Report updated May 20, 2026
My Sketch - Pencil Sketches
For casual mobile users and portrait artists seeking quick, artistic photo transformations for social sharing.
My Sketch - Pencil Sketches is a well-regarded photo & video app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 4.5/5 rating from 451.3K reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate simple and intuitive pencil sketch filters allow users to create professional art in seconds, though lack of tracing features frustrates users who downloaded the app for specific drawing assistance remains a common concern.
What is My Sketch - Pencil Sketches?
My Sketch is a photo-editing utility for iOS and Android that converts images into artistic pencil, sketch, doodle, and comic styles.
Users hire the app to generate quick reference outlines for manual drawing or to create stylized social media content without requiring network connectivity.
Current Momentum
v8.6 · 4mo ago
Maintenance- Ships support for Android 16.
- Updated built-in photo editor.
Active Nemesis
Toonapp: AI Photo & Video Art
By Lyrebird Studio
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
Photo & VideoRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Converts photos into four distinct artistic styles: Pencil, Sketch, Doodle, and Comic.
Performs all photo editing and sketch generation locally without requiring a network connection.
Canvas-based drawing tool with adjustable pencil styles, colors, and erasers.
How much does it cost?
- Free version with ads on Android
- Paid version at $3.99 on iOS
Monetization is split by platform, utilizing a $3.99 upfront purchase on iOS and an ad-supported free model on Android.
Who Built It?
Miinu
Empowering personal expression and mental wellness through high-fidelity creative utilities and community-driven relaxation tools.
Portfolio
4
Apps
What other apps does Miinu make?
Explore the full Miinu report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Miinu.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 76 of 99 total reviews analyzed · Based on 99 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate simple and intuitive pencil sketch filters allow users to create professional art in seconds, but report lack of tracing features frustrates users who downloaded the app for specific drawing assistance.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for My Sketch - Pencil Sketches?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (10)
How's The Photo & Video Market?
How does it evolve in the Photo & Video market?
My Sketch maintains a consistent presence in the Photography category, ranking #62 Paid in the US and #6 Paid in Kenya. The disparity between its top-10 ranking in emerging markets and mid-tier performance in the US signals a strong value proposition for price-sensitive users.
Rank progression
96 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is My Sketch - Pencil Sketches in?
to transform photos into artistic pencil sketches
Explore the full Photography Editors niche
Every app in this space — 164 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
Dominates the cartoon/sketch niche with massive scale and a high-frequency release cadence that keeps the product at the top of search intent.
Differentiators
- Offers advanced AI-driven video-to-cartoon conversion which the target app currently lacks entirely
- Aggressive weekly update cycle ensures consistent feature parity with emerging generative AI trends
- Monetization model leverages high-volume ad-supported access to drive massive user acquisition at scale
Head to head
The target app must pivot toward AI-assisted video generation to remain relevant, as the market has shifted from static pencil filters to dynamic, AI-driven content creation.
Contenders(3)
Strong competitor in the aesthetic filter space, focusing on trendy, high-quality visual transformations.
Differentiators
- Features a highly curated library of trending aesthetic filters that are updated to match social media cycles
- Offers advanced video editing capabilities that allow for multi-layered effects beyond static image processing
Directly competes for the 'artistic transformation' user segment with high-fidelity AI style transfers.
Differentiators
- Pioneered high-fidelity AI avatar generation which creates a strong viral loop absent in the target app
- Focuses on premium, high-quality artistic rendering that positions the app as a pro-sumer creative tool
A high-performance editor that bridges the gap between professional-grade retouching and casual sketch/cartoon effects.
Differentiators
- Includes professional-grade AI retouching tools that go beyond simple sketch filters into full portrait editing
- Provides a robust template ecosystem that allows users to create complex edits with single-tap workflows
Same space(2)
Focuses on the intersection of photo editing and social media formatting.
Differentiators
- Optimized specifically for social media aspect ratios and collage creation workflows
- Provides a streamlined editing experience that prioritizes speed for social media content creators
A legacy powerhouse in the photo editing space with a massive, diverse feature set.
Differentiators
- Integrates a massive suite of beauty and body-shaping tools alongside artistic sketch filters
- Operates as an all-in-one creative platform rather than a single-purpose sketch utility
New entrants(2)
Emerging threat focusing exclusively on the high-growth AI video generation sector.
Differentiators
- Prioritizes text-to-video and image-to-video generation, bypassing the static photo-sketch market entirely
- Leverages a simplified, prompt-based interface that lowers the barrier to entry for complex AI video creation
Rapidly iterating with 30 releases in six months, signaling an aggressive push into the AI-art space.
Differentiators
- Utilizes rapid-fire AI model updates to capture emerging visual trends before established competitors can react
- Focuses on hyper-personalized AI generation that creates unique, non-standard artistic outputs
Compare My Sketch - Pencil Sketches against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for My Sketch - Pencil Sketches
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Offline-first processing reduces server-side compute costs
- Simple UI avoids feature bloat
- Manual-control aesthetic appeals to traditional artists
Critical Frictions
- $3.99 iOS price point exceeds category median
- Lack of tracing features causes user friction
- Aggressive ad-monetization disrupts session flow
Growth Levers
- Develop B2B partnerships for art education
- Integrate wearable companion tools
- Expand into AI-assisted video generation
Market Threats
- Toonapp's weekly update cadence
- EU data-minimization tightening
- Shift in user preference toward generative AI video tools
What are the next best moves?
Ship AI-assisted video generation because the market has shifted from static filters to dynamic content → capture creator-economy retention.
Competitor analysis shows Toonapp dominates via AI video tools which My Sketch lacks.
Trade-off: Pause the manual-filter expansion sprint — AI video has 3x the market growth potential.
Audit ad-monetization frequency because user complaints flag disruption during the creative process → reduce churn risk.
Sentiment analysis identifies aggressive ads as a top complaint theme.
Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.
Develop in-app help documentation because users struggle to navigate the current toolset → reduce negative feedback.
User requests highlight difficulty understanding the available toolset.
Trade-off: Push the Doodle Board update to Q3 — documentation has higher impact on new-user conversion.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's offline-first architecture is a hidden moat for emerging markets with poor connectivity, making it more resilient to churn in those regions than AI-heavy competitors that require constant cloud access.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- AI-driven video-to-cartoon conversion (available in Toonapp but absent here)
- Professional-grade AI portrait retouching (available in EPIK but absent here)
Key Takeaways
My Sketch maintains a loyal base through offline utility, but its reliance on static filters risks obsolescence against AI-native rivals, so the PM must prioritize AI video integration to defend market share.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The photo-editing market is consolidating around generative AI, shifting user demand from static filters to dynamic video transformation. My Sketch remains advantaged in offline-utility segments but faces significant exposure to AI-native rivals, so long-term viability requires a pivot toward AI-assisted video generation.
The lack of AI video generation tools accelerates churn pressure as users migrate to dynamic content creators like Toonapp.
Offline-first processing enables consistent usage in low-connectivity environments, providing a stable retention floor that cloud-dependent rivals cannot match.