The former Googler team behind the 3D design app Rooms from Things, Inc. has released its latest project: a fun AI photo editor called confusion. The iOS-only app allows anyone to create new AI-generated photos using “recipes,” which are like Mad Lib-style commands that ask you to fill in the blanks for photos, text or sketches.
For example, you can ask confusion to turn a scribbled sketch into a beautiful Renaissance painting or reimagine your pet in a fun Halloween costume. You can use a selfie to see what you'd look like with a different hairstyle, or create something even sillier — like imagine a friend transformed into a character Italian brain.
The app is built on top of Google's Nano Banana tool, but the “recipe” format opens up a new way to interact with the model – transforming the generative tool into an online party game.
“What no model (Nano Banana) did was she could capture your image and hold it in a convincing way that wasn't creepy,” said the founder and CEO of Things, Inc. Jason Toffwhose experience includes working on experimental applications at Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta, as well as time spent in product management at Twitter.
But what makes using Mixup especially enjoyable is that the app's “recipes” – user-generated AI prompts – can be shared.
“Generative AI is so powerful, and yet most of the time you use these tools and see a text box – come up with something creative. And what do you write?” Toff said, referring to the shortcomings his team has seen in the current artificial intelligence landscape.
“So instead of being creative and thinking about what to create, you see something that worked and you can just fill in the blanks,” he said.
Once users create a new prompt in Mixup, they can post it along with the resulting photo to a public feed or simply download it for personal use. From within the feed, other users can view the photo and click the button next to it to select “Try Recipe.” This allows any app user to reuse the recipe to generate an image using their own photo, text or scribble. (The latter can be done using the app's simple drawing function.)
The team believes that the photo next to the recipe from which it was created could also help solve the unpredictable nature of generative AI images.
“The other problem (with generative AI) is what we called internally the ‘slot machine’ problem, where you press a button, something comes out, you press it again, something else comes out, and you have no sense of control over the results,” Toff explained.
However, in Mixup, users can see both the photo and the prompt that created it in one place, giving them an idea of what their result will look like. They can also toggle the button to show a before and after image if the creator chooses to leave this setting enabled.
Additionally, similar to OpenAI's Sora AI video app, users can upload their own photos to Mixup to be used in AI images. If you choose to do so, anyone you follow on the app will also be able to create AI images of your likeness – a feature called 'mixable'.
The company imagines groups of friends will follow each other to use the feature, but a class of creators could also appear on the platform – if they don't mind seeing themselves mixed up in weird ways. (Of course, if you don't want your photo to be seen, don't upload it or follow anyone.)
The app also uses OpenAI technology to deal with some expected AI image moderation issues, but Toff admits that Mixup also relies heavily on Google's built-in controls in its image model to limit things like sexual content and violence.
At launch, Mixup is optimized for iOS 26, but is supported on iOS 18 and later. If the solution proves successful, a web version or Android app may be added later.
Free users receive 100 credits, which equals $4. Meanwhile, the photos cost almost 4 cents to produce. Once the credits run out, users can subscribe to different tiers offering 100, 250 or 500 credits per month.
The app will launch at midnight on November 21 on the App Store worldwide, but will require an invitation to enter. TechCrunch readers can use the code TCHCRH (while stocks last) to access it. Mixup is available for pre-order ahead of its release.
This post has been updated after publication to note that the app will launch on November 21, not November 20 as previously mentioned.
