Apple hires Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With for its design team
App designer Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of the iPhone camera app Halide, joins Apple's design team for Human Interface Design.
Apple has hired app designer Sebastiaan de With ("Halide") for its design team.
(Image: Apple)
Apple has hired a well-known independent app designer for its design team. Sebastiaan de With is known to users as, among other things, the co-founder of Lux, the publisher of the iPhone camera app Halide. He will be involved in Human Interface Design at Apple in the future, he announced in a post on several social networks. De With, who hails from the Netherlands, already knows Apple very well, having formerly worked for the company and contributed to iCloud/MobileMe and the Find My apps.
De With had already extensively considered Apple's design direction in a blog post before the introduction of the new Liquid Glass design. His ideas were preferred by many commentators over Apple's actual new design, leading some to place their hopes on his move to Apple. When the changes to Apple's operating systems were finally presented at the WWDC developer conference in June 2025, he himself largely rated them positively in posts.
Changes in Apple's Design Team
On the other hand, he was not pleased with design chief Alan Dye, who has since moved to Meta. When Dye's departure became known in December, de With was among the biggest critics of his farewell post. It recently became known that hardware chief John Ternus is allegedly now responsible for hardware and software design.
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With de With's career change, a much-watched voice on the evaluation of iPhone cameras also falls silent. For years, the passionate photographer would publish lengthy reviews after new devices were released, offering an expert view on the development of iPhone cameras, complete with numerous sample photos. Most recently, he reviewed the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro.
Halide will continue
At least users of the Halide app can breathe a sigh of relief. Developer and Lux co-founder Ben Sandofsky spoke out on Reddit after de With's move became known. In a post, he explained that a public preview of Halide Mark III had been released and that he was very optimistic about the future. However, observers are surprised that he does not mention de With at all and claims the app's initial release ten years ago for himself. Users noted that de With had been quiet since October.
Lux also publishes the apps Spectre (for long exposures), Kino (for videos), and Orion (using the iPad as an HDMI screen) – these apps are also likely to be further developed. Sandofsky emphasized that app development is now his main profession.
(mki)
