Adobe Photoshop Camera App Now Available on Android, iOS as a Free Download

Young creators on the Internet rely on smartphone cameras for their next influential hit. Be it a quick 15-second cringeworthy TikTok video or a filter-filled photo of a meal, smartphone cameras have helped creators do just about anything. While camera hardware inside smartphones has been getting better, so have the apps that process all the photos and videos shot on them.

Adobe Photoshop has been a one-stop-shop for most digital photography enthusiasts since forever. Last year, Adobe announced its plans to bring the magic of Photoshop to smartphones, besides launching Photoshop for the iPad. While Adobe already has a large number of mobile apps, some of them with the Photoshop branding, there's something distinctive in this one.

Titled 'Adobe Photoshop Camera', the app is now available as a free download on Android and iOS, months after being available in a limited beta. Adobe believes its new app has a lot more to offer than your usual photo editing apps on mobile devices. Adobe Photoshop Camera is powered by the company's AI-powered platform called Sensei that does all the magic.

Internet creators rely on various photo editing apps to make their content stand out. However, not everyone is comfortable spending a lot of time on complicated apps. Adobe Photoshop Camera promises to automatically fine-tune your photos and make them look extra special. The app can automatically decide the best settings for your photo, while letting pro users manually adjust them as per their taste.

Adobe's Photoshop Camera app doesn't substitute Instagram or Snapchat for creators. Instead, the app is a bridge between the smartphone camera and the social platform of their choice. Adobe feels you will end up with better-looking photos if you use the Photoshop Camera app to edit them.

At the heart of all this magic is Adobe's Sensei platform. The AI-driven platform doesn't just power the Photoshop Camera app, but it also enables a number of useful features on its suite of multimedia editing apps on the desktop. Capturing a great photo will still require some photography skills. But after that, a smartphone app can handle just about everything.

Adobe Photoshop Camera app allows developers to create their own lenses. You can selectively download and install these lenses within the app. Each lens offers a number of variations, which can then be further customised based on users' preferences.

We've been playing around with a beta release of Adobe Photoshop Camera for almost a week now. The free photo editing app lets users shoot and edit photos, apply Photoshop effects and AI filters on the fly. Photoshop Camera app also offers several lenses that are, fairly speaking, a combination of filters and animations with an ability to recognise objects. You can download these on the app, and once downloaded they can be applied offline too.

Some of these lenses are optimised for selfies while others will need users to fire up the smartphone's rear camera. Lenses such as Pop Art and Dreamcatcher completely change the way your photo looks like, without any real hard work from your end or spending an awful amount of time. Adobe also tied up with Billie Eilish to let users add angel wings, with relevant backdrops to their photos.

You can shoot new photos, edit them, or apply lenses to them. You can also edit existing photos you've shot using your smartphone's native camera app. While the app remains free, Adobe does offer its cloud storage plans as an in-app purchase within the app.

Photoshop Camera does live up to its expectations, if you ignore the stability issues in the beta version. The stable release should iron out all the kinks though. The app won't replace iconic Instagram filters or AR-powered Snapchat lenses, but it adds another dimension to the world of mobile photo editing for creators. Another problem Adobe could face is the confusing array of photo-editing apps it now offers on mobile app stores.

The power of Photoshop in your hands, without the complex interface, is something most users would admire. And it's free. While a mobile version of Lightroom, and several other photo-editing apps already exist on both Android and iOS app stores, Photoshop Camera promises to add software-based charm to your photos.

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