Exciting news Adobe The Express app for Android and iOS has launched in beta, but is it useful?
As we had previously reportedThe graphic design app has been equipped with a series of new Firefly AI image generation and editing tools, including generative fill, object deletion and insertion, and image-generated text effects. ‘AI.
For now, the new app is in beta – and sandboxed from your current projects – so you can still use the existing one and compare the two. That’s exactly what we did, testing the new Express mobile to see if it’s better than the original and where it fits into content creation and marketing workflows. But actually, we wanted to play with Adobe’s new AI features. to see if the app is worth taking up space on your phone (spoiler: it is, but it takes time).
What’s new and is it useful?
We like Adobe Express – and seeing it grow from just an online designer to an all-in-one content marketing tool has been interesting. It’s simple to use, free to a certain extent, it even has one of the best free logo makers and built-in generators. And, of course, Adobe has been filling it with AI since 2023.
In the new Express, the whole interface has weight, compared to the original app, which feels very static and distinctly mobile. However, it looks slightly corporate compared to colorful Canva (and the like). But overall, it’s one of the best graphic design software for professionals and non-designers creating content marketing assets. Since it is designed for a wider audience than, say, Photoshop and Lightroom, we found it very easy to design and edit content.
To us, the new app seems closer to the desktop experience on mobile, especially in terms of functionality. It’s a complete Adobe Express, with the new AI tools immediately accessible from the home screen. There is a downside to this. With more offerings, the Express Toolbox looks more disorganized compared to the old app.
We started by asking for a new TechRadar Pro logo, just to see how the AI compares to the built-in Express logo generator. And a semblance, an approximation of a logo was returned to us after a short wait.
We then subject the text-to-image generator to simpler, more traditional tests. Man at a computer in a home office, that sort of thing. You have a good amount of customization here, like generating only cartoons or photographs. If you know a little about any of the best AI art generatorsit will be child’s play.
You’ll also still want to rely on some of those craft design skills, especially if you’re generating AI images. The text-to-picture generator can’t make words and has trouble with faces (after getting a few side glances from people in profile, we moved on to stylized drawings and cartoons with much more success). But what he created was… pretty much what you’d expect from a safe, user-friendly AI image generator. We will say this: we got the 25 free monthly credits very, very quickly, making a subscription almost essential for professional use.
Whether it’s editing images or creating your own from scratch, it all works great, although a bit more complicated being limited by a small screen. It’s an Adobe product, and it feels like it. Fluid, professional, transparent. Removing and restoring backgrounds is done with just one click. By removing objects, you brush the brush over the offending elements, and when it doesn’t crash, which is about one in six for us, the results are mostly well-crafted.
The focus here is on content creation. Think promotional flyers for small businesses, animated social media clips, that sort of thing. This has always been the main goal of Express, and the font creator is a good way to use AI to create, via text prompts, unique effects that are impossible to ignore. In the new app, we found it even more pronounced with the inclusion of one of our favorite tools: the video maker. It is absolutely suitable for short social media clips and online animated flyers. Currently free while the app is in beta, this premium feature allows you to create five-second videos even from a still image.
Overall, for the busy content creator, this app will be useful for quick turnarounds and light edits. This will fit perfectly into the workflow. It won’t replace Photoshop or even the desktop edition of Express. But no matter how many AI-based extras Adobe throws into it, it doesn’t want to or need to be.
