternate angles and perspectives.

How is this different from using Photoshop or ChatGPT to edit a photo?

Zhang and co-founder Zach Xia built Phota Labs on the premise that conventional editing tools can enhance a photo but cannot fix one that was poorly captured in the first place. Generative tools such as ChatGPT, the company argues, can alter a person's appearance when working from blurry source images because they have no reference for what that person actually looks like. "For Phota, we built our own tech," Zhang said. "We built this personalization technology that actually learns about people's identity and is able to preserve them in any transformation we do to a photo."

Who built Phota Labs and who is funding it?

The startup is backed by venture firm a16z, according to TechCrunch. Zhang and Xia met while working at Adobe on computational photography products, including Project Indigo, Lightroom and Photoshop, before starting the company.

How does Phota Labs handle authenticity in AI-altered photos?

Images edited through the app carry invisible watermarks identifying them as AI-altered when shared on social platforms, per TechCrunch's reporting. Xia framed the approach as a deliberate counterpoint to overly polished AI output. "We have this obsession with authenticity," Xia said. "I think there's so much value in connecting AI with real moments and making sure those photos are not perfect, in a sense."

Who is Phota Labs aimed at?

The company is initially targeting people who take large volumes of photos and share them on social media but want to skip manual editing, TechCrunch reported. The founders said they eventually see a wider audience, including retirees making photos for grandchildren and parents assembling family albums to send to relatives.

The app's core bet is narrow but specific: that most people's photo problems start at the moment of capture, not in the editing afterward, and that AI trained to recognize a specific person's identity can rebuild a shot without changing who is actually in it.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.