Several are trying to quantify beauty and /or ugly as a novelty. These apps work by essentially comparing a person’s face to a mask of a desired face. It appears that the desired face is a golden ratio mask (developed by Stephen Marquardt). However, although the mask might be helpful in some cases, there are clearly many faces which do not conform to this aesthetic that are considered beautiful.
So do these apps really work? Another question might be is beauty quantifiable? Can you type in a person’s facial distances into a computer and determine how attractive they are.?
In a word, no.
Despite the efforts of some, symmetry, proportion and other facial features are not quantifiable. If you take an attractive face like a young Elizabeth Taylor and try and make her more perfect by making her face symmetric, you notice that her face does not look as attractive and looks like an alien, at least to the human eye. On a computer though, she looks more beautiful.
Ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many of us find beauty in others with traits of ours we admire or want to promote. So don’t worry, your ego shouldn’t be bruised over a phone app.