Adobe’s new AI-powered app brings Photoshop directly to your phone’s camera

Adobe is looking to roll out its latest mobile offering. This time the company will be looking to bring their Photoshop magic right to your viewfinder.

The idea behind the new app is to make tools which were previously too labour or skill-intensive available to everyone.

“Consumers can now express themselves in ways that were just impossible before.”

Adobe executive vice president and CTO Abhay Parasnis.

The company is looking to move its technology stack from the end of your workflow to the point of capture. The idea is to surface advanced tools and techniques when the original image is being snapped.

This seemingly small change makes a huge difference for how creatives will see Photoshop tools in the future.

Bringing Photoshop effects to bear on photos in the same way that Instagram added filters to images will add to the possibilities for photography on the move.

Adobe Sensei

In practice, the platform will be AI-enabled with the framework called Adobe Sensei. It will be able to analyse what you’re looking at and make suggestions.

Adobe Sensei will be able to blend multiple exposures as well as highlight areas of the image that need attention. Besides the assistance, Adobe Camera will have an extensive list of effects and filters.

Adobe are able to leverage their technologies to package more complex workflows, thus allowing more dramatic and functional changes to images.

Creatives who make up Adobe’s core audience will be invited to create unique effects. This makes it sound as though users will be able to package their workflows from Photoshop and apply them at the time of capture in-app.

Taking creativity to the next level

That in itself is pretty exciting for any creative who is currently having to do batch post-processing of their images. Also being able to see an effect applied in real-time will help creatives make better choices when picking their shots.

As for the processing, that will all happen offline; you shouldn’t need an internet connection, and your images and data shouldn’t be travelling between you and the cloud to create your desired effects.

To begin with, at least the Photoshop Camera app will be available for free. It is based on Adobe’s track record though it’s likely that the app will be monetised in the future through a subscription or fee model.

The app is being released for iOS 12 and above and Android 9 and above; though we’re still waiting to hear the actual nuts and bolts of when we’ll be able to install the app on our devices.

Adobe Aero

In other news, Adobe announced at their MAX event that its Augmented Reality app, Adobe Aero, moved out of the beta phase and will now be available to members of the public.

The app is only compatible with certain newer models. Devices need to have iOS 13 installed, and have an A11 ARM chip or higher. The app is unfortunately not available on Android at this stage.

I used Aero in beta for more than a month, and I’m excited about the avenues it will open for creatives and designers who want to dabble in AR art.