Apple just snagged one of the iPhone photography community's most influential voices. Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of Lux and the creative force behind acclaimed camera apps Halide and Kino, announced he's joining Apple's design team. "So excited to work with the very best team in the world on my favorite products," de With posted on Bluesky Tuesday evening. The move marks a significant talent acquisition for Apple, but leaves the fate of Lux's indie apps hanging in the balance.
Apple is bringing one of its most thoughtful external critics in-house. Sebastiaan de With, the designer and entrepreneur behind some of the iPhone's most beloved third-party camera apps, announced Tuesday he's joining Apple's design team. The move reunites de With with the company where he previously worked on iCloud and Find My, but this time with significantly more industry clout.
"Some big personal news: I've joined the Design Team at Apple. So excited to work with the very best team in the world on my favorite products," de With wrote on Bluesky on January 28. The announcement landed with particular weight in photography and developer circles, where de With has built a reputation as both an astute analyst of Apple's camera technology and a creator of apps that push iPhone photography beyond Apple's own defaults.
De With co-founded Lux and built a portfolio of apps that became darlings of the iOS photography community. Halide, the company's flagship camera app, offers manual controls and features like Process Zero mode - a recently launched option that captures images with minimal computational processing, giving photographers a more "pure" starting point. The app has consistently been featured in Apple's own App Store editorial picks, making de With's hire feel like Apple recognizing what works in its own ecosystem.
