We Got an Early Look at the First Real Photoshop iPhone App. Here’s What’s Inside

It’s 2025, Adobe’s iconic photo editor Photoshop just celebrated its 35th birthday and we finally have a true Photoshop mobile app. Based on what we saw at Adobe’s preview in New York this week, the new Photoshop iPhone app is something new altogether — not a shrunken version of the industry-standard desktop app, nor a basic upgrade from the current Photoshop Express. It’s a surprising evolution of the program that thousands of creators use every day.

Adobe has been working on Photoshop-branded mobile apps for over 15 years, launching and dropping products like Photoshop Express and Photoshop Touch along the way. There have been other Adobe mobile apps that’ve picked up steam and fulfilled different needs, too. Raw camera photographers got Lightroom’s mobile app back in 2017. Two years later in 2019, Adobe launched Fresco, its mobile painting and drawing app which started on iPad and subsequently expanded to the iPhone. But for creators who favor Photoshop above all else, there’s been something of a Photoshop-sized hole that none of these other mobile apps have been able to fill, until now. 

The iOS Photoshop app is available globally today, free with a basic feature set or with full features through the new $8 a month app-plus-Photoshop-web subscription ($70 a year). An Android app is coming later this year, the company said in its press release. The app will also be included with other Photoshop-inclusive plans, such as the Photography plan or Creative Cloud All Apps. The files are supported across all the platforms. 

While many of the features you know and love about Photoshop are present in the app, the iOS app is still a radical break from what longtime users will think of as traditional Photoshop, offering a more Photoshop Elements-like vibe. That makes sense, as Adobe says the app is designed for the “next generation of creators” who find the phone a more convenient device for work. Some research points to younger folks, like Gen Z and Alpha, as being more mobile-inclined, but the professionals that make up the majority of Photoshop’s users might not enjoy the pared-down experience. On the flip side, the app could also offer a less intimidating pathway into Photoshop for creators who might be overwhelmed by the desktop or web’s feature-packed interface. 

As with any mobile app, its shortcomings may be overlooked due to convenience. Adobe views the app as a bridge to other Photoshop versions, with more advanced features on the web and an even greater step up on desktop. Here’s everything you can expect to see with the new Photoshop iPhone app.

What’s old is new again (and other new things)

Veteran Photoshop users will see a lot of familiar territory when they first open the app, from layers to masking and all the usual retouching tools. But the built-for-mobile UI will still put professional users on a learning curve. 

One of the biggest new features in the Photoshop app is the Tap Select tool. Photoshop may not seem to need yet another selection tool (remember the joke in the Barbie movie about having too many?), but it’s a useful addition for working on a smaller screen and workspace. Tap Select works just like it sounds — it analyzes your project, then identifies and highlights all the distinct objects in the image. You can then tap to select multiple objects from the thumbnails displayed in a row at the bottom, masking and editing them as needed.

Your iPhone app is synced with your Adobe account so you can pull photos from Lightroom or paintings and sketches from Fresco to edit in the mobile app. If you’re starting a brand new project, you can also use Adobe’s Firefly AI models to generate AI images or pull from the Adobe Stock free collection (no need to sign in, manually download and license). And like every other version of Photoshop, the mobile app is loaded with Adobe’s generative AI-powered tools, including the popular Photoshop Generative Fill.

The paid version unlocks additional editing tools like the magic wand and spot healing, along with advanced web features such as AI-based Generate Similar, Reference Image, a more precise Object Select tool and more.

Evolving Photoshop for the small screen

The launch of the Photoshop mobile app comes at a time when photo editing software and mobile devices are all getting AI makeovers. Over the past few years, Adobe has gone all in on AI, to the dismay of some wary creators. Most of Adobe’s creative products have gotten major AI-powered upgrades, whether it’s tools to extend video clips in Premiere Pro or help erasing wires and cables in Photoshop.

Adobe shows no signs of slowing down; the public beta of its AI video generator debuted earlier this month. At the same time, smartphone makers like Apple, Samsung and Google have loaded up their newest devices with all kinds of AI. Some of these mobile AI programs include photo editing tools, like Apple Intelligence’s image playground and clean-up tool. Plus, photo editing has plenty of competition. Apps like Canva and Photopea may not match Adobe’s full feature set, but they offer enough that switching may not be worth it unless you’re already invested in Adobe’s ecosystem.

The Photoshop iPhone app is certainly overdue, fills a niche in Adobe’s product line and gives its usual users a more convenient option. But it’ll be interesting to see whether the “next generation” of creators Adobe is chasing will gravitate toward the new Photoshop app, one of its many competitors or try their hand at their on-device, AI-upgraded photo editing tools.