Hundreds of AI apps on Google Play and Apple’s App Store passed themselves off as ordinary tools, from pet-photo editors to workout and language apps. Under certain conditions, they switched to a hidden nudify interface for making sexual deepfakes from photos users uploaded. That is the finding of a WIRED investigation published November 2, built on research by the nonprofit AI Forensics.
Apple removed 19 of the apps after WIRED contacted it. Google had already pulled most of them before WIRED got in touch. AI Forensics says it found more than 400 nudifier apps across the two stores and first spotted the operation in early September.
How the nudify apps slipped past store review
The apps relied on a server-side switch. When someone installed one, it contacted a server and sent details such as where the user came from, their language and a unique ID. The server then decided whether to show the harmless app or the explicit one.
One trigger appears to be installing the app after tapping a Meta ad. Paul Bouchaud, lead researcher at AI Forensics, reverse-engineered the method. WIRED describes the network as more than 400 connected domains and apps. Infoblox researcher Maël Le Touz identified almost 500 linked domains.
The apps started appearing toward the end of 2025, with a spike in spring 2026. At one point, about 30 app websites were being registered each week. Bouchaud’s research found 27 of the apps live on Google Play in September, with more than 350,000 downloads combined. Many were rated suitable for all ages.
One of them, DiffAI, was created in December 2025 and passed 100,000 Play Store downloads. It was removed shortly before WIRED contacted Google.
Who appears to be behind it
WIRED’s review of the domains points to Chinese developers and a Hong Kong-registered company, KeLing Technology Limited. KeLing did not respond to WIRED. Meta says it banned KeLing from advertising in 2025.
Meta also says it took action against 11,600 ad accounts and 5,200 users. Its count includes more than 4,700 business pages and 15,000 pages as well. It has blocked 209 apps from advertising.
What Apple and Google said
Apple’s removals included a pet-photo app called Viefur, pulled after WIRED shared the domains. Apple told WIRED it had recently updated its rules. That matches the App Store rule changes on nudify and bait-and-switch apps it made on October 17. Apple also says it suspended tens of thousands of apps for bait-and-switch tactics over the past year.
“We review every app before it’s published, and these apps complied with our rules when we reviewed them,” Apple spokesperson Adam Dema told WIRED.
That statement concedes the apps cleared Apple’s review. The apps also let people pay through Apple and Google Pay, so the money ran through both companies’ own payment systems.
Google did not respond to WIRED. It had removed most of the apps before the outlet reached out. WIRED says similar ads and apps were still being published as it finished its reporting.
What this means for you
A store listing and an age rating did not reveal what these apps could do. Many carried an all-ages rating on Play, so the usual signals a parent might check offered no warning. Apps installed straight from a social media ad deserve extra caution, since a Meta ad click appears to be one of the triggers.
Disguised listings have slipped through before, as the fake WhatsApp listing that passed 500,000 Play downloads showed. AI Forensics notes that the EU’s ban on nudifier apps takes effect in one month.
Sources: WIRED, AI Forensics
