Mixbook has announced what it calls Story Mode, a new prompt-based photo book creation tool that is build on “patent-pending AI technology” designed to allow users to describe what they want in a photo book. The company says it speeds up creation by 3.5x and cuts time to order in half.
Mixbook says that most photo book creation tools are built from a “fill pages” perspective. Users are given layout options and are instructed to drop in images to create the final book. The company maintains that doesn’t actually fulfill what someone who wants to make a photo book would actually want out of both the experience and the final product.
“We naturally reflect on our memories through words, but when asked to turn those memories into a photo book, people freeze. When faced with too many photos, limited confidence in design, and not enough time, starting a photo book is harder than ever,” Andrew Laffoon, CEO and Co-Founder of Mixbook, says. “Story Mode addresses this with a simple idea: if you can describe a memory, you can preserve it. That’s the problem we set out to solve, and the results tell us we got it right.”
Mixbook says that its AI-powered tool is built to understand the narrative behind photo collections and, based on the uploaded images and user input, creates a book that promises to feel more personal, intentional, and complete. Each element in one of these books remains fully editable, so creative control is never removed from the process. Mixbook just maintains that Story Mode simply makes building one less daunting and time consuming, wile also more meaningful in the end.
“Storytelling is giving meaning to moments. When you experience life, it’s like different pieces of a puzzle coming at you, and the most important thing we as human beings can do is put that together into a story,” Dr. Christie Chung, Cognitive Psychologist and Memory Science Advisor at Mixbook, adds. “Mixbook helps people do exactly that: organize their memories, find them faster, and become experts in their own storytelling.”
Story Mode starts by asking a user to describe the occasion they want commemorated by a book, examples being a family vacation, a recap of the year, or birthday gift. After that, users are prompted through style and storytelling preferences by Mixbook’s AI.
“Whether they want a clean photo-forward look or a more expressive design with full narrative storytelling, Story Mode adapts to the way they want their memories told,” Mixbook says.
AI isn’t a new thing for Mixbook. In 2023, it added a feature to its iOS app that organized photos “Based on the story they tell” using machine learning and then later that year, added AI-based design tools to its photo book builder. In many ways, Story Mode is the next logical step for how it leverages the technology.
But that said, the integration of AI into creative platforms will leave many uneasy. It’s becoming less popular with Gen Z, the Pope has expressed concern about its ethics, and seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of the data centers required to operate AI. AI and what it takes to operate the systems is vastly unpopular, so adding it to any tool — especially those that involve creativity — could be seen as a risk.
“A lot of the concerns people have about AI come from the fear that technology will replace something fundamentally human. That’s a healthy conversation to have. But the question we asked ourselves wasn’t ‘How do we automate creativity?’ It was ‘How do we help more people be creative?,’” Laffoon tells PetaPixel.
“Most people aren’t struggling because they lack stories worth telling. They’re struggling because they have thousands of photos and no idea where to start. Story Mode helps bridge that gap while keeping the person, their memories, and their voice at the center of the process. We don’t think technology should replace human storytelling. We think it should help more people participate in it.”
Story Mode is available as part of Mixbook’s iOS app starting today. The company says that it will be rolling out for users on the Web “soon.”
Image credits: Mixbook
