Adobe built Indigo for people who dislike the overly processed look of many phone photos. It launched in the summer as a camera app that dials back computational tricks to deliver images that feel closer to a DSLR. That promise won fans fast.
The iPhone 17 arrived a few weeks later, yet Indigo still does not run on Apple’s newest phones. Adobe has now explained why. In a brief note on its forum, the team said it hit issues with the front camera on iPhone 17 models and flagged some of them to Apple. Apple has prepared a fix that will ship with iOS 26.1, which sets the stage for a partial solution.
A partial fix before a full release
Adobe says it plans to consider disabling the front camera in Indigo until iOS 26.1 lands. The company also says it will push an update “in a few days” that enables Indigo on the iPhone 17 series using the rear cameras. That path gets the app into photographers’ hands while Apple’s software update clears the last roadblock.
The update surfaced after a Redditor spotted the forum post (via TheVerge) and shared it with fellow redditors. Several users said they do not care about selfie support and only want Indigo for rear-camera shooting. Others asked for better skin tone handling, saying faces can skew yellow, which underlines why these early builds matter. Real-world feedback is shaping the fixes.
Japan turned out to be a tricky part of the discussion. Indigo’s approach reduces shutter lag by capturing and discarding frames in the background until the user presses the button. In Japan, where a loud shutter sound is required when a photo is captured, those background captures have reportedly triggered near-constant noise. Community members noted that Apple’s own Camera avoids this by not registering those pre-captures as user “camera events,” suggesting a software-level solution inside regional rules.
Indigo’s appeal is easy to understand. It uses lighter processing, keeps textures natural, preserves true colors, and avoids the harsh sharpness common in phone photos. The app also arrives with credibility. The team includes veterans of computational photography who understand both the physics and the aesthetics of image making.
iPhone 17 owners will soon get a taste of that approach, starting with the rear cameras. Selfies will follow once iOS 26.1 is out to public. It is not perfect, but it is progress, and it puts the focus back where Indigo’s users want it most.
