iPhone 18 Pro camera may come with professional software, Apple considered buying Halide

Two months ago, Halide co-founder and designer Sebastiaan de With surprised us advertisement who would join Apple’s design team. It turns out that the move came after Apple initially expressed interest in purchasing Lux Optics, the app development studio behind the pro camera app.

Apple plans to update iPhone 18 Pro camera software

Apple reportedly wants to add more pro camera features to its software like iPhone 18 Pro Camera Hardware It’s going to a higher level this year.

Aaron Tilley reports for La Información that Apple held talks to acquire Lux Optics last summer.

Lux Optics manufactures halidethe popular third-party photography app, as well as Devil to record videos, Spectrum for long exposure shots and Orion to turn an iPad into an external HDMI monitor.

Unfortunately, public knowledge of Apple’s interest in acquiring Lux Optics emerged in a lawsuit filed against De With by co-founder Ben Sandofsky.

However, when it comes to Apple’s acquisition interests, the lawsuit claims that the company was interested in Lux Optics’ intellectual property:

The acquisition of Lux, whose Halide app gives users finer manual control over the iPhone’s camera hardware, could have helped Apple accelerate its efforts to improve its built-in camera app, one of the company’s top priorities right now.

The camera of Apple’s next iPhone 18 Pro models will begin to match
Professional level cameras in terms of certain advanced features. As a result, the company is looking to update the built-in camera app on its smartphone, people familiar with the effort said. The existing iPhone camera app contains mostly basic controls.

The Information says talks between Apple and Lux ​​Optics ended in September when the two co-founders agreed that future updates to Halide could increase the company’s value.

Apple Considered Buying Halide, Lawsuit Claims

A month later, Sandofsky began investigating his co-founder for alleged misuse of company funds before placing him on leave. The lawsuit claims Lux fired De With in December.

It also alleges that de With has “confidential materials related to Lux’s future product development” and the Apple Design Award won by Lux Optics.

Frankly, the situation at Lux Optics seems unfortunate, with clear issues of mistrust. It’s a sad situation for such a beloved app.

Arguably, there is no Halide without De With’s design skills and marketing expertise. It’s also interesting to know that even before being hired to design for Apple (for the second time), Lux Optics was moving forward without De With.

But complicated lawsuit aside, it makes sense that Apple would be interested in improving its own photography tools. There really wouldn’t be Lux Optics without the iPhone’s camera hardware.

As Apple continues to bring more professional features to its cameras, it makes sense for the software to follow suit.

Meanwhile, de With has design skills that span all aspects of the user interface beyond the camera software. Perhaps we will see the first signs of its influence in WWDC 2026 with iOS 27.