Apple Hires Halide Co-Founder in Design Team Shake-Up
Apple has brought Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of acclaimed iPhone camera app Halide, onto its design team—marking a strategic move to revitalize its visual software experience. De With confirmed the hire Wednesday, calling it a return to "my favorite products" after previous work on iCloud and Find My. The timing is notable: Apple's design division faces scrutiny following lukewarm reception to iOS 26's Liquid Glass aesthetic and the recent departure of longtime design chief Alan Dye to Meta. For photographers and iPhone users, this signals Apple's intent to reclaim leadership in mobile computational photography.
Credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images
Why Halide's Creator Matters to Apple's Future
Sebastiaan de With isn't just another designer. Since co-founding Lux with Ben Sandofsky in 2016, he helped build Halide into the gold standard for serious mobile photographers. The app transformed how enthusiasts capture images on iPhone—introducing manual controls, depth mapping previews, and film simulation tools years before Apple integrated similar features. De With's philosophy centers on making powerful tools feel intuitive, not overwhelming. That balance—technical depth wrapped in elegant simplicity—is precisely what Apple's native Camera app has struggled to maintain as smartphones grow more complex.
His return to Apple (he previously contributed to iCloud Photos and Find My between 2011–2016) represents more than nostalgia. It's a targeted acquisition of expertise in an area where Apple faces growing pressure. Competitors like Google and Samsung now lead in AI-powered computational photography, while third-party apps consistently out-innovate Apple's built-in tools. Bringing de With in-house suggests Apple recognizes it must deepen its software craftsmanship—not just rely on hardware advantages.
A Design Division at a Crossroads
De With joins during Apple's most turbulent design period in a decade. December saw Alan Dye, Apple's vice president of Human Interface Design since 2012, depart for Meta after overseeing iconic interfaces from iOS 7's flat redesign through Vision Pro's spatial computing language. His exit left a vacuum just as criticism mounted around iOS 26's "Liquid Glass" aesthetic—a frosted, translucent design language users called visually noisy and inconsistent across apps.
Simultaneously, hardware leadership shifted dramatically. John Ternus, Apple's longtime head of hardware engineering and heir apparent to Tim Cook, recently assumed broader oversight of industrial design after Jony Ive's protégé Evans Hankey departed. These overlapping transitions created uncertainty about Apple's creative direction. Hiring de With—a practitioner celebrated for pixel-perfect execution and user empathy—signals Apple intends to stabilize its software design culture with hands-on talent rather than pure management reshuffles.
What Halide's DNA Could Transform at Apple
Halide succeeded by solving real photographer frustrations Apple overlooked. Early versions introduced focus peaking and exposure histograms—tools professionals demanded but Apple deemed "too technical" for mainstream users. Later updates pioneered "depth capture" visualization, letting users see exactly how Portrait Mode would render background blur before shooting. Most recently, Halide Mark III's "Looks" feature reverse-engineers film stocks like Kodak Portra and Fujifilm Superia using computational color science rather than simple filters.
This methodology—grounding creative tools in authentic photographic principles—could reshape Apple's approach. The native Camera app remains frustratingly limited for enthusiasts: no RAW histogram, inconsistent ProRAW behavior, and minimal control over computational stacking. Meanwhile, Google's Pixel and Samsung's Galaxy devices now offer granular Night Sight and Expert RAW modes that feel more responsive. De With's influence might finally bridge that gap, embedding Halide's thoughtful interaction patterns directly into iOS.
Halide's Future Remains Independent—and Ambitious
Reassuringly for Halide's devoted user base, co-founder Ben Sandofsky confirmed development continues unchanged under Lux. In fact, the team just released Halide Mark III's public preview hours after de With's announcement, doubling down on "Looks" as a flagship feature. This independence matters: third-party apps thrive precisely because they experiment freely outside Apple's cautious ecosystem constraints. Sandofsky's continued leadership ensures Halide won't vanish into Apple's walled garden.
Still, subtle cross-pollination seems inevitable. De With retains deep knowledge of Halide's architecture and user psychology. He understands why photographers toggle between auto and manual modes, how gesture controls reduce cognitive load, and why film emulation requires spectral accuracy—not just hue shifts. That institutional knowledge could quietly elevate Apple's first-party apps without requiring Halide's acquisition. Think of it as open-source philosophy applied to talent: one creator's expertise benefiting millions through platform-level improvements.
Talent Wars Heat Up in Computational Imaging
This hire reflects a broader industry shift. As smartphone hardware plateaus, the battleground moves to software intelligence—and the designers who shape it. Meta poached Apple's design chief. Google continues recruiting computational photography PhDs from Stanford and MIT. Even startups like Lux attract talent disillusioned with big tech's risk-averse cultures.
Apple's countermove—bringing a respected indie creator back into the fold—shows awareness that innovation now flows bottom-up. De With didn't just manage teams; he coded interactions, debated icon weights, and tested gestures with real photographers. That maker mentality is increasingly rare in executive-heavy tech environments. His presence may reinvigorate Apple's design studios with hands-on craftsmanship at a time when AI-generated interfaces threaten to homogenize digital experiences.
What iPhone Photographers Should Watch For
Don't expect overnight changes. iOS development cycles mean de With's influence likely won't surface until iOS 28 or later. But watch for subtle shifts: more intuitive manual controls in the Camera app, smarter organization in Photos based on visual semantics rather than dates, or refined depth rendering in Portrait Mode that feels less "processed." Most importantly, anticipate a renewed focus on photographic intent—designing tools that understand why you're shooting, not just what you're shooting.
The ultimate test arrives with the iPhone 17 series. If de With's imprint appears in next-generation computational photography—perhaps a reimagined Photographic Styles system or on-device film simulation rivaling Halide's "Looks"—it will validate Apple's bet on creator-led design. For now, his hire represents hope: that Apple still believes great interfaces emerge from deep user empathy, not just algorithmic optimization.
A Return to Thoughtful Craftsmanship
In an era of AI-generated everything, Sebastiaan de With's return to Apple feels quietly revolutionary. He represents a design philosophy rooted in human nuance—where a slider's resistance, a button's placement, and a color's emotional resonance matter as much as technical specs. His Halide work proved millions crave tools that respect their intelligence without demanding engineering degrees.
Apple's recent stumbles stemmed partly from over-engineering simplicity—removing controls users actually needed while adding gimmicks they didn't. De With's challenge is to restore balance: making powerful photography accessible without dumbing it down. If he succeeds, the next iPhone might not just capture better images—it could help us see the world more beautifully. And that's a design victory no spec sheet can quantify.
