Will Adobe Sketch and the other mobile apps be available on Android?

[Nicole Mead]

I love the idea of a mobile digital sketch pad but I don't own anything other than Android products. Are Android users going to have to bite the bullet and buy a tablet they don't want for a program they do or, will there be a light at the end of this tunnel with apps for everyone to fully enjoy?

[Peter Villevoye]

I fully understand your number game, and it sounds obvious that a company of that magnitude should be very well able to put out some apps on two mobile platforms. But they don't, so there must indeed be some 'higher' reasoning behind it.

Again, maybe it's because you only see that slew of shiny Adobe app icons, not being able to lay your hands onto. But those who do download these apps on their precious iDevices and give them a try, will quickly notice that most of these puppies are just half baked and not consistent, if not flawed, failing, or even crashing.

So my question tends to be on a different level: why can't a company with 13,500 staff put out a decently working set of apps, at all ? As soon as those apps work brilliantly (solo, together, and across the other Creative Cloud tools and services), it will be a no-brainer for a company like Adobe to get them on any other popular platform as well.

There must be some Big Thing at stake here, I guess...

[Digital_Prizem]

Looks like it's close to a year since this question was asked in this thread. Really unfortunate Adobe hasn't put their CC apps on Android yet.

My wife is a digital artist and loves Photoshop on Windows. We recently just upgraded from CS6 to CC and she notices so many nice improvements to a lot of things. So far, very pleased with CC! And with the helpful student-priced subscription, we get access to everything, which is really great!

To help her draw not only at home, but anywhere, we got her a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and it is by far one of the best smartphones currently on the market. I think it's safe to say the Note series is Samsung's real flagship smartphone product. She loves the stylus pen that comes with the Note 4, along with the large screen real estate and high sensitivity. But she's been trying to find a good program that can facilitate her style and workflow.

To that end, it's really sad to see that Adobe really neglects the amazing prowess of the Android ecosystem. With so many more powerful Android devices than iOS out there, it's a shame they're still locked in with Apple.

But, after using the free version of Autodesk Sketchbook for a while, she purchased the full version and it's been going pretty well. So far, Autodesk Sketchbook seems to be the best Android drawing program she could find.

[Peter Villevoye]

And to be honest - it is by far the superior sketch application !

Adobe's apps still can't touch the quick and snappy 'feeling' of the drawing tools in Sketchbook. I have a brand new iPad Air 2, and there's still latency and a slight lagging-behind of the drawing tool. Don't feel left out yet – you're not missing too much. Let Adobe and iPad users find their way with these apps first, because they still need a lot of expanding and tweaking.

Like I stated in my earlier answer higher up in this thread: I guess Adobe simply needs all the resources to develop a stable and well-behaved set of apps first, before they will port them to other platforms.

[floramc]

‌I share the feeling that iPad apps are growing and going through different generations but actually developing in the hands of iPad users who silently are acting lab mice for the tools to become complete and competitive. I hope so, Android users have been waiting a lot, when the appearance on Android will be the news, I want the apps to be something to talk (good) about.

ipad users tends to be more enthusiast low maintenance users, class me in the category as ipad user - but confess on my samsung tab I can do things with my wacom stylus that humans if you only knew, it just works better. And @digital prizem, sketchbook is awesome!

A random note: adobe color works on browsers, Adobe Color CC  check the link, and from the browser I get it up and running on my Samsung too.

[floramc]

Here some official words from Adobe for all android users.

Please, visit the link

What about Android? « Adobe Creative Cloud

[gchristo27]

Thank you for sharing this flormac! That is definitely great news!

[zarrdave]

Just got all excited by a link I was sent from an iPad using friend that new apps were available for Android.

Adobe Touch Apps Now Available in Android Market « Adobe Creative Cloud

Realised it was the article from 2011.   $%£"^%£

Roll on Summer 2015. Hope we get some news sooner though as I just got yet another email about the benefits of the mobile CC app "Comp", only to read its for ipad.

[floramc]

Some more words from our peer Joseph. I am happy to see he says the same as I do about touch, then I was not alone

More on Adobe Mobile Apps | In Flagrante Delicto!

opinions here?

[War Unicorn]

I requested to be admitted to the beta community. I hope they're prepared. 

I'm glad Color is making a return. I used to use the then-$10 "Kuler" before it got pulled. It was pretty handy for color consistency with projects so I'll use that a lot. Shape might be useful. Brush I'm not sure of since I don't use that aspect that much (preferring to use ArtRage for natural media painting myself); could be handy for certain needs though.

[floramc]

way to go, and be really merciless, Warunicorn, say I told you so Just shoot to kill until you get the app you want. There's a lot happening on G+, I went back to my profile there, being very lazy G+ user lately.

Do you know that color has its own page and community too? You can download others' palettes if you find them useful and it has a very handy site to check

Adobe Color CC

give it a check who knows it maybe gives even more inspiration to compare to the app

[War Unicorn]

I was accepted to the beta group. Problem is that I can't try any of the apps yet. Kept giving me a "your device is not compatible with this version" message; I let Adobe know of it. This is on a Google Nexus 7 2013 running Android Lollipop 5.1.1.

I must be too cool or something.

[floramc]

Warunicorn wrote:

I must be too cool or something.

‌

Keep us updated, please!

[War Unicorn]

Turns out they simply haven't gotten around to enabling support for tablets yet. (Users have been able to sideload the APK just fine, which really isn't my bag. Too many security variables.)

I can wait. I'm a patient person.

If they could just hurry on Project Rigel for Android. That doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon based on what I've read.

