Six Adobe Creative Cloud Android apps will be available on dozens of Chromebooks later this month, the San Jose-based company announced on Tuesday. In the coming weeks, the firm will release Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Lightroom Mobile, Adobe Comp CC, Illustrator Draw, and Creative Cloud Mobile on a number of various Chromebooks that are already supporting or will soon support Android apps. Mark Rupert, Senior Director of Adobe Education, said that the company is happy to offer its free tools to students and educators who are bound to find them useful. The launch is expected to be a gradual one and as such, it has no firm release date attached to it, but all six of Adobe Creative Cloud apps listed above should be available for download from the Google Play Store on compatible Chromebooks by the end of the month. In fact, they’re already available on select devices as of today.
Adobe said the decision to offer its mobile tools on Chromebooks is a part of its effort to improve education worldwide, citing an internal research according to which most students and educators in the West agree that technology enables more creative endeavors. As Rupert put it, “creativity [in education] is more important than ever,” and Adobe is apparently willing to do its part in advancing education by providing free digital tools to students and educators. The company’s decision to launch its creative Android apps on Chromebooks was also prompted by the fact that Chrome OS-powered devices have recently been gaining a lot of traction in both North America and Europe, allowing the company to reach a large audience. Adobe previously praised Google’s decision to bring Android apps to Chromebooks, so its decision to take advantage of that support isn’t surprising.
While Adobe’s free creative tools aren’t as robust as their desktop variants, they still offer a plethora of options and are regularly updated with new ones, making them more than adequate for an educational environment. Adobe Creative Cloud apps will also support styluses and cameras on compatible Chromebooks. Owners of the Google Chromebook Pixel (2015), ASUS Chromebook Flip, and Acer Chromebook R11 / C738T can already download Adobe’s Android apps from the Google Play Store as of today.