Adobe built an app to make iPhone photos look less like iPhone photos, then added the exact AI tools that make photos look less like photos.
The Summary
- Adobe's Project Indigo, launched to deliver "more natural (SLR-like) look" iPhone photography, now includes a "AI Playground" suite with generative tools that don't use Adobe's own Firefly models
- The update adds features like AI-powered background removal and photo critique, marking a sharp pivot from the app's "natural look" positioning
- Adobe calls this an experiment and includes an opt-out button, testing free no-login access with a small user subset over the next few weeks
The Signal
Adobe launched Project Indigo last year with one clear promise: make your iPhone photos look more like they came from a real camera. The app was pure photography fundamentalism. No Instagram filters, no computational trickery, just the clean aesthetic of SLR glass on a phone sensor. Now it's got generative AI tools baked in.
The new "AI Playground" suite does what every other photo app is racing to do right now. Background removal, AI critique of your compositions, generative editing. The interesting detail: Adobe isn't using its own Firefly models for this. That's either a technical constraint or a strategic test, but either way it signals that Adobe is willing to plug in third-party AI when speed to market matters more than brand consistency.
"Adobe describes the new 'AI Playground' tooling suite as an experiment and says there's a button that allows users to opt out."
The company is hedging. They know the Indigo user base came for authenticity, not automation. So they're building an escape hatch. You can still use the app as it was. But that opt-out button is also an admission: Adobe doesn't know if photographers want AI in their workflow, so they're testing in production with real users who signed up for the opposite experience.
Here's the real tension:
- Indigo was positioned as anti-computational photography
- Now it's adding the most computational photography tools available
- The tools aren't even Adobe's own AI models
- Free access with no login is being tested, suggesting Adobe is prioritizing adoption data over monetization
The rollout is limited to a small percentage of users over the next few weeks, which means Adobe is watching conversion metrics closely. Do Indigo's purist photographers embrace the AI tools, or do they flee to competitors who haven't added the feature creep yet?
This is the same "what is a photo" debate that's been playing out across the industry since generative fill arrived. Adobe is now running that experiment on an app that explicitly promised to stay out of that debate. The contradiction is the point. They're testing whether photographers actually want what they say they want, or if everyone eventually caves to convenience.
The Implication
If you're building photo or creative tools, watch what Adobe learns here. The opt-out button is the tell. Companies are no longer confident they can force AI features on users without backlash, so they're building parallel experiences in the same product. That's expensive and messy, but it's safer than alienating your base.
For photographers, this is a reminder that "experimental" features in apps you rely on are product team bets on where the market is heading. If enough Indigo users adopt AI Playground, the opt-out button gets quieter in the next release. That's how feature creep becomes the new default.