Generative AI products that can create amazing images and videos indistinguishable from real ones have practically democratized photoshopping. You no longer need years of training or expensive software to create and edit any kind of image or video. Just issue commands in natural language, and the advanced AI model of your choice will deliver stunning results in seconds.
You’d think these developments would directly threaten Adobe, the creator of Photoshop. But Adobe isn’t backing down. Instead, the company has adapted its tools to take advantage of generative AI innovations. Products like Photoshop and Firefly already let you use AI to brainstorm and create images and videos tailored to your needs.
Adobe isn’t even trying to one-up the likes of OpenAI, Google, and other AI firms that might seem like competitors. Instead, the company is embracing those alternatives, integrating them into apps like Firefly.
Just like that, Firefly can become your one-stop shop for all things photo and video creation that benefit from advanced AI tools. Adobe has just expanded the list of AI partners in the Firefly app and released iPhone and Android versions.
Adobe hosted its Max event in London a few weeks ago, where it announced several big updates to Firefly, including support for high-end third-party AI models and a new Firefly Boards feature designed to help teams collaborate on AI-generated content.
Adobe also confirmed at Max that iPhone and Android Firefly apps were coming soon, though it didn’t share release dates.
Fast-forward to June 17th, and Adobe has released the Firefly app for iPhone and Android. Along with it, Adobe announced a new partnership with third-party genAI services for generating and editing photos and videos, plus new Firefly Boards features.
What AI models are available in Firefly?
You can use Adobe’s own models, also called Firefly, in the Firefly apps to generate photos and videos. But if you prefer something from the competition, Firefly gives you that option too.
Here’s the current list of partners, including the new AI models Adobe announced on Tuesday:
- Image Models: Black Forest Lab’s Flux 1.1 Pro and Flux.1 Kontext; Ideogram’s Ideogram 3.0; Google’s Imagen 3 and Imagen 4; OpenAI’s image generation model; Runway’s Gen-4 Image
- Video Models: Google’s Veo 2 and Veo 3; Luma AI’s Ray2; Pika’s text-to-video generator
Of those, Ideogram, Luma, Pika, and Runway are new Adobe partners for Firefly.
The new mobile app
The Firefly app for iPhone and Android is available to download now, so you can create AI content “wherever inspiration strikes.”
The mobile app gives you quick access to tools you might already use in the desktop version of Firefly, including Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Text to Image, Text to Video, and Image to Video.
Creators can choose between Adobe’s Firefly models or rely on third-party frontier AI from Google and OpenAI.
The Firefly mobile app lets you save your creations with your Creative Cloud account, making it easy to switch between mobile and desktop without interrupting your work.
One big advantage of using the Firefly app instead of going directly to OpenAI, Google, or other genAI tools is that it brings everything together in one place. That’s especially useful if you’re using multiple content generation platforms for a single project.
That’s exactly what Adobe is aiming for. “We built the Firefly app to be the ultimate one-stop shop for creative experimentation, where you can explore different AI models, aesthetics, and media types all in one place,” said Adobe’s vice president of generative AI, Alexandru Costin. “Every new partner model we add gives creators even more flexibility to experiment, iterate, and push their ideas further.”
Adobe also addressed content safety, saying a “durable ‘nutrition label’” will be attached to everything created in the Firefly apps. This will identify whether Firefly AI or a partner model was used. It’s unclear if this label will be visibly marked, though.
You’ll need an Adobe account and a plan to unlock all Firefly features. Access to third-party models depends on your subscription. In-app purchases include a Firefly Mobile Monthly plan ($4.99) and a Firefly Mobile Yearly plan ($49.99).
New Firefly Boards features
Adobe also introduced new features for Firefly Boards, which debuted a few weeks ago.
Firefly Boards let you generate video using either the Firefly Video model or an AI from an Adobe partner. You can also make iterative edits to images using the AI model of your choice.
The feature helps organize your Boards with a single click so everything’s ready for a presentation. Adobe Docs can also be linked to Boards.
