{"id":228395,"date":"2025-10-20T21:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228395\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:32:14","slug":"too-burned-out-to-travel-this-new-app-fakes-your-summer-vacation-photos-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228395\/","title":{"rendered":"Too burned out to travel? This new app fakes your summer vacation photos for you"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a time when startup<\/a> hustle culture is back<\/a>, when \u201clocked in<\/a>\u201d tech founders have even embraced the \u201c996<\/a>\u201d way of working \u2014 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week \u2014 there is something dystopian about using an AI app to generate fake vacation photos of yourself.<\/p>\n

And yet, here we are. <\/p>\n

Product designer Laurent Del Rey<\/a>, who recently joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Lab, launched a side project called Endless Summer<\/a>, a photobooth app for iPhone that creates AI-generated vacation photos starring you in locations around the world. Here you are exploring a beach town, or overlooking a European city from your balcony. There you are, out shopping, having dinner with friends, or at a social gathering.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t look like anyone in these photos is talking about AI or entrepreneurship or a lack of sleep.<\/p>\n

As Del Rey explained<\/a> when sharing the launch on X, the new app is for when \u201cburnout hits and you need to manifest the soft life u deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

(When you can\u2019t live life, you may as well fake it, right?)<\/p>\n

made this little photobooth app called endless summer for when burnout hits and you need to manifest the soft life u deserve \u2013 with fake vacation pics of you :’)<\/p>\n

first app 100% made by me! just released it on the app store try it out <33 pic.twitter.com\/i55nRcE71V<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 saint laurent del rey (@laurentdelrey) October 6, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The product designer told TechCrunch that he was inspired to create the app because summer is his favorite season, and he loves how life feels during that time of the year.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the season ends, I wanted to make something that felt like that. It\u2019s from that feeling that I reverse-engineered the product experience,\u201d he says. \u201cI created an Xcode project and started iterating directly from there, sculpting the code experience, so to speak.\u201d <\/p>\n

The experience he landed on was a simple user interface where there\u2019s a tiny camera preview button at the bottom of the screen. You tap the button to make an AI-generated \u201csummer\u201d photo. As you click, the photos appear on your screen, in a sort of camera roll-style view. Each photo features you, or rather an AI version of you, exploring the world and looking fairly content while doing so. <\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, Gemini\u2019s Nano-Banana image-model is doing the heavy lifting, as the app prompts the model for different variations of the summer photo output.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The app isn\u2019t saving your selfies, Del Rey says, unless you have its optional auto-generation mode enabled. Plus, users can delete their account at any time with just two taps, which erases everything.<\/p>\n

While Nano-Banana is relatively cheap, it does cost money. For that reason, you can\u2019t generate unlimited photos for free with Endless Summer. Instead, you\u2019ll hit a paywall after your first six images, with a prompt suggesting payment options even before then. <\/p>\n

The pricing isn\u2019t too bad if you\u2019re looking to just dabble with the personalized AI imagery out of curiosity \u2014 or because you\u2019re lamenting having missed your summer vacay this year. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s $3.99 to make 30 images, $17.99 for 150, and $34.99 for 300. You can enable or disable a \u201cRoom Service\u201d mode that auto-delivers two photos to you every morning, featuring your latest summer escapades and world travels. You can also set your gender in the app or leave it to guess (\u201cAuto\u201d mode), and turn on or off an option that auto-saves the AI images to your iPhone\u2019s Camera Roll.<\/p>\n

A recent option in the app lets you generate Halloween photos instead of summer photos, featuring you in different costumes.<\/p>\n

since halloween\u2019s coming up, i just released a special theme in my photobooth app to help u figure out how to dress up for it pic.twitter.com\/6TaIj04iwY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 saint laurent del rey (@laurentdelrey) October 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The photos themselves have a vintage film aesthetic, which makes them look like the casual lifestyle pics they\u2019re supposed to resemble. That brings a sense of nostalgia to the app, as it evokes a mid-2000s feel.<\/p>\n

This reflects other modern trends around online photo sharing. Whether that\u2019s adopting retro technology, like zoomers carrying disposable cameras, or posting Instagram photo dumps of blurry pics, there\u2019s a desire among some for a less-curated, less \u201ctechnically perfect\u201d version of life. <\/p>\n

How bizarre is it that it\u2019s AI bringing that to you now? <\/p>\n