For a while, the “mobile” Photoshop experience has been Photoshop Express, which is basically a glorified photo/filters editor. Have you ever wished you could use full-on Photoshop on your phone? That’s what Adobe is releasing now, and it actually looks pretty good.

Adobe has just announced the release of a new Photoshop mobile app, which the company says will be bringing the power of its flagship image editing software to smartphones. The new Photoshop mobile app is tailored for touchscreens while maintaining core Photoshop functionalities. You can access powerful features like layering, masking, and the AI-driven Generative Fill (powered by Adobe’s Firefly technology) directly on your phone. This is not meant as a replacement for the Photoshop desktop app, as you might imagine, and that will remain the most capable and comfortable experience. But it will allow you to do some image editing right from your phone.

You can combine and manipulate images using core features like selections, layers, and masks, and you can use the Tap Select tool for targeted adjustments, including removal, recoloring, and replacement of image elements. You can also use the Spot Healing Brush to eliminate distractions and imperfections, and you can make use of Firefly-powered features like Generative Fill and Generative Expand to add new elements and modify images quickly. The mobile version of Photoshop also connects with other Adobe creative apps, including Express, Fresco, and Lightroom, and it also connects with Adobe Stock if you want to use free assets on your images.

For years, Photoshop Express has been what Adobe has been selling as the “mobile” Photoshop experience, but it only takes 5 seconds using it to realize it’s not nearly as capable as actual Photoshop and works well only for quick retouches to pictures.

Adobe is also introducing a new “Photoshop Mobile and Web” plan priced at $7.99 per month, which will unlock premium features across both the web version of Photoshop and the mobile version. This will unlock more features such as more AI capabilities including Generate Similar, as well as tools such as Remove Tool, Clone Stamp, and Content-Aware Fill. It will bring the app closer to the desktop version of Photoshop in terms of features, but it will probably won’t go all the way.

The app itself seems to be based at least in part on what the company is doing on the web version of Photoshop. The web version has also received a bunch of changes to integrate better with this new smartphone version. It’s fine, especially for a phone, but for more intricate work, you might still want to load up the old reliable desktop Photoshop. Other updates to the web version of Photoshop, if you care about that, include direct integration with the Adobe Stock library and expanded browser compatibility (now including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge).

We’ve also asked Adobe whether this mobile version has any integration at all with the full desktop version of Photoshop, since the announcement only goes in detail about how it works alongside the web version. The company confirmed to How-To Geek that the app also features integration with the desktop version in addition to the web and iPad versions. An Adobe spokesperson provided us with the following statement:

The new mobile app is compatible with all Photoshop apps across surfaces including desktop, web and iPad which means that long time Photoshop creators can now use the new mobile app to ideate, make lightweight edits on the go and start personal projects whenever and wherever they want, then take them to other Photoshop apps to finalize. This unified workflow ensures that both long-time Photoshop users and new creators can make edits anywhere, access their work on the go, capture ideas, or dive into personal projects—all in the palm of their hands.

This is pretty cool. With both-ways synchronization, you can move a file to your computer to do more complex editing work there, or you can move a file to your phone to give it some finishing touches if you have to drive somewhere without your computer.

The free Photoshop mobile app is available for download worldwide on the Apple App Store today. Current subscribers to paid Photoshop plans will automatically gain access to the mobile app, in addition to existing access to Photoshop on iPad and web. The Android version of Photoshop mobile is expected to be released later this year, so it’s not on Android just yet, but it will eventually launch.

Source: Adobe