In an era when hustle culture has roared back and “996” workweeks are worn like badges of honor, there’s something both ironic and oddly comforting about an app that lets you conjure an easy-breezy vacation life—without leaving your desk. Meet Endless Summer, an iPhone photobooth app that generates AI vacation photos starring you, soaking up sun and scenery around the world.
Created by product designer Laurent Del Rey, who recently joined Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, Endless Summer is a small love letter to the season he never wants to end. Instead of trying to recreate summer with filters or presets, he built the app to capture the feeling of it. He started from scratch in Xcode, iterating on the experience until it felt like a day off.
Using the app is intentionally simple. A tiny camera preview button sits at the bottom of the screen; tap it and a fresh “summer” photo appears in a camera roll-style view. Each image features an AI version of you doing what carefree vacationers do—wandering a beach town, leaning over a balcony in a European city, shopping, or grabbing dinner with friends. The vibe is leisure, not late-night code pushes.
Behind the scenes, Gemini’s Nano-Banana image model powers the magic, with the app prompting varied takes on the summer theme. The results carry a vintage film aesthetic that looks like casual lifestyle snapshots rather than polished studio work, complete with that mid-2000s nostalgia so many feeds chase. It taps into a bigger trend: a hunger for imperfect, less-curated photos, whether that’s disposable cameras, blurry photo dumps, or lo-fi day-in-the-life snaps.
Privacy was part of the build. Endless Summer doesn’t save your selfies unless you enable its optional auto-generation mode. Deleting your account takes two taps, and doing so wipes your data.
Because creating images isn’t free, Endless Summer offers a handful of complimentary generations before a paywall. Pricing is straightforward: $3.99 for 30 images, $17.99 for 150, and $34.99 for 300. If you’re just curious—or nursing regret over a missed getaway—those entry tiers make it easy to dabble.
There are a few thoughtful extras, too. A “Room Service” mode can drop two fresh photos into your queue every morning, as if you woke up somewhere new. You can set your gender or let the app decide in Auto mode, and choose whether to auto-save images to your iPhone’s Camera Roll. With fall in full swing, there’s even a Halloween theme that places you in different costumes—handy if you’re still deciding what to wear.
Endless Summer sits at a fascinating crossroads: AI delivering a softer, less perfect reflection of life. It’s escapism with a wink—part mood board, part souvenir from the vacation you wish you took. If burnout is biting and your feed needs a little sun, this AI vacation photo app might be the easiest trip you take all year.
