Adobe's Indigo camera app adds generative AI editing tools

Indigo launched last year as a computational-photography camera app aimed at mobile photographers who wanted manual controls — focus, shutter speed, ISO, white balance — and the algorithmic enhancements of a dedicated camera tool rather than a standard iPhone camera. The initial positioning was narrow: a camera app built by and for camera enthusiasts. With the 1.1 update, Adobe is broadening that scope dramatically by embedding generative AI editing directly into the workflow, moving Indigo from capture-focused to capture-and-edit-integrated. This shift aligns with Levoy's statement at the app's launch that Indigo represented "the beginning of a journey" toward leveraging both computational photography and AI.

The choice to use Google's Nano Banana model rather than Adobe's own Firefly is noteworthy and suggests Adobe is prioritizing the right tool for the task over brand consolidation. Nano Banana is positioned as a lightweight model suited to on-device or fast inference, which fits a mobile editing workflow. Adobe's approach to AI transparency here is notably lighter than its usual posture — the company is still working toward adding C2PA Content Credentials to AI-edited images, whereas Firefly already carries those standards widely. This gap may reflect the experimental nature of the Indigo rollout or the constraints of using a third-party model.