How to get the face shrinking filter on TikTok

Georgina Smith
TikToker guavajuice uses the skinny filter

TikTok users are going viral by using the ‘face shrinking filter’ also known as the ‘skinny’ filter to gradually morph their face in bizarre ways. Here’s how you can try it out for yourself.

While TikTok has plenty of weird and wonderful filters that people can use to make their videos go viral, often some of the biggest viral trends on the app stem from filters that can be acquired on different platforms.

Effects like the TED Talk filter were originally made available via Instagram, but it didn’t take long for people to import their videos into TikTok, where the filter thrived.

The ‘face shrinking filter’ is one such effect, where people are using an external app to edit their videos before uploading them to TikTok.

People have been applying one effect designed to make their face look smaller to the same photo repeatedly until the end product resembles an alien. Often, this trend is paired with the song Countdown by Beyoncé

How to get the skinny filter on TikTok

While many filters can be easily accessed via FaceApp, the ‘small face’ filter which is required to do this trend is locked under a pro account. This means either signing up for a subscription or entering your details for a free trial, which you should receive a prompt for upon first opening the app.

Here’s how to apply a filter to your video.

  1. Download FaceApp.
  2. Launch the app, and click camera to take a photo, or select gallery to choose an image from your camera roll.
  3. Once the editor is open, pick the filter category you want from the bar at the bottom of the screen. For this trend in particular, go to ‘Sizes’ and select ‘Small Face.’
  4. Tap the filter of your choice, then click apply to add the effect to your video.

If you keep layering the filter on top of itself, eventually you’ll get some pretty weird results.

Even if you choose not to get a pro account, TikTok users are making the most of the free filters on the app as part of other similar viral trends.

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