P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

Report · May 23, 2025

This post applies to the Project Indigo iOS camera app.

Adobe Labs is excited to share an early look at Project Indigo, an iPhone camera app we've started to develop, to get feedback from the photography community. The app offers full manual controls, a more natural ("SLR-like") look, and high image quality in both JPEG and raw formats. It also introduces some new photographic experiences not available in other camera apps. For more information on the underlying technology, please refer to this Project Indigo blog post.

Before you start with Project Indigo

We recommend using Project Indigo on iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or newer devices.
(Also supported are 12 Pro/Pro Max, 13 Pro/Pro Max, and all 14-series devices.)

You should have at least 1GB of storage space left for the app, the downloadable AI Models inside the app, and for captured photos.

Download the app from the App Store.
Check out the Project Indigo FAQ, which is updated regularly with new explanations.

Recipes for success when using Project Indigo

To get the maximum out of your images captured with the app, follow these guidelines:

When reviewing the results, focus on Project Indigo's more natural look (in both SDR and HDR). If you haven’t done this before, try viewing the images on your laptop or desktop device, preferably on an HDR screen.

Capture with both JPEG and raw DNGs with file saving enabled. Project Indigo produces computational photography DNG files, which have the same natural look as JPEG images, but much more latitude for editing after capture.

Take control of the camera with the built-in Pro Controls, including controls that are exclusive to a computational camera: Frames to Merge and Merge Method. These may be intimidating for beginners, but with Project Indigo, you can try them for free, and nothing will break—you can always reset the settings to ‘Auto’ and let the camera take back control.

Go to the Indigo Labs page and play with the latest innovations our team can offer. These are only available on mobile via Indigo!

Be patient! Project Indigo is doing a lot of heavy lifting under the hood, and it will reward you with great photos. In return, it may ask you for a bit of time to set up captures when needed, and to wait a few seconds for the image processing to finish.

Sending feedback

Please try the app and share feedback in this community forum thread. If you report a problem you encountered, it would help to include details like which device you are running Project Indigo on, what kind of scene you were trying to capture, what you were trying to achieve with the camera, and as much information as possible about what you like or do not like about the resulting photo quality. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues and improve future experiences.

To improve the performance and results of Project Indigo, it is important that examples of images that do not meet your expectations are forwarded to the team via your report. A large variety of file formats are allowed as attachments in these forum posts. The best option is to attach your image's raw file directly to your feedback post. Note that there is a 50 MB limit on an attachment's file size. If your raw file is too large to attach, the best option is to share the file via a file-sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share the link in your feedback post. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback on the Project Indigo camera!

Boris Ajdin: Product Manager, NextCam

Posted by:

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

Report · Sep 19, 2025

A short announcement for the board - iPhone 17-series support is coming soon. The team is just getting the devices, and since we are using our own processing we need to do full camera calibration for all variants which will take a few days. We will release an updated app as soon as this is ready. Thank you to all early adopters for your patience.

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Boris, will the update simply be for 17 series compatibility, or will it be a larger update to include some of the features on the roadmap you've discussed on the forum over past weeks?

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Boris, will the update simply be for 17 series compatibility, or will it be a larger update to include some of the features on the roadmap you've discussed on the forum over past weeks?

By @Moonboots22

We are almost there with shipping an update which includes new features and fixes. iPhone 17 compatibility work will follow soon thereafter.

Report · Sep 20, 2025

Thanks for continuing to improve it!

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Hi,

Been using the app for the past month or so. Have captured some truly great photos. Every person has mentioned how good the photos look and can't believe it's from my phone. I have noticed that having the app open, then turning your phone off, turning your phone back on it doesn't load the app properly and you have to close and re-open. This doesn't happen every time just some times. And sometimes you just need to wait several seconds for it to load.

I just got the new iPhone 17 Pro and was wondering if there is a date for when I can use my phone with the app as it doesn't currently support the iPhone 17 line of phones?

Thanks,

Kian

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Hi,

Been using the app for the past month or so. Have captured some truly great photos. Every person has mentioned how good the photos look and can't believe it's from my phone. I have noticed that having the app open, then turning your phone off, turning your phone back on it doesn't load the app properly and you have to close and re-open. This doesn't happen every time just some times. And sometimes you just need to wait several seconds for it to load.

I just got the new iPhone 17 Pro and was wondering if there is a date for when I can use my phone with the app as it doesn't currently support the iPhone 17 line of phones?

Thanks,

Kian

By @kian35508655xuim

Thank you Kian. We are working on improving the stability of the app such that events like what you describe (the app not launching properly) do not appear anymore. The next update we are about to launch should be already better in that respect. Regarding iPhone 17 support, since we do completely custom processing, we need to calibrate all aspects of the camera, and that takes some time. Since we didn't get any devices in advance to prepare a compatibility release, we now have to wait for regualar deliveries. I am afraid I am not able to give a precise date as we have to see if the new devices have any peculiarities which may require us to modify our calibration procedure, but it should be measured in days, not weeks.

