Messaging giant LINE Corp. has added to its ever-growing lists of features and add-ons with the official launch of its new dedicated selfie app that offers users 78 filters.

The new app, called B612, after an asteroid upon which the character resides in the classic French novella, The Little Prince,  is available for free on iOS and Android phones, and adds that something extra special to although global, but particularly the Asian obsession with selfies.

According to e27.com, LINE says that the app is “designed to take the perfect selfie” and although only now officially launching after a beta test, already has 20 million users.

The app offers users the ability to:

• Take selfies with one hand using B612’s front-facing camera as tapping anywhere on the screen closes the shutter
• Once users take a nice shot that they want to keep, just tap they can tap the ‘Save’ button at the bottom right. Photos that are not up to their standards will not be saved
• No sound is made when the shutter closes, allowing users to take photos anywhere without being self-conscious.

The perhaps more interesting part of the release is that while, naturally, users can post their selfies to LINE itself, it also supports uploads to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or any other app your phone supports through its sharing feature.

Is it any good?

Some people argue that the benefits of socalism are that the berevity of choice in such systems makes it easier for the masses; the line is naturally rubbish, but there are an awfully large amount of filter choices, and unlike Instagram (possibly a positive) you pick your filter before you take the picture. The filters also have names, unlike the currently pure stupidity in Instagram where they now just have letters, which to most people mean little at all.

This is how a humble SiliconANGLE Senior Writer looks with the “mysterious” filter complete with post you’re reading in the background looks; it should be added that it didn’t filter depth well despite the Galaxy A7 it was taken on doing a reasonably better job on its native camera, but given Instagram never seems to deal with depth either,  it’s not a bad shot.

The only obvious, possibly, downside, as you can see from the picture above, is that it intentionally leaves a watermark in each photo.

The odd thing about the offering is that LINE has tended to go more into features within their core app, versus seperate apps, so B162 is a surprise. But likewise it’s not an unpleasant surprise and while it will struggle to find an audience in North America, there’s every chance this is going to be a huge hit in LINE’s core markets in Asia. 20 million downloads in beta speaks volumes already for its appeal.

You can download B162 for Android here, or for iOS here.