ZDNET’s key takeaways
- There’s now an Adobe Premiere app for Android.
- The app is free and packed with features.
- You can pay for premium AI features.
Adobe Premiere is now available <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.premiere&hl=en_US” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>as an Android app, and if you’re looking for a new video editor on your phone, this one is worth a look.
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Long regarded as one of the top names in video editing, Adobe Premiere debuted an iOS app a year ago, but it hasn’t had a proper Android app for years.
My experience with the Adobe Premiere app
I’m in the very early stages of building social media accounts and a website for a home-baked cookie business I’m starting, so I’ve been dabbling with different video editing apps. Even as a reasonably tech-savvy guy, I’ve found them either too overwhelming to get started with or too basic. I gave Adobe Premiere on Android a test drive, and it couldn’t have gone better.
The app version of Adobe Premiere is easy to use, and it does the job well. It’s not quite as robust as the desktop app, but it’s very solid.
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One of the biggest positives about this app is that it’s fairly feature-packed, especially for a free app. There are no watermarks, no ads, and no push for a premium subscription to unlock more features. There are generative AI features like Generative Fill, Image-to-Video, and Generate Sound Effects that cost credits ($70 a year or $8 a month for 1,200 credits), but the core functionality is accessible without paying anything.
Why try Adobe Premiere on Android?
Here’s a look at what else makes this app worth your time compared to the built-in Android video editor.
Multitrack editing:One of the first differences I noticed is that Adobe Premiere has multitrack editing capability