Adobe discontinues Photoshop Touch for Android, announces Project Rigel retouching system

Adobe announced today that it plans to discontinue its Photoshop Touch software for Android as it changes its approach to bringing features from its professional desktop application to mobile platforms. Rather than continuing to develop an all-in-one app that tries to recreate the Photoshop desktop experience on smartphones and tablets, Adobe is fully embracing its recent strategy of releasing multiple apps that each perform specific functions well. Adobe also revealed a preview of one of those new apps coming to replace Photoshop Touch under the name Project Rigel…

Project Rigel is what Adobe is calling its upcoming app that it describes as a “serious retouching solution for mobile,” which is says is currently being developed and on track for release toward the end of this year. Adobe even shared a 2 minute preview video showing Rigel’s ability to perform advanced, non-destructive correction edits to images.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLhftwa2-y4]

As for the other apps Adobe expects you to use on Android instead of Photoshop Touch, the creative software company highlighted its catalog of recent software releases that focus on bringing specific features from the desktop Photoshop experience to mobile devices including Photoshop Mix, Shape CC, Color CC, Brush CC, and Comp CC. The new approach also means many of these apps are available for free to download, instead utilizing Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription service for adding cloud-syncing features that compliment the desktop Photoshop experience.

The only problem is that Adobe hasn’t focused on bringing those apps to Android, instead targeting iOS first. It does plan to remedy this, however, with new Android apps in active development:

Photoshop Touch was available across platforms and so I’d like to leave all of you on Android with some good news – we’re actively developing new mobile applications for Android and will share those with you very soon.

Adobe says the $9.99 Photoshop Touch for Android will no longer be available on the Play Store starting May 28th, so you’ll need to buy it before then if you want to have access to the now-retired Photoshop Touch after that date.

While Adobe notes that the app will continue to work for the foreseeable future, it adds that it does not plan any future software updates, and updates to the operating system have historically caused problems for unsupported apps. If nothing else, Photoshop Touch’s retirement in favor of more focused apps should have the effect of making Adobe’s mobile approach less confusing for consumers. For customers affected by the app’s retirement, Adobe has provided this support guide.