Sebastiaan de With is the co-founder of Lux, maker of Halide, and formerly worked on the iCloud and Find My teams at Apple, but now he’s set to return to Apple and is joining the Design Team.
Apple is such a secretive company that its employees tend to go about their business as unknown entities. However, the company does hire figures from the Apple community from time to time, and when they’re prominent, like Serenity Caldwell, their sudden disappearance into Apple Park is immediately noticed.
On Wednesday evening, Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of Lux and maker of pro camera app Halide, shared that he is joining Apple. He previously worked for Apple on the iCloud/MobileMe team and also worked on Find My.
This time, he’s joining Apple’s Design Team, which is significant given the absolutely incredible work that has gone into his apps like Halide, Kino, and Spectre. One could hope that he’ll help revitalize the Apple Camera app.
Some big personal news: I’ve joined the Design Team at Apple.
So excited to work with the very best team in the world on my favorite products.
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw.bsky.social) Jan 28, 2026 at 4:41 PM
AppleInsider reached out to Ben Sandofsky, the other Lux co-founder, and asked about the future of Lux. He had just released a preview of Halide Mark III hours ago, and shared a statement with us, embedded below.
I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of Lux and Halide. Today we launched the public preview of Halide Mark III, and the reception is more positive than we possibly could have hoped.
As we mentioned in the announcement post today, we’ve been working with legendary team at The Iconfactory on Mark III. We’re also super excited to be collaborating with the renowned colorist Cullen Kelly on the new looks in Mark III.
Ten years ago I started Halide, and for ten years, I lead product, ran the business, and coded almost everything. Except for the paywall. I hate working on payment screens. But I built everything else, and design was always a collaborative experience.
So in short, Halide is going nowhere. This has been my full time job since 2019, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Clearly, Lux has zero plans of going anywhere, so fans don’t need to worry.
Whatever Apple’s plans for Sebastiaan de With, he will surely be an excellent addition to the Design Team. There may still be time for him to contribute some refinements to iOS 27, but his influence will likely slowly show up through the update cycle.