Adobe is bringing its Creative Cloud Android apps to Chromebooks

Thomas McMullan Read more January 25, 2017

Since Chrome OS has allowed the integration of Android apps, plenty of developers have been optimising their Android software to work on Google’s affordable laptops.

Adobe is bringing its Creative Cloud Android apps to Chromebooks

Adobe is the latest, with the announcement that it will bring updated versions of its Android Creative Cloud apps to work on the latest version of Chrome OS. The new iterations of its apps will also be optimised to encompass the new Chromebooks’ stylus support, touchscreens and cameras.

The Creative Cloud suite – built up of Photoshop Mix, Lightroom Mobile, Illustrator Draw, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC and Creative Cloud Mobile – will be available for free download. Note that you’ll still need to have an Adobe ID to use the apps.

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The news comes in the wake of Google’s announcement that it will be partnering with Acer and Asus, to make a new generation of Chromebooks angled towards classroom use. Indeed, Adobe is vocal about how it wants to integrate its apps with education: “The popularity of Chromebooks in the classroom has exploded, and we’re thrilled to offer students access to Adobe tools on these devices, allowing them to learn the way they do best – by doing and creating,” said Mark Rupert, senior director of education at Adobe.

The question of creativity

Speaking to Rupert at Bett 2017, he emphasised the need for classrooms of the future to foreground creativity as a skill to be nurtured.

“I have a daughter,” he said. “[In the future workplace] what’s going to differentiate her from algorithms? How can we help that? I think it’s by giving students an opportunity to create in a classroom environment.”

Adobe recently unveiled a study, titled “Gen Z in the Classroom: Creating the Future”, that claimed over three-quarters of students see creativity as essential to their future careers. Interestingly, 96% of teachers surveyed in that study believe “Generation Z” will work in careers that haven’t even been imagined yet – so pinning down that nebulous concept of creativity may prove difficult when you start talking about future skillsets.

Nevertheless, I asked Rupert how he thought Adobe would position its focus on creativity in classrooms 20 years down the line. “I think we’re always trying to look around the corner,” he replied. “You can never know for sure which platforms are going to be adopted, but we want to be where students are. Chromebooks are part of that story.”

At least in the short term, it seems that Adobe has bought into the idea of Chromebooks as a rising tool in education. If you’re using an Asus Flip, Acer R11/C738T or Google Chromebook Pixel, those apps are available now from the Google Play store. If not, you’ll have to wait until later in the month to use the Creative Cloud apps on Chrome OS.