5 Sep 2025 | 10 min read
ByJC ThomasWriter for Mixbook
Organize and Personalize Your Memories with the Mixbook App
The Mixbook app is a free iPhone app that organizes the photos already on your phone into Stories, then helps you turn them into a photo book, digital art, a movie or a magazine. From everyday moments to milestones worth remembering, it gives you an easy way to revisit your photos and turn them into lasting keepsakes. Allow photo access, pick a Story and choose what you want to make. There is nothing to upload or sort first.
If you would rather start with an idea than with your camera roll, Story Mode, Mixbook’s AI-assisted creator, builds a finished first draft of a photo book from a few answers and your photos. You can order it as is or edit every detail.
From bill-paying to buying groceries, photo-sharing to puzzles, it’s all happening on our handheld screens. That includes making Mixbooks! This guide explains what the Mixbook app does, how to use it step by step, how Story Mode fits in and what to know before you start.
Quick Answers
- What it is: An iOS app that sorts your camera roll into Stories and turns them into photo books, digital art, movies and magazines.
- Cost: Free to download and free to start. Digital art and movies are free to create. Printed photo books are priced by size, cover and paper. Check Mixbook’s photo book pricing.
- Where it works: iPhone only for now. On Android or a computer, you can still make projects in a browser at mixbook.com.
- Speed: Story Mode can take you from idea to a finished first draft in minutes.
- Control: Every project stays editable, and you can continue it in Mixbook Studio™ on desktop.
On your mobile device? Click below to download in the Apple App Store for free.
App download
On your computer? Scan the QR code below to download the app!
*Currently available for iOS devices only
What is the Mixbook app?
The Mixbook app is an iOS app for organizing photos and making photo books and other keepsakes. It helps you organize your photos and create a photo book from scratch. Its AI-assisted tools sort your camera roll into Stories, which are collections built around moments such as a trip, a birthday or a baby’s first year, and you can turn any Story into a project.
A Story groups photos by moment instead of by date alone. You can browse Stories on a timeline, move a photo from one Story to another and use any Story as the starting point for a project.
Why choose the Mixbook app?
Organizing photos is no small feat. We have so many amazing memories captured on our phones. But let’s face it: those memories are also mingled with tons of mundane shots, blurry pics, duplicates, and screenshots you never bothered deleting.
With the Mixbook app, you don’t need to worry about sorting through the chaos of your camera roll. The app takes on this burden by organizing your photos into Stories, making the process of creating a photo book quick and easy.
Some of the top benefits of the Mixbook app include:
- Photo organization: With Mixbook’s app, you get to ignore the mess of your camera roll and enjoy the benefits of automatic organization of your photos. (And if your camera roll is already organized, kudos!) No more searching through endless pictures to find the ones you want. The app does the hard work for you, so you can spend less time organizing and more time enjoying your memories.
- Easy to use: Designing a photo book or album doesn’t have to be a challenge. With the Mixbook app, you’ll have access to tools that help you create a photo book with no design skills or experience required. Story Mode can build a complete first draft in minutes.
- Save time and empower creativity: Mixbook’s app empowers your own creativity. As well as reducing the time and effort of organizing your photos, the app also helps you choose the best themes, layouts and other design features for your photo book. Every photo, layout and caption stays editable.
- A photo book company with a track record: Mixbook has been making photo books for more than 20 years. Wirecutter, the product review site from The New York Times, has rated Mixbook the number one photo book service. Learn more about how Mixbook is rated for quality.
- Sync with Mixbook Studio™: Your Mixbook account and projects sync between the app and desktop. Complete a project in the app, or continue the same project in Mixbook Studio™ on desktop when you want more design control.
How does the Mixbook app organize your photos?
The standout feature of the Mixbook app is its AI-powered organization, which turns a camera roll into Stories. Stories automatically group photos into collections based on various criteria, such as trips, celebrations, holidays, friends, family, pets and milestone moments.
The app analyzes your photos on your device to build Stories and never alters your originals, so you can start browsing before you upload anything. If a Story gets something wrong, pull the photo out or move it to another Story.
Plus, Mixbook’s photo book themes align with the album themes, making it even easier to customize a birthday book, year-in-review book, a wedding album, baby book and so many more.
Stories streamline the process of creating personalized photo books, allowing you to focus on what matters most: reliving, enjoying and sharing those experiences.
Read our full guide to organizing photos with the app: How to organize photos on your iPhone: a complete guide to the new Mixbook app.
What can you make with the Mixbook app?
A Story can become more than one thing. You can start with a quick digital version and later turn the same Story into a printed book. Nothing is locked once it is made.
