In an era where the hustle culture of startups has made a resurgence, and tech entrepreneurs working “996” hours — 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week — have become commonplace, employing an AI application to fabricate vacation images of oneself feels rather surreal.
Yet, here we find ourselves.
Laurent Del Rey, a product designer who has recently become part of Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, has introduced a side venture named Endless Summer, a photobooth application for iPhone that produces AI-crafted vacation images showcasing you in various global locations. Imagine yourself wandering through a beach town, or sipping coffee while overlooking a European city from a balcony. There you are, shopping, dining with friends, or mingling at social events.
In these images, no one seems to be discussing AI, entrepreneurship, or sleep deprivation.
As Del Rey shared on X during the launch announcement, the app is designed for moments when “burnout strikes and you wish to manifest the tranquil life you deserve.”
(When real life isn’t an option, why not pretend, right?)
Del Rey told TechCrunch that his motivation for developing the app stemmed from summer being his favorite time of year, when life feels most vibrant.
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“As the season draws to a close, I wanted to create something that encapsulated that feeling. I reverse-engineered the product experience from that emotion,” he explains. “I initiated an Xcode project and began iterating from there, shaping the coding experience, if you will.”
The end result was a user-friendly interface featuring a small camera preview button at the bottom of the screen. By tapping the button, you generate an AI-created “summer” image. As you click, the photos appear on your display in a camera roll-like layout. Each image displays you, or an AI-generated version of you, enjoying the journey and looking pleasantly satisfied.
Behind the scenes, Gemini’s Nano-Banana image model handles the heavy lifting, prompting for various iterations of the summer image outputs.
Del Rey states that the app does not store your selfies, unless you activate the optional auto-generation feature. Additionally, users can easily delete their account in just two taps, erasing all data.
While Nano-Banana is relatively affordable, it does come with a cost. Consequently, you cannot endlessly generate images for free with Endless Summer. Instead, a paywall appears after your initial six images, along with prompts suggesting payment options even earlier.
The pricing is reasonable for those wanting to experiment with the personalized AI imagery out of curiosity — or due to regrets over missing this year’s summer vacation.
It costs $3.99 for 30 images, $17.99 for 150, and $34.99 for 300. There is an option to enable or disable a “Room Service” mode that automatically delivers two photos to your device each morning, showcasing your latest summer adventures and travels. You can also specify your gender or allow the app to guess (“Auto” mode) and choose whether to enable or disable an option for automatically saving AI-generated images to your iPhone’s Camera Roll.
A new feature of the app now allows you to create Halloween-themed images instead of summer ones, depicting you in various costumes.
The images have a vintage film look, giving them the appearance of the casual lifestyle pictures they aim to mimic. This adds a nostalgic element to the app, reminiscent of the mid-2000s.
This mirrors current trends regarding online photo sharing. Whether it’s embracing retro technology, such as young people using disposable cameras, or sharing Instagram photo dumps filled with imperfect pictures, there’s a craving among some for a more unrefined, less “technically perfect” portrayal of life.
How peculiar is it that AI is the one bringing this to you now?