Pokemon Go aside, Prisma is the hot app of the summer. It turns ordinary smartphone photos into stunning works of art that mimic famous painters like Picasso and Mondrian. Users of Apple's iPhone were treated to this marvel of digital image processing first, but now Android users can get in on the fun, too—with a major caveat: The servers that do the magic seem to be always overloaded since the launch of the Android app, making it less appealing for users on all platforms.

I hope Prisma Labs addresses the server overload issue to restore a faster functioning service. Another caveat for Android users is that there are lots of fake imitation Prisma apps on the Play Store, so make sure you install the real deal. These issues aside, Prisma remains a modern marvel of an app, turning prosaic mobile photos into impressive artistic images.

Getting and Starting With Prisma

Because of the profusion of phony Prisma apps, your best bet is to go to the developer's website at www.prisma-ai.com and hit the store link from there. You'll see its simple black triangle logo and the provider will be listed as Prisma Labs, Inc. Since the app does the lion's share of its work on cloud servers, the app is a negligible 7MB download, so don't worry about filling up your phone's storage. The app runs on Android 4.1 and up, and it requires access to your account and contacts, and, of course, permission to use your camera and photos.

The app is free for now, but some astute observers noticed an Activate a Promo Code option on the Settings page. That's gone from both app versions now, but now there are brand promotions in some of the filters. For example, on my test Samsung Galaxy S6, the GettUrban filter showed the Gett cab-hailing app, and the Impression filter showed a Palmolive ad.

Using Prisma

The photo-shooting interface in Prisma is dead-simple: You see a square camera viewer with a shutter circle on the bottom and just two options, flash and switching between front and back cameras. After you snap the shutter, a row of filter options appears along the bottom of the screen. The app also lets you apply art filters to any image in your photo storage, making the camera interface irrelevant.

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Since the release of the Android version, the app offers fewer filters than when it launched on the iPhone, 29 versus 34. But that's still a good selection, with filters that turn your picture into latter-day works by Roy Lichtenstein, Mondrian, and other greats. Munch and Van Gogh have disappeared since my last session with the app. I wish the app offered a before-and-after view so that you could compare your original with the result, and only square output is produced. The app also lacks any photo-correction tools, even for basics like brightness and contrast.

Applying a filter took me from 15 seconds to over a minute, and the occasional "Prisma is over capacity" message made an appearance. This is not the kind of response I expect from smartphone apps these days, but I guess it's a mark of just how popular the app is. When I reviewed the iPhone version of Prisma, performance was much better, which is why it has a higher rating.

Once processing finishes, the results are just as impressive as ever. By default, you'll see a Prisma logo at the bottom of your pictures, but you can turn these off in Settings by disabling the Add Watermark option.

You can also choose whether you want original and processed photos saved to your phone's photos storage. I suggest saving both types.

Sharing and Output

One strange difference in the Android version of Prisma is that the only specific sharing button is to Facebook; the iPhone version also sports an Instagram button, which would seem to make a lot of sense, since the resulting images are square. Of course, you can hit the generic share button to send your work to any photo-accepting app you've installed. Note that, in addition to being square, the processed images reduce the original photo resolution to 1,000 pixels on a side.

Start Making Art

Prisma can provide a lot of enjoyment as it transforms ordinary photos into artistic creations. It won't replace full-featured photo editing apps, such as our Editors' Choices, PicsArt and Instagram. And since its launch on Android, Prisma has become less appealing, just because it now takes so long to apply filters. I hope that's resolved soon. But aside from such delays, it's still an impressive app. For more, check out 6 Things You Need to Know About the Sensational Prisma Photo App.