It's been a long time coming but I've got some good news for Photoshop fans: You can finally use Adobe's famed app on (drum roll) an iPhone.
Starting today, you can download Adobe's new free app on iPhones for free with the option to buy a more feature-rich monthly subscription for $7.99 per month or $69.99 annually. Support for Android is also coming later this year, the company says.
While Photoshop Express has been an option on iPhones since 2010, the app being released today brings the mobile Photoshop experience a lot closer to the real thing, and one feature, in particular, has me impressed.
What Photoshop on iPhone brings to the table
Photoshop on iPhone brings a surprisingly feature-rich Photoshop experience to your phone.
Among the capabilities are lots of Photoshop's core tools like layering and masking, so you can do all of the typical reconstruction and rearrangement that you might on a desktop or laptop.
While I haven't had a chance to use the app for myself, I got a chance to preview those tools in a live demo, and crucial features like object selection, layering, and colorizing looked as seamless as they might on a MacBook.
On top of that, Adobe also managed to squeeze in one you.
It's a feature that might not be the most essential everyday tool for photo editing, but it's a bonus I wasn't expecting.
Photoshop for iPhone will offer generative AI filling through Firefly. And speaking as someone who has used generative fill to give photos more breathing room, I can't argue with its inclusion in the Photoshop app for iPhone.
One thing I'm curious to try for myself is selecting areas to edit by simply tapping, which is the main method of using Photoshop in this case. I hope Adobe's AI is adept enough to know what I want to be selected and precise enough to register finetune adjustments.
Secondly, there's also a very different interface that will take some time. That said, from what I can tell, the Photoshop on iOS interface is very simplified, which is key if you're porting a proper photo editor into a mobile experience.
Adobe is also launching a web version with the same capabilities in tandem with the Photoshop app.
What's the difference between free and premium Photoshop for iOS?
The paid version of Photoshop for iOS will offer more features than the free version.
According to Adobe, that will include more generative capabilities with Firedfly, the company's AI image generator, fonts, and typography options, and more precise object selection.
One notable paywalled feature will be the beloved Magic Wand tool, which — for the uninitiated — can help trace objects that you want to select and edit in an image.
Additionally, you'll have to pay to use Photoshop's "remove" tool, which functions similarly to Google's Magic Eraser tool, which removes "distractions" and "unwanted objects" from an image.
Only premium users can lighten or darken sections of an image without altering hue or saturation.
Is Photoshop on iOS the real deal?
Photoshop on iPhone appears to bring an unprecedentedly rich Photoshop experience to iOS, which people have been waiting on for a long time.
I think Photoshop on iOS' usefulness will hinge on whether its UI and reliance on tap selection are accurate/intuitive enough to justify using on your phone, however.
If nothing else, just the fact that we live in an age where it's possible to port Photoshop's capabilities to a phone is reason enough for celebration. And that Apple would allow that to be even sweeter.
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