Beware phony Sora apps on the Apple App Store

Demand remains high for Sora, OpenAI’s new invite-only AI video app for iOS users. So high, in fact, that scammers are rushing to fill demand.

As TechCrunch reported, phony Sora apps somehow slipped past Apple’s App Store review process. TechCrunch reported that at least a dozen copycat apps were on the App Store after Sora’s launch, though most of these listings have since been removed. As of this writing, we didn’t find any copycat apps using the name Sora, though there are other AI video apps claiming to grant access to the underlying Sora 2 generative AI video model.

However, over at the Google Play app store, some phony Sora listings are still live. We’re not talking about unrelated, previously existing apps that use the name Sora in some way, but listings with names like “Sora 2 Video Maker.”

For now, the Sora app is only available on iOS for users in the United States and Canada, “with the intent to quickly expand to additional countries,” per OpenAI. The app is free to download even without an invite code, but you won’t be able to do anything without an invite.

If you are downloading Sora, it’s easy to find, as it’s still the No. 1 app in the App Store. Before downloading, make sure it’s provided “by OpenAI.”

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

Credit: Screenshot: OpenAI

Sora is an AI video generator with a built-in social feed, and eager OpenAI fans are still scrambling for invites. The app is currently in the midst of a copyright drama. In the days after the app launch, the Sora feed was dominated by videos of copyright-protected characters like SpongeBob Squarepants, various Pokémon, and Rick and Morty.

We’ve been testing the app here at Mashable to see how it compares to other AI video models like Google Veo 3 and LumaAI’s Ray3, and we’ll have more coverage coming soon.

In the meantime, be wary of any unknown apps you find on the app stores. Don’t assume that just because an app appears in the store that it’s safe to download.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.