Adobe has finally released a true Photoshop iPhone app — not Photoshop Express, not Lightroom, but Photoshop, the company’s marquee program that is virtually synonymous with photo editing. Did it take more than 20 years? Sure. But rather than lament the past, I’d rather dive into what all is inside this inaugural Photoshop iOS app. Don’t fret if you’re an Android user; you can expect to see a version ready for you later this year.
After spending the past few days getting to know the app, the most accurate and succinct thing I can say about it is this: It is entirely its own beast. The Photoshop many of us know and love — as a desktop app or on the web — is overloaded with tools and precise to the point of occasionally being temperamental. But when creating a mobile version of Photoshop, Adobe had the (admittedly tough) challenge of shrinking its professional, feature-crammed program down to a small screen and an even smaller editing menu. And, frankly, that really isn’t possible. Instead, Adobe had to reimagine what the program could be in an age where everyone can take decent photos on their phones and edit them there, too.
The end result does what it’s supposed to do — it’s actually pretty good in certain cases — but everyone from veteran pro users to beginners will have to spend some time getting reacquainted with Photoshop on their iPhones. But once you’ve got a feel for how it’s laid out, it does feel somewhat familiar to the Photoshop we all know and sometimes love. The mobile app is available free or you can upgrade to the premium plan for $8 per month — and if you’re already paying for the Photography, Creative Cloud or another Adobe plan that includes Photoshop, you’ll get access to the app, too.
These are the features that stood out to me, my tried-and-tested tips for finding your way around and everything I hope Adobe addresses in its next update.
Tips for using Photoshop on iPhones
Throughout my time using the app, I got a sense of déjà vu from my first time exploring Photoshop. I found myself stumbling through menus, searching for the right tool, adjusting nitpicky sliders and running into frustrating errors I eventually solved. The joys of creating!
If you feel like there should be more features then you might be missing some if you’re not opening every tool’s submenu. You have to keep tapping each option to reveal another row or panel of options. Given your iPhone’s limited screen real estate, it’s an understandable design choice but it makes for a tedious learning curve. Once you know where your go-to tools are housed, it’s less inconvenient.
Once you’re feeling more comfortable finding your way around, you’ll want to get familiar with tap select.
Understanding tap select
Tap select is the new, made-for-mobile selection tool that you’ll want to get to know quickly. It helps you isolate the regions of your project you want to edit. If you’re familiar with quick actions in the Lightroom mobile app, you’ll recognize the different ways it categorizes elements in the project: subject, background and sky. In Photoshop, it also pulls out other elements in the project tool.
It is by no means a perfect tool, though. In one memorable instance, the engines separated my colleague Imad’s glasses and eyes from the rest of his body. I guess I could’ve given him glowing red eyes, but I didn’t want to do that.
Tap select identifies objects seemingly haphazardly. Sometimes it would pull out random objects in the background of my photos and miss people in the foreground. Other times it works well — it’s inconsistent. When you need to make precise selections on desktop, you can tease and adjust your selections down to the pixel if you want. But you’re naturally more limited on mobile, which makes it frustrating when tap select can’t seem to get what you’re trying to choose. The add and subtract tools meant to refine your choices need some refinement, too.
While you might have to futz with the selection to get what you want, eventually you’re able to create unlimited layers and then masks. Masking, for the uninitiated, is a process that lets you hide and reveal different layers in your project. It’s an essential tool in a photo editor’s toolbox but it’s also something that you need time to get comfortable with. I found it less intimidating to create and use masks on mobile than I did on desktop, but it was still a learning process.
Masking on mobile is one of the things that separates Photoshop from other basic editors. “I’m very excited for more people to understand the power of masking, and how much benefit there is to non-destructively hiding elements of your image,” said Shambhavi Kadam, senior director of product management for Photoshop mobile, in an interview at the app launch. “It gives me a lot more flexibility when I’m working on my projects.”
Like tap select, masking isn’t perfect on mobile. But I hope to see future improvements from this base foundation.
Firefly AI on the go
There’s no separate Firefly iPhone app, so Photoshop is a good option if you need to generate AI images on the fly. Like most other experiences I’ve had with Adobe Firefly, the AI images were pretty good. You get three variations per prompt. Unlike when you use the Firefly web or desktop apps, there aren’t any follow-up editing tools for further refinements. This is a serious loss for creators; Firefly has one of the best editing panels of the AI image generators I’ve tested. Being able to upload reference images, specify the style and make other adjustments is key to creating usable AI images. You get none of that in the Photoshop mobile app. So, if you’re unhappy with the variations, you either need to edit manually in the app or start over.
Another option for editing your AI images is to add layers from assets from Adobe Stock’s free collection. The Photoshop app lets you search and upload easily, without needing to log into Adobe Stock and manually license, download and upload each element. If you want to pay to use an image or element that isn’t included in the free collection, you’ll need to do all that. But as a budget-conscious creator, I appreciated the free collection’s integration.
I used Firefly to generate the image of the mountain range and stars, then layered an Adobe Stock gradient to give it an Aurora Borealis-like, colorful sky.
Generative fill is one of the most used tools in Photoshop — on par with the crop tool, Adobe told me last year — so it’s not surprising to see that the genAI tool is front and center in the mobile app. You get three variations and the same lack of editing tools (though it’s less important with generative fill). I did notice that the generations seemed to be clearer on the desktop app than the mobile app, but I couldn’t figure out why. Overall though, the generations were usable. Generative expand also didn’t seem to produce the same high-quality results I’m used to seeing. However, generative remove was on par with the desktop app.
As a reminder, Adobe’s AI policy states it won’t train on your work. Adobe’s AI models are trained using publicly licensed content, including Adobe Stock. You can opt out of using generative AI by adjusting your settings.
Reset your expectations and you’ll be happy
Photoshop is inherently different from so many other mobile photo editing apps that simply prompt you to scroll through different thumbnails to select the best filter or adjust a few sliders. So the task of creating a mobile app that’s true to what its users need is a high mountain to climb. For its initial launch, I think Adobe did an okay job with that. But I’m hopeful this is just laying the foundation for stronger updates and more feature roll-outs.
Inevitably, you will run into times when you wish you had a specific tool or more precise control over your edits. Which, while I am not a professional creator, makes me suspect the mobile app likely isn’t going to replace your work using other versions of Photoshop. If you’re using Photoshop all day, every day for work, you’re likely going to notice and hit the limitations of the mobile app quickly. Using Photoshop on iPad might be a happy medium between the mobile and desktop apps, in terms of screen size and editing tools available.
The biggest thing the app has going for it is its convenience, which, in my opinion, is the sole reason to use it. If you need to quickly adjust a color scheme, add text to an image, or resize your project to be social media friendly, they’re all easily done in the app. But don’t expect to be a nitpicky Nancy while editing on a plane because you’ll just end up hunched over, mentally yelling at your iPhone (at least, that was my experience).
