Adobe has released a new app for Adobe Express, its cloud-based mobile design platform, which brings the same creative, editorial and generative AI features powered by Firefly that desktop users enjoy to iOS and Android devices. Available for free to try today in beta, the new Adobe Express app allows users to easily create creative assets such as social media posts, posters and website banners, with Creative Cloud members able to access and edit Photoshop and Illustrator files directly within the mobile application.
Adobe Express beta is a free download, with Premium features (which will eventually require a monthly subscription of $9.99) like the eraser and background removal tools available at no additional cost while the app is in testing. Generative AI features powered by Firefly such as Generative Fill and Text to Image effects, however, will require Adobe Generative Credits. Adobe Express beta users will receive 25 credits per month. The number of monthly credits received will be tied to the user’s subscription level when the mobile application is generally available.
Adobe Express users will not see their projects from the existing mobile app in the new beta app on day one. However, when the new app comes out of beta, then it will have all the historical data from the old app carried over in a seamless migration, according to Ian Wang, vice president of products for Adobe Express, in an interview with The Verge.
The new Express mobile beta shares the same platform as the desktop version that was updated last year, which means collaborative workflows are back if you use the beta app — allowing teams to work together on the same creative projects on desktop and mobile devices. Anyone still using the current Adobe Express mobile app will not be able to use these features.
The processing of the generative AI features is based on the cloud and not on the device itself, but not every smartphone is compatible with the new beta version. You can find a list of supported devices here. The beta version of the Adobe Express mobile app is available in the Google Play Store for Android, but iOS users will have to sign up here due to Apple’s limit on the number of beta users.
Adobe’s Firefly AI features are available as standalone web apps from September 2023 (and very accessible on mobile devices), which are good enough for experimentation, but awkward to use in design workflows. In contrast, the new Express beta is the first mobile app to include them alongside other design tools.
Correction, March 7, 4:00 PM ET: Adobe’s original press release said that “premium features are available at no charge” during the Express beta. The company informed us after the announcement that these premium features do not include generative AI tools, which use a separate credit-based system.