“Since Indigo is an experimental app, and this is an experiment inside Indigo, we’re offering the AI Playground for free, with no sign-on required. However, this level of free access will be available only to a few percent of our users, and only for a few weeks. Our goal is to learn how people use GenAI-powered editing. Depending on its success we may extend the experiment, or expand the user pool, or run follow-on experiments. If the feature proves popular, we will eventually offer a paid version.”
Users selected for the test will receive an invitation to join the experiment. Participation is optional, and Adobe said it collects only button presses made within AI Playground. According to the company, it does not access prompts or images, upload them to its servers or use them to train AI models.
“This means Adobe ‘won’t look at your prompts, or images, or upload them to servers, or use them to train AI models.’ The company adds that ‘since there’s no sign-on, the analytics we gather are anonymous.’”
AI Playground is organized into four editing categories. Object Editing allows users to remove unwanted objects or distractions and blur backgrounds to create a shallow depth-of-field effect. The tool also lets users define additional categories of objects to remove using typed or dictated prompts.
The Styles section applies generative artistic transformations to photos using preset techniques. Adobe said the available options were selected because they produced the strongest results on everyday images.
Photo Guidance analyzes images and provides recommendations intended to help users improve their photography. The feature can suggest both editing adjustments and opportunities to reshoot a scene.
Custom Edit expands the experience by allowing users to enter free-form text prompts for more personalized edits beyond the preset options. The feature also supports combining prompt-based edits with the styles available elsewhere in AI Playground.
Adobe said the current implementation relies on Google's Nano Banana image model rather than its own Firefly models. Because Nano Banana produces only standard dynamic range images, Adobe developed a custom machine learning model that converts the generated output back to high dynamic range. The company noted that the process is not perfect and depends on the quality of Nano Banana's output.
The AI Playground is limited to photos captured directly with Project Indigo. Images imported from other sources are not supported, and the AI editing button will remain unavailable for those files.
Project Indigo was introduced as an experimental camera app focused on manual controls and a more natural approach to computational photography. Adobe later expanded support to select iPads and the iPhone 17e while adding features such as grid view, photo filtering and image quality improvements. The latest update extends the app beyond image capture by introducing AI-powered editing tools as another area of experimentation.
This analysis is based on reporting from 9to5mac.
Images courtesy of Adobe.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