[floramc]

‌bummer

crossed fingers on cc2015, launch in the middle of June. Let's hope for android fireworks

[gchristo27]

I've joined the beta program and so far I really like how the new apps

expand creative possibilities of using mobile devices by syncing the

libraries instead of simply turning the desktop application into touch

apps. I agree with Joseph's comments regarding Photoshop touch. I purchased

this app when it came out but I never really used it. It makes sense for

Adobe to discontinue Photoshop touch and focus on developing more apps that

take advantage of the synced libraries and the expanded creative

possibilities using mobile devices.

[DesignerJoe55]

As a business, the decision to only support Apple products is a very poor one. Aside from the fact that Android users outnumber iOS users now, they have been a significant user base for years prior to taking the throne. In this day and age, any business making apps should be either building for both platforms simultaneously, or building Android first and iOS second. I'm not sure how the decisions were made at Adobe, but they definitely weren't based on analytical data. More likely based on their team's personal preferences. Don't get me wrong, I love Adobe. Maybe just a little less right now. I am strictly an Android user. Most of the people I know are strictly Android users. This means I'm using products from other companies, since Adobe decided they don't want my business.

[floramc]

You are hopefully glad that they just launched today four key-applications for Androids, then, are you?

[Peter Villevoye]

@Splork: stop those silly theories...

The backgrounds of these plans and delays have been declared and have nothing to do with the things you insinuate. It's better to develop and test complicated frameworks on iOS, so Adobe tested these first. Now that these iOS apps are outgrowing their infancy, Adobe could set themselves to developing the Android versions as well, while working on more iOS apps. But these and other Android apps will also follow, soon. Be happy not to have had these earlier incarnations of most iOS apps on Android. They were pretty lame...

[Splork]

"stop my silly theories"

OKAY DAD - SURE THING.

[floramc]

Kimberly Siebert wrote:

"stop my silly theories"

OKAY DAD - SURE THING.

*cough*cough*

hypotetical relationships are off topics. Silly was not such a bad word. Noted you did not like it. we respect your sensitivity and your complaints. Let's not get like the ones nobody likes

or it starts I "no, I am your father" discussion and in the end the round black spaceship Explodes and we discover twins and and and and... Who focuses on the apps then ?

[The Jayster]

lol! Dude - I love that name ('Splork' lol) Anyhow - yeah - I myself am still a pretty big "Adobe + Apple" theorist. Whatever good that does. I still make my living with their software either way (did have to unween myself from my Flash life quite a bit tho - no thanks). What would that be... Appobe, or Adopple? Just too many brazen signs of it all over their advertising. But, at least there is some sort of semblance of a theory offered in Peter's description. The best anyone is gunna get as far as Adobe Forums are concerned I think. Pretty tough to explain the platform switch-up after that early launch tho. Ah well...

[Scottfromscotland]

This surely does make me wonder why I'm having to pay the same price as apple consumers for my CC access?? Surely its discriminatory to provide unequal device support to a privileged few  who have access to the plethora of latest apple devices? Come on adobe please appreciate the demand from your consumers, Android are the one of largest retailers of mobile phones in the world, vast in comparison to apple!

[Peter Villevoye]

Please read this discussion from the beginning (or at least some recent posts) and stop complaining about a perceived "inequality". Adobe strives  to have all products and their features to as many potential users as possible. Of course it makes sense to have these apps also available for Android, but they have to start developing with some group, some focus, before spreading them to a wider use. This is the "Agile" way to do things, in stead of keeping the stuff another year or so in-house, and missing all possible feedback from initial users.

BTW: apps can't be part of the CC subscription deal, because they're obtained (both free and paid, not subscribed) through the Apple and Android app stores. Especially Apple is very keen on not letting apps be part of a larger deal, without getting their piece of the cake. So that's also why almost all of the Adobe apps are free.

[Derjis]

I'd be a lot happier if Adobe strove to release products that weren't hilariously riddled with bugs...

[The Jayster]

Hi Peter -  Just a heads up that I'm not personally all that concerned at this stage about the apps - kinda burned out on waiting for them to return to Android etc - I work mainly from my PC. It aint like I'm starving in a 3rd world nation or something - cuz I don't have apps lol. There are bigger issues out there.

But I just wanted to pipe in - cuz this string hasn't lasted long enough lol - and reiterate one of my much earlier posts. Perhaps I'm missing something in my understanding of the Adobe business model that you are somewhat defining in your comment, but I'm not seeing the logic in that interpretation of the process thus far. This is simply because when I subscribed to the Creative Cloud (prior to it's release), I was very excited about the Android apps themselves - which where ready to go (to whatever degree of usefulness) and already built for the Android platform. Again, as I mentioned earlier, this was used as a big part of the draw for those moving over to the new/upcoming cloud model - we where promised a grip of apps that were included in our memberships. At that early point - it appeared that they had already chosen the test platform - being Android - because the vast majority of the apps where only available for Android - and not iOS. iOS had like maybe 2 available at release. Once Adobe launched CC however - the apps where soon after removed from our app stores. My point is - how/why is it that this early/original history of the mobile apps is being largely dismissed in all these posts? And why are we blazing on as if iOS was simply chosen as the original dev platform - and all the Android folks are just waiting for them to finally start concerted development? Adobe chose Android first - then they disappeared - then reappeared for iOS... only. To add to the annoyance/suspicion - this, all after the premature "no more plugins" on mobile debacle. Kinda of a bad decision if you ask me - especially given the timing - if yer trying to reassure your customer bases that you are about all of them, and not catering to one. Then - the whole 99% of devices being Apple in all training videos and site photos... that's weird too - especially given the worldwide user landscape. These little things just exacerbated paranoia I think - and they are poor/short-sighted corporate decisions in my opinion. No adjustment to the CC pricing either... just "nope - you aint gettn 'em now." So... that's the real weirdness I think - and perhaps the underlying energy behind any apparent frustration.