Adobe has released a powerful new Photoshop mobile app that includes many of the design, editing, and generative AI tools found on the desktop version. The app integrates with Photoshop on the web to allow creatives to work on projects across multiple devices and is globally available today on iPhone, with Android coming “later this year,” according to Adobe.
A simplified version of the popular editing software called Photoshop Express has been available on mobile devices since 2010, but Adobe says the new app is more powerful and provides a broader range of recognizable Photoshop capabilities. The two apps share some common features — including tools for resizing, masking, contrast / saturation adjustments, and removing objects or blemishes — but while Photoshop Express is similar to more typical mobile editing apps like Picsart and Facetune, the new Photoshop app seems closer to the desktop experience.
The free version gives users access to many Photoshop editing tools, including the Spot Healing Brush, Tap Select, layers, selections, masks, and features for compositing and blending images together. It also provides Adobe Stock assets, directly integrates with Creative Cloud apps like Adobe Express, Lightroom, and Fresco, and includes Adobe’s Firefly-powered Generative Fill and Generative Expand AI tools.
Other Photoshop features like Object Select, Magic Wand, Content Aware Fill, Clone Stamp, and the Remove Tool are locked behind a $7.99 monthly or $69.99 annual subscription. This premium Photoshop Mobile and Web Plan also includes light / dark adjustment options, advanced blend modes for controlling transparency, color effects, styles, and integration with Photoshop on the web — alongside access to Generate Similar and Reference Image on the web-based platform.
All users who are already subscribed to a paid Photoshop plan will gain premium access to Photoshop on mobile. Adobe hasn’t mentioned if it has anything in store for Photoshop Express, which currently still provides a more affordable $4.99 monthly premium tier subscription. It’ll be confusing if Adobe plans to support both apps simultaneously, especially as it also has another similarly named editing platform called Adobe Express available on mobile.
Rebooting Photoshop on mobile is a welcome and unsurprising move, however. Photoshop Express, while useful for quick edits and throwing together social media graphics, never truly felt like Photoshop. The user interface on the new Photoshop iPhone app is still heavily optimized for mobile, so you can drag and select tools around with your finger, but the overall experience is more geared toward creative professionals and labor-intensive design tasks.