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Hi - loving project indigo... please add support for iPhone 17 models!!

Thank you.

Report · Sep 19, 2025

I'm excited for whenever you make Indigo work on iPhone 17 Pro.

Report · Sep 19, 2025

Samsung has a "digital" ND filter on some of their newer phones! If Indigo could do something like this, it would be amazing. It seems like it might only be possible on the 17 Pro tho https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/CamCyclopedia/Digital-ND-Filter/ba-p/15082402

Report · Sep 21, 2025

Technically the digital "ND" filter is just long exposure. We can already do that with the app, the app however needs some serious overhauling on resource usage and functioning with the newest iPhones.

Report · Sep 21, 2025

a cheap ND filter mounted on your iPhone would just do the trick.

Report · Sep 20, 2025

The app is not working on the newest iPhone (17 Pro)

an update is needed urgently!!

Report · Sep 20, 2025

Hi!

I have a feature request: Batch import of photos from Project Indigo to Lightroom.

Best regards,

Fredrik

Report · Sep 20, 2025

The app is glorious. Completely upgrades the iPhone Pro series, far past version 17. That said, can you tell us when you expect to support the iPhone 17 lineup? On the iPhone 17 Pro I receive a message that it is not yet supported. Urgently requesting an upgrade - no other app for iPhone comes close.

Report · Sep 21, 2025

The app is great, and I like the quality of the images a lot.

Can you explain the numbering (lettering) system Indigo uses for the photos? I believe it needs improvement as it seems quite random, and images don't come in to the folders in an organized way. Even the jpg and dng of the same photo are named differently (i.e. IB6J6273.jpg and XQKW7411.dng are the same image) Also, in my case, the images are in folders with other cameras (from my Sony camera and my native iphone app) and they don't sequence well. Could Indigo images all start with IND_ or another indicator, and then sequence by image order or date? I am reluctant to take on renaming them all myself. Thank you!

Report · Sep 21, 2025

The indigo images are gorgeous. When i edit them in LR Classic i see that I can edit the images as SDR or HDR but i get different results depending how i edt. In other words a well edited HDR image is not the nest looking SDR edit. I don't know which to choose if i'm sharing on mobile, is it shared as HDR? If I'm printing is it SDR? I don't thiink my printer can capture the depth of these images.

good job to the team!

Report · Sep 21, 2025

Is the app not supported on iPhone 17 pro? It's still showing the initial screen which says only certain phones are supported. When can we expect an update that allows 17 pro usage?

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Boris and team -

A few specific feature requests I'm following up on, seeing if you're willing to divulge their place in the upcoming release:

1. Continued performance optimization relative to overheating, battery (16 Pro)

2. A "portait mode" that mimics in app what LR Mobile can do with the AI Portrait Blur feature

3. Super-res on existing lenses (i.e. upscale the 1x from 12mp Bayer RAW to 24, or 36, or 48), and/or additional "virtual" lenses (like the 28mm equivalent 1.25x or 35mm equivalent 1.5x crop offered on Stock cam)

These three changes would probably make me go to Project Indigo for my full time camera app on a 16 Pro. Appreciate the team's work!

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I have been using PI on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. I upgraded to 17 Pro Max and it says not supported. Anyone have it working or will we need an update?

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Project Indigo version 1.0.3 is now live in the App Store. It brings quite a few improvements, both visible as new features, and under the hood as stability and performance improvements. Please try it out and let us know your thoughts.

We also want to acknowledge that many of you have upgraded to iPhone 17-series and Indigo does not work for you yet. This is our highest priority and we are working hard to calibrate and test new devices as quickly as we can. Unfortunately, we did not get any advance prototypes to prepare for the transition, and unlike other 3rd party camera apps, we need more information from the hardware to properly function, which is why this takes a bit more time. We appreciate your patience.

Thank you all for your support!

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Suggestions for Adobe Indigo

AI-enhanced final rendering: sharpen details, refine textures, balance highlights/shadows
Depth maps for post-shot blur, refocusing, and selective edits
Exposure/focus bracketing with smart AI merges (HDR, stacking, macro, astro)
Computational video: HDR, low-light, stabilization, motion super-resolution
AI scene detection with customizable/personalized looks
Adaptive noise reduction that preserves detail where it matters
Panorama/stitching and better macro/telephoto handling
Flash/strobe sync options
Faster, more efficient AI processing with offline/privacy controls
Seamless cross-platform support and metadata export

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Will there be a Project Indigo version for iPhone 17 Pro? I'm spoiled! Not eager to go back to working with RAW files...