There have been various Photoshop offshoots available for mobile devices over the years, but now Adobe is taking things seriously. Having already released an iPhone version of Photoshop earlier this year, the company has now followed up with an Android app.
The arrival of Photoshop on Android is indicative of many things – the increased power of phones, Adobe’s interest in capturing more of the mobile market, and the growing demand of creatives to be able to work with powerful tools across ore devices. What is particularly enticing about Photoshop for Android is the fact that it’s free.
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Just as with the iPhone app, the list of features for the Android version of Photoshop is impressive – although it is certainly, and unsurprisingly, not a direct port of the desktop edition. There is support for layers, the almost-inevitable inclusive of AI power features such as content creation and object removal, and masking.
Adobe highlights an extensive list of features, and it is nice to see that there are lots of tutorials included to help newcomers get started:
- Combine and blend images using core Photoshop tools like selections, layers, and masks
- Quickly remove or replace parts of an image with the intuitive Tap Select tool
- Brush away distractions in seconds using tools like the Spot Healing Brush
- Use Firefly-powered generative AI features like Generative Fill to effortlessly add or transform elements in visual designs
- Enhance creative work with a growing library of free Adobe Stock assets
- Make accurate selections with Object Select and Magic Wand
- Refine images with advanced tools like Remove and Clone Stamp
- Control layers and effects with advanced blend modes and adjustment layers
If the prospect of Photoshop for free sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. Adobe has launched the Android version of Photoshop in Beta, saying: “For a limited time, you’ll get free access to premium tools before anyone else, plus the chance to shape what Photoshop mobile becomes”.
There’s no word on how long the beta testing program will run, nor how much Adobe plans to charge (or for what) – but this will no doubt be revealed in due course.
You can download the Adobe Photoshop (Beta) app from Google Play.
