Mixup is a new, Mad Libs-style app for creating AI images from photos, text and doodles

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The ex-Googler squad down the 3D plan app Rooms from Things, Inc. is retired with its latest project: a playful AI photograph exertion called Mixup. The iOS-only app lets anyone make caller AI-generated photos utilizing “recipes,” which are similar Mad Lib-style, fill-in-the-blank prompts for your photos, texts, oregon sketches.

For instance, you could inquire Mixup to crook your scribbled sketch into a beauteous Renaissance painting, oregon to reimagine your favored successful a comic Halloween costume. You could usage your ain selfie to spot what you’d look similar with a antithetic hairstyle, oregon make thing adjacent sillier — similar envisioning a person transformed into the signifier of Italian brainrot.

The app is built connected apical of Google’s Nano Banana, but the “recipe” format opens up a caller mode to interact with the exemplary — turning a generative instrumentality into an online enactment game.

“The happening that [Nano Banana] did that nary exemplary did earlier was that it could instrumentality your representation and support it successful a convincing mode that wasn’t creepy,” said Things, Inc. laminitis and CEO Jason Toff, whose inheritance includes moving connected experimental apps wrong large tech companies similar Google and Meta, arsenic good arsenic clip spent managing merchandise astatine Twitter.

But what makes Mixup peculiarly amusive to usage is that the app’s “recipes” — the user-generated AI prompts — are shareable.

“Generative AI is truthful powerful, and yet astir of the clip you spell to these tools and it’s like, here’s your substance container — travel up with thing creative. And what bash you write?” Toff said, speaking to the shortcomings his squad saw with the existent AI landscape.

“And so, alternatively than having to beryllium originative and deliberation astir what to create, you spot thing that worked, and you tin conscionable capable successful the blanks,” helium said.

After users make a caller punctual successful Mixup, they tin take to people it on with the resulting photograph to a nationalist provender oregon conscionable download it for idiosyncratic use. From the feed, different users tin presumption the photograph and pat the fastener adjacent to it to “Try recipe.” This allows anyone connected the app to reuse the look to make an representation utilizing their ain photo, text, oregon doodles. (The second tin beryllium made via a simple, in-app drafting feature.)

Seeing a photograph alongside the look that created it tin besides assistance to code the unpredictable quality of generative AI images, the squad believes.

“Another occupation [with generative AI] is what we were referring to internally arsenic a ‘slot machine’ problem, wherever you propulsion the button, thing comes out, you propulsion it again, thing antithetic comes out, and you don’t consciousness similar you person power implicit the output,” Toff explained.

In Mixup, however, users tin spot some the photograph and the punctual that created it successful 1 place, giving them an thought of what their output would look like. They tin besides toggle a fastener to spot some the earlier and aft image, if the creator opts to permission this mounting on.

Plus, akin to OpenAI’s AI video app Sora, users tin upload their ain photos to Mixup to usage successful their AI images. If you take to bash so, past immoderate idiosyncratic you travel successful the app tin besides make AI images with your likeness — a diagnostic it calls “mixables.”

The institution imagines that groups of friends would travel each different to instrumentality vantage of the feature, but a creator people could besides perchance look connected the level — if they don’t caput seeing themselves mashed up successful bizarre ways. (Of course, if you don’t privation your representation retired there, either don’t upload it oregon don’t travel anyone.)

The app besides uses OpenAI exertion to grip immoderate of the expected moderation concerns astir AI imagery, but Toff admits that Mixup besides leans heavy connected Google’s built-in controls wrong its representation exemplary to restrict things similar intersexual contented oregon violence.

At launch, Mixup is optimized for iOS 26, but is supported connected iOS 18 and up. If it takes off, a web mentation oregon Android app whitethorn beryllium added later.

Free users person 100 credits, which equates to $4. Meanwhile, images outgo astir 4 cents to produce. When the credits tally out, users tin subscribe to antithetic tiers offering 100, 250, oregon 500 credits per month.

The app launches astatine midnight connected November 20 on the App Store globally, but volition necessitate an invitation to get in. Mixup is available for pre-order up of its launch.