The ex-Googler crew behind the 3D design app Rooms from Issues, Inc. is out with its newest mission: a playful AI picture editor referred to as Mixup. The iOS-only app lets anybody create new AI-generated photographs utilizing “recipes,” that are like Mad Lib-style, fill-in-the-blank prompts in your photographs, texts, or sketches.

As an example, you would ask Mixup to show your scribbled sketch into a wonderful Renaissance portray, or to reimagine your pet in a humorous Halloween costume. You could possibly use a selfie to see what you’d appear to be with a unique coiffure, or create one thing even sillier — like envisioning a pal reworked into the type of Italian brainrot.

The app is constructed on high of Google’s Nano Banana, however the “recipe” format opens up a brand new option to work together with the mannequin — turning a generative instrument into a web based social gathering recreation.

“The factor that [Nano Banana] did that no mannequin did earlier than was that it might take your picture and keep it in a convincing manner that wasn’t creepy,” stated Issues, Inc. founder and CEO Jason Toff, whose background consists of engaged on experimental apps inside Large Tech corporations like Google and Meta, in addition to time spent managing product at Twitter.

However what makes Mixup notably enjoyable to make use of is that the app’s “recipes” — the user-generated AI prompts — are shareable.

“Generative AI is so highly effective, and but more often than not you go to those instruments and it’s like, right here’s your textual content field — give you one thing inventive. And what do you write?” Toff stated, chatting with the shortcomings his crew noticed with the present AI panorama.

“And so, relatively than having to be inventive and take into consideration what to create, you see one thing that labored, and you’ll simply fill within the blanks,” he stated.

After customers create a brand new immediate in Mixup, they’ll select to publish it together with the ensuing picture to a public feed or simply obtain it for private use. From the feed, different customers can view the picture and faucet the button subsequent to it to “Strive recipe.” This enables anybody on the app to reuse the recipe to generate a picture utilizing their very own picture, textual content, or doodles. (The latter could be made through a easy, in-app drawing function.)

Seeing a photograph alongside the recipe that created it will probably additionally assist deal with the unpredictable nature of generative AI photos, the crew believes.

“One other drawback [with generative AI] is what we had been referring to internally as a ‘slot machine’ drawback, the place you push the button, one thing comes out, you push it once more, one thing totally different comes out, and also you don’t really feel like you’ve management over the output,” Toff defined.

In Mixup, nevertheless, customers can see each the picture and the immediate that created it in a single place, giving them an thought of what their output would appear to be. They will additionally toggle a button to see each the earlier than and after picture, if the creator opts to depart this setting on.

Plus, just like OpenAI’s AI video app Sora, customers can add their very own photographs to Mixup to make use of of their AI photos. When you select to take action, then any particular person you observe within the app may create AI photos together with your likeness — a function it calls “mixables.”

The corporate imagines that teams of associates would observe one another to benefit from the function, however a creator class might additionally doubtlessly emerge on the platform — in the event that they don’t thoughts seeing themselves mashed up in weird methods. (In fact, for those who don’t need your picture on the market, both don’t add it or don’t observe anybody.)

The app additionally makes use of OpenAI expertise to deal with among the anticipated moderation issues round AI imagery, however Toff admits that Mixup additionally leans closely on Google’s built-in controls inside its picture mannequin to limit issues like sexual content material or violence.

At launch, Mixup is optimized for iOS 26 however is supported on iOS 18 and up. If it takes off, an online model or Android app could also be added later.

Free customers obtain 100 credit, which equates to $4. In the meantime, photos value almost 4 cents to provide. When the credit run out, customers can subscribe to totally different tiers providing 100, 250, or 500 credit per thirty days.

The app launches at midnight on November 21 on the App Retailer globally, however would require an invitation to get in. TechCrunch readers can use the code TCHCRH (till it runs out) to get in. Mixup is offered for preorder forward of its launch.

This publish was up to date after publication to notice the app launches Nov. 21, not Nov. 20 as beforehand said.