Prisma adds new offline mode to iOS, coming to Android soon

With the burst of popularity Prisma received at launch, many users reported one nagging issue that kept them from fully enjoying the app; apply filters would just take ages to render! Thankfully, that’s now been fixed.

Prisma has announced a new offline mode for its app, so users can turn their photos into stylized paintings without delay. Available in a new update for iOS, the offline mode offloads some of the neural network processing to the user’s smartphone instead of the server, 16 of the filters to be exact, thereby cutting any possible delay due to server overload. Unfortunately, Android users will have to wait for the new update to hit, maybe in the next two weeks, according to TechCrunch.

Garnering more than 55 million users over the course of a couple of months, Prisma was a clear break out hit. Unfortunately, this also meant the app had a large number of active users at any given time. Prisma uses neural network processing to recognize objects in images, that was carried out on the company’s own servers. The more users simultaneously trying to apply filters, the longer a delay you could encounter. As such, the new mode, now puts the onus of image processing on the phone itself, instead of the server. However, remember that smartphone processing will be faster on higher-end devices that are better capable of handling the load. For some, it might be better to stick with the server.

In addition, Prisma CEO and co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov says the company is also working on a new feature for the app, a tool to apply art filters to video as well. Barring any delays, the feature will launch later this month.