Kaleidoscope Photo: Mirror

A photo you already have becomes a kaleidoscope. Four patterns, saved square.

A photo you already have becomes a kaleidoscope.

Nothing new to shoot. A flower from a trip, a meal, a pet, the sea from last summer. Pick one photo you already have and it turns into a mirrored, symmetrical pattern. No account, no upload.

■ Four patterns ・Radial - mirrors set in a fan around the center, the classic kaleidoscope ・Triangle - the field of hexagons you see through a three-mirror tube ・Grid - a square tile folded over and over, sideways and up and down ・Tunnel - the pattern nested inward, as if you were falling into it

All four are built by mirroring, so the picture never breaks where the segments meet. No seams, no visible lines - the way a real kaleidoscope looks.

■ Any part of the photo, edge to edge Drag the preview to change which part of the photo the pattern is made from. Not only the middle: the edges and the corners can sit at the center of the pattern too. The same photo gives you something completely different depending on whether you center a petal or the sky behind it. Pinch to move in, and in the end only color and shape are left.

■ The pattern follows your finger Nothing waits until you let go. Drag, pinch or turn, and the pattern keeps up with you. Stop where you like what you see.

■ Change the number of mirrors Pick from four steps of mirrors, tiles or cells. Fewer gives you a bold pattern where you can still tell what the photo was. More turns it into something as fine as lacework.

■ One tap to start over Move the rotation, the zoom or the framing and the round button beside the slider lights up. Press it and all three go back to where they started.

■ What you see is what gets saved The image in the preview is the image that gets saved, as a 2048x2048 square. Nothing ever comes out different from what was on the screen. The image is saved straight to your photo library.

■ Share without saving The share button hands the picture straight to a chat or a social app without leaving a copy on your device. Save only when you want to keep it.

■ No camera, no microphone The only thing this app uses is the one photo you pick. It never reads through the rest of your gallery.

Good for ・Turning a photo that has been sitting in your gallery into something worth framing ・Square abstract images for a profile picture or a post ・Flowers, leaves, water, floor tiles, fabric - anything as material ・A pattern for a wallpaper or a lock screen ・Something calming to look at for a while

This app works on photos you already have. If you would rather point the camera and watch the world turn into a kaleidoscope live, use the separate app "Kaleidoscope Camera". The frame is a fixed 1:1 square.