One app for iPhone and iPad. WonkyCam is a camera for funny faces and real photo strips: live effects you can see before you shoot, four-shot strips, GIFs, boomerangs and video, printed or shared on the spot.
If something here does not answer your question, write to us — the address is at the bottom, and a real person reads it.
The question everyone asks: mirroring
Why does my saved photo look flipped compared to the preview?
Because it is, on purpose, and you can change it.
The preview is always mirrored, like every phone camera and like a real mirror, so that when you tilt your head left the image tilts left and you can actually pose. What gets saved is a separate choice:
Settings ▸ Capture ▸ Mirror Front Camera
- Off (the default) — captures are flipped back to the way the room saw you. Writing on a T-shirt or a sign reads the right way round.
- On — captures match the preview exactly.
The rear camera is never mirrored either way.
Getting started
Where do my photos go? To your Photos library, in an album named in Settings ▸ Photos ▸ Album, and to the app's own Gallery tab. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
How do I take a strip? Choose Strip on the mode selector. The app takes four photos with a countdown between them, then opens the strip builder, where you can change the layout, the styling and which photos are used.
Can I build a strip from photos I already have? Yes — in the Gallery, select up to four photos and choose Build strip, or import from your library in the strip builder.
How long can a video be? Up to five minutes. Recording also stops early if storage runs low or the device gets too warm, and the clip is kept either way rather than discarded.
What is Boomerang? A short clip that plays forward and then backward. Settings ▸ Capture ▸ Boomerang style switches between that and a plain forward loop.
Effects
How do I find an effect? Tap the effects button to open the rail, then search by name or browse by category. Tap the star to keep a favourite at the front.
Can I adjust how strong an effect is? Yes, where an effect has a strength. The control appears under the rail only for effects that have one, so there is never a row that does nothing.
Do effects change the saved photo, or only the preview? Both. What you see is what gets saved — the effect runs on the live preview and on the capture through the same pipeline.
Does WonkyCam scan or recognize my face? No. Warps and other looks change the picture itself without locating a face. Backdrop looks use Apple's on-device person segmentation to separate people from the background; that outline exists only in memory while a frame is drawn and is never saved or sent. The privacy policy explains this in full.
Permissions
The app is asking for the camera / microphone / Photos. - Camera — required. Without it there are no photos. - Microphone — only for video sound. Say no and video still records, in silence, and the app tells you it is doing so. There is no setting for this inside the app: video always records sound when the microphone is allowed, because a silent clip is almost always a mistake rather than a choice. If you want video without sound, decline the microphone in the system Settings app. - Photos — needed to save captures to an album and to show your saved captures in the Gallery. Decline and captures stay inside the app.
I said no and changed my mind. Open the system Settings app, find WonkyCam, and switch the permission on. The app picks it up when you come back.
My Gallery is empty and I know I took photos. Usually this is Limited Photos access: the app can only see the photos you picked. The Gallery says so when that is the case. Grant full access in the system Settings app, or tap the prompt in the Gallery to select more.
Printing and sharing
Printing uses AirPrint. Any AirPrint printer on the same Wi-Fi network will appear; there is nothing to install. Strips print at the aspect ratio of the layout you chose.
Sharing uses the system share sheet, so anywhere you can send a photo from Photos, you can send one from here — Messages, Mail, AirDrop, or another app.
Price
What does WonkyCam cost? Nothing. This version is free, with every effect, layout and capture mode included. There are no in-app purchases, no subscription and no account, so there is nothing to buy or restore.
Privacy
Your photos never leave your device unless you send them. The app has no account and no server.
The app does send usage and diagnostic data, which you can switch off in Settings ▸ Privacy ▸ Share diagnostics. The full detail — exactly what is collected, what is never collected, and why — is in the privacy policy.
Accessibility
The app supports VoiceOver, Dynamic Type at every size including the accessibility sizes, Reduce Motion, and Increase Contrast. If you find a control that is unreachable, unlabelled or clipped at a large text size, please tell us — that is a defect and we will fix it.
Something is wrong
Before writing, it helps to know:
- your device and its OS version (Settings ▸ General ▸ About),
- the app version (Settings ▸ About in WonkyCam),
- what you did, what happened, and what you expected instead.
If the app crashed and you share analytics with app developers in your device's Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Analytics & Improvements, Apple sends us a crash report — with no photos and nothing identifying you.
Contact
We aim to reply within two business days.