In an era where the relentless pace of startup life has returned, and even tech founders have adopted the grueling “996” schedule—working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—it feels almost surreal to use an AI tool to fabricate vacation snapshots of yourself.
Yet, that’s exactly where we find ourselves.
Laurent Del Rey, a product designer who recently became part of Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, has introduced a side project called Endless Summer. This iPhone photobooth app lets you create AI-powered vacation images of yourself in various global destinations. Imagine yourself wandering through a seaside village, gazing over a European city from your balcony, shopping, dining with friends, or mingling at a party.
No one in these images seems to be discussing AI, startups, or sleep deprivation.
Del Rey shared on X that the app is meant for those moments when “burnout hits and you need to manifest the soft life u deserve.”
(If you can’t experience it for real, why not pretend?)
Del Rey told TechCrunch his inspiration came from his love of summer, describing it as his favorite season and appreciating the unique atmosphere it brings.
“As summer was ending, I wanted to build something that captured that vibe. That feeling is what guided the product’s design,” he explains. “I started an Xcode project and began experimenting, shaping the user experience directly through code.”
The result is a straightforward interface: a small camera preview button sits at the bottom of the screen. Tapping it generates an AI-created “summer” photo. Each tap adds a new image to a camera roll-style gallery, each one showing you—or rather, your AI likeness—enjoying different adventures and appearing quite content.
Behind the curtain, the app uses Gemini’s Nano-Banana image model, which is prompted to create various summer-themed images.
According to Del Rey, the app doesn’t store your selfies unless you activate the optional auto-generation mode. Users can also delete their accounts at any time with just two taps, which removes all their data.
Although Nano-Banana is fairly affordable, it still incurs a cost. As a result, Endless Summer doesn’t allow unlimited free photo generation. After your initial six images, you’ll encounter a paywall, with payment options shown even before you reach that limit.
If you’re simply curious about personalized AI photos or feeling nostalgic about missing out on a summer holiday, the pricing is reasonable.
You can get 30 images for $3.99, 150 for $17.99, or 300 for $34.99. There’s also a “Room Service” feature that can automatically send you two new photos each morning, showcasing your latest summer adventures. The app lets you specify your gender or use an “Auto” setting to let it guess, and you can choose whether AI images are automatically saved to your iPhone’s Camera Roll.
A recent update allows users to create Halloween-themed photos, placing you in a variety of costumes instead of summer scenes.
The generated images have a retro film look, making them resemble candid lifestyle photos and giving the app a nostalgic, mid-2000s vibe.
This fits with current trends in online photo sharing, where some people prefer a more spontaneous, less polished representation of life—whether that’s through using old-school cameras or posting unfiltered photo dumps on Instagram.
Isn’t it strange that AI is now the tool delivering that experience?
