Adobe just pushed generative AI into Project Indigo, its experimental iPhone camera app, according to The Verge AI. Here’s the twist: the tools don’t run on Adobe’s own Firefly models. The company is leaning on Google’s Nano Banana AI model “to start,” as The Verge AI reports, though it says it may swap in or add other models over time.
This is a notable shift. Indigo launched last year with a promise of a “more natural (SLR-like) look” for phone photography. Adobe fellow Marc Levoy called it “the beginning of a journey.” That journey now runs straight through generative editing.
What Adobe added
The version 1.1 update introduces a suite called “AI Playground,” split into four sections. Each one, Levoy says, contains “multiple buttons or toggles, which trigger GenAI with prompts we have engineered for them.”
- Styles — Applies preset AI-generated filter effects to photos shot in Indigo. Think illustration looks, altered lighting, and similar transformations that reshape the whole image.
- Object Editing — Removes people, objects, and background distractions, then uses generative AI to fill the gaps. If that sounds familiar, it should: The Verge AI compares it directly to Google’s Magic Eraser.
- Photo Guidance — A feedback tool. AI analyzes your shots and suggests reshoots or edits, more coach than filter.
- Custom Edit — A broader prompting tool. You describe the change you want in detail. Unhappy with a Styles preset? Custom Edit lets you specify what else to tweak.
One detail I like: if you don’t love a result, you press the button again and “typically get something slightly different.” No deep menus. Just reroll.
How it compares
The object removal maps neatly onto Magic Eraser, so Adobe isn’t inventing a category here. What stands out is the strategy. Adobe owns Firefly, its own generative engine, yet it chose Google’s model for this experiment. That’s a pragmatic call, and it signals Adobe is willing to treat models as swappable parts rather than a locked-in stack.
It’s also a sharp turn from Indigo’s original pitch. My colleague’s colleague at The Verge AI once described the app as a “camera app built by camera nerds for camera nerds,” packed with manual controls for focus, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. Bolting on prompt-based image manipulation is a different audience play.
Availability and pricing
Here’s what you need to know if you want in:
- Free, for now. Access to AI Playground carries no sign-on requirement.
- Limited rollout. Adobe is testing it with “a small percentage” of Indigo users over the next few weeks.
- Opt-out built in. A button lets you skip the AI tools and keep using Indigo as before.
- Paid version later. “If the feature proves popular, we will eventually offer a paid version,” Levoy says.
Adobe is framing the whole thing as a learning exercise. “Our goal is to learn how people use GenAI-powered editing,” Levoy said. Depending on results, the company may extend the test, widen the pool, or run follow-ups.
The transparency gap
This is worth flagging. The Verge AI notes the experiment lacks the AI transparency Adobe usually pushes. Levoy says the team is “working toward” adding C2PA Content Credentials, the metadata standard Adobe’s Firefly models already use, to Indigo’s AI-edited images. For now, the main safeguard is that Nano Banana applies Google’s invisible SynthID watermark.
Levoy puts the ethics back on the user: “Whether the edits you apply are ‘fair’ or ‘misleading’ depend on what you do, who you share the images with, and how you present them. In the end, nothing can be implemented that reduces the importance of behaving responsibly.”
That’s an honest line, but it’s also a lighter stance than Adobe typically takes on provenance. For a company that has staked real credibility on Content Credentials, shipping AI edits before the labeling catches up is a gap worth watching.
Why it matters
Adobe is testing whether serious mobile photographers want generative editing baked into the capture experience, and whether they’ll pay for it. Using Google’s model instead of Firefly keeps its options open while it learns. If the experiment lands, expect the paid version and the transparency features to arrive together. You can find the full details in the original report at The Verge AI.