Photo book
- What it is: A printed book made from a Story, with themes, layouts and captions you can edit
- Best for: Keepsakes, gifts and milestones
Memory Art
- What it is: One-of-a-kind digital art made from your photos
- Best for: Showing off a favorite shot
Movie
- What it is: A short movie made from a Story
- Best for: Sharing a trip or event quickly
Digital magazine
- What it is: A Story laid out like an editorial feature on your own life
- Best for: A fuller recap of a weekend, trip or season
How to use the Mixbook app
If you’re ready to check out the Mixbook app, take these steps to make a photo book from a Story:
- Search "Mixbook" in the App Store and download the Mixbook app to your device.
- Open the app and sign in to your Mixbook account or create one.
- Allow access to your photos. The app organizes them into Stories, so you do not need to upload, sort or delete anything first.
- Open a Story and review it. Pull out any photo that does not belong or move it to another Story.
- Choose what to make: a photo book, digital art, a movie or a magazine.
- Choose a photo book theme that fits the occasion.
- The app creates a first version of your photo book from the selected Story.
- Review the book, make any changes you want to photos, layouts and captions, and then tap "Order" to order your photo book.
For more design control, continue the same project in Mixbook Studio™ on desktop.
What is Story Mode, and Who Is It For?
Story Mode is Mixbook’s AI-assisted photo book creator. Instead of dropping photos into a template, it uses your answers about the book and your photos to sequence the story, give milestone moments larger spreads, group everyday shots and add narrative text. You get a finished first draft to order or edit.
Story Mode is assistive rather than generative AI, as it helps organize and lay out your photos and words, and you decide what stays. In a March 2026 Mixbook internal survey, 72% of Mixbookers said they see AI as a positive when it helps rather than replaces.
How to make a photo book with Story Mode
- Open Story Mode in the Mixbook app.
- Answer a few questions about your idea. Full sentences or a few keywords, such as "family reunion" or "road trip," both work.
- Upload your photos.
- Choose your preferences, such as how much text to include and your design style.
- Tap "Start creating my book."
- Review your draft, then order it or tap "Edit" to move it to Mixbook Studio™.
Story Mode vs. Mixbook Studio™
Where you start
- Story Mode: A short set of questions and your photos
- Mixbook Studio™: A theme, layout or blank canvas of your choosing
Time
- Story Mode: A finished first draft in minutes, according to Mixbook
- Mixbook Studio™: Depends on how much you customize
Control
- Story Mode: Fully editable after the draft is built
- Mixbook Studio™: Full control from the first page
Range
- Story Mode: Square-format photo books
- Mixbook Studio™: Photo books plus calendars, cards and home decor
Story Mode is not the same as Auto-Create, which is still available in Mixbook Studio™. Story Mode builds narrative text and sequencing around your answers instead of filling a template.
Photo Book Ideas to Start With
Most people already want something made from their photos. In Mixbook consumer research, 71% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 54 said they had ordered a personalized photo product, and 82% of them did so in the last two years (YouGov panel, September 2025, n=1,227). The hard part is usually the starting point. A few Stories worth opening first:
What Happens to Your Photos?
Privacy was the top concern in Mixbook’s September 2025 consumer research, cited by 47% of respondents (YouGov panel, n=1,227). Here is how the app handles photos:
- The app analyzes your photos on your device to organize them into Stories and never alters your originals.
- Photos you add to a creation are uploaded to your Mixbook account.
- Photos and details you choose may be shared with the service providers that help create your project, and Mixbook contractually limits them to that purpose.
- Mixbook’s AI partners are not permitted to train their models on your content.
Read the full Mixbook Privacy Policy for details.
Download the Mixbook app on iPhone to get started turning your photos into a photo book of your own. Story Mode can take you from idea to finished draft in minutes, and Stories keep your best moments in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Mixbook app is a free iPhone app that organizes the photos on your phone into Stories and helps you turn them into photo books, digital art, movies and magazines. It also includes Story Mode, an AI-assisted creator that builds a finished first draft of a photo book from your answers and photos. See the full guide to organizing photos on your iPhone.
Yes. The app is free to download and free to start. Printed photo books are priced by size, cover and paper type. See photo book pricing.
No. The app is iOS only for now. Android users can make projects in a mobile or desktop browser at mixbook.com, including in Mixbook Studio™.
Yes. Open a Story, choose to turn it into a photo book and edit it, or start with Story Mode. You can complete every step on your iPhone, from idea to order. New to photo books? Start with how to make a photo book.
The app analyzes your photos on your device and groups them into Stories by moment, such as a trip, a holiday or a birthday. You can pull a photo out of a Story or move it to another one. Your originals are never altered. Read the step-by-step organizing guide.
No. Story Mode is an assistive tool that sequences your photos, groups related moments and adds narrative text based on your answers. You can edit every part of the result. Learn more in how Mixbook Story Mode works.
The app analyzes photos on your device to build Stories and never alters your originals. More details are in the Privacy Policy.
With Story Mode, you can go from idea to finished draft in minutes. You answer about three to five questions and upload your photos. Time varies with the number and size of your photos and how much you customize. See how Story Mode works.
