Apple considered buying Halide to upgrade its native Camera app

## Summary
Halide A legal feud between the co-founders of Lux Optics, the developer behind the Halide camera app, revealed that Apple was close to acquiring the company. According to The Information , the deal eventually fell through in September of that year, but the potential acquisition could've provided Apple with the third-party software to improve its own built-in camera app. Despite Apple's interest, Lux Optics' co-founders, Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan de With concluded that future updates to Halide could increase the company's valuation and ended the acquisition talks. While Halide may remain third-party software for iPhones and iPads, users can still look forward to some software improvements to the built-in camera app, since that's reportedly one of Apple's priorities.

## Article Content
Halide
A legal feud between the co-founders of Lux Optics, the developer behind the
Halide
camera app, revealed that Apple was close to acquiring the company. As first reported by
The Information
, Apple held acquisition talks for Lux Optics, which also developed the Kino, Spectre and Orion apps, in the summer of 2025.
According to
The Information
, the deal eventually fell through in September of that year, but the potential acquisition could've provided Apple with the
third-party software
to improve its own built-in camera app. Apple is already rumored to be introducing
variable aperture
to its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models, so it's not surprising that the iPhone maker was looking for software with advanced features to match its possibly upgraded camera hardware.
Despite Apple's interest, Lux Optics' co-founders, Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan de With concluded that future updates to Halide could increase the company's valuation and ended the acquisition talks. According to the lawsuit between the co-founders, Sandofsky started investigating de With for the alleged misuse of company funds shortly after the talks with Apple ended. Afterwards, de With was fired from Lux Optics and later joined Apple's
design team
. While Halide may remain third-party software for iPhones and iPads, users can still look forward to some software improvements to the built-in camera app, since that's reportedly one of Apple's priorities.
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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- According to The Information , the deal eventually fell through in September of that year, but the potential acquisition could've provided Apple with the third-party software to improve its own built-in camera app.
- Despite Apple's interest, Lux Optics' co-founders, Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan de With concluded that future updates to Halide could increase the company's valuation and ended the acquisition talks.
- While Halide may remain third-party software for iPhones and iPads, users can still look forward to some software improvements to the built-in camera app, since that's reportedly one of Apple's priorities.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers apple, halide, lux topics. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 228.