An exciting new Adobe Express app for Android and iOS has been released in beta, but is it any good?
As we previously reported, the graphic design app comes equipped with a host of new Firefly AI image generation and editing tools, including generative fill, object deletion and insertion, and AI-generated text effects.
At this time, the new app is in beta and sandboxed from your current project, so you can continue to use your existing app to compare the two. That's exactly what we did, and we tried out the new Mobile Express to see if it's better than the original and where it fits into your content creation and marketing workflow. But I actually wanted to try out Adobe's new AI capabilities. Check if the app is worth taking up space on your phone (spoiler: it does, but it takes time).
What's new and what's good about it?
We like Adobe Express. And it's been interesting to watch Adobe Express transition from a simple online designer to an all-in-one content marketing tool. It's easy to use, it's free to a certain extent, and it also has the best free logo maker and generator built in. And of course, Adobe has been packed with AI since 2023.
The new Express has more weight to the entire interface compared to the original app, making it feel very static and distinctly mobile. However, it feels a bit corporate when compared to the colorful (and similar) Canva. But overall, this is some of the best graphic design software for professionals and non-designers creating content marketing assets. Since it's designed for a wider range of users than Photoshop or Lightroom, we've found it much easier to design and modify content.
For us, the new app feels closer to the desktop experience on mobile, especially in terms of feature set. It's a full-featured Adobe Express, with new AI tools instantly accessible from your home screen. It has its drawbacks. Express Toolbox feels less organized than the older app because it offers more features.
We started by looking for something new tech radar pro Create a logo just to see how AI compares to the built-in Express logo generator. And after a short wait, the logo similarities, approximations were returned.
Next, we put the text-to-image generator through simpler, more traditional tests. Man sitting at computer in home office,Such that. There is considerable customization available here, such as generating only comics or photos. If you're familiar with one of the best AI art generators, this will be easy.
You should also leverage your handcrafted design skills, especially when generating AI images. Text-to-image generators can't handle words and have a hard time processing faces (after getting a few side-eyes from people in profile, I switched to stylized cartoons and had much more success ). But what it actually produced was… pretty much what you would expect from a secure, business-grade AI image generator. I can tell you this – we used up his 25 months of free credits very quickly and the subscription became almost essential for professional use.
If you want to edit images or create your own images from scratch, it all works very well, although the small screen makes it a little fiddly. It feels like an Adobe product. Smooth, professional and seamless. You can delete and restore backgrounds with just one tap. Removing objects involves sweeping the offending item with a brush, but if it doesn't crash (about 1/6 of the time in our case), the result is mostly well designed.
The focus here is on content creation. Think promotional flyers for small businesses, animated social media clips, things like that. This has always been a main goal of Express, and the font creator is a great way to use AI to create unique effects you can't ignore through your text prompts. We've seen that become even more evident in the new app, with the inclusion of one of our favorite tools: Video Maker. Fully customized for short social media clips and animated online flyers. The app is currently free as it is in beta, but this premium feature allows you to create 5-second videos even from still images.
Overall, for busy content creators, this app will be useful for quick and easy edits. It fits neatly into your workflow. It is not a replacement for the desktop versions of Photoshop or Express. But no matter how many AI-powered features Adobe adds, we don't want or need that.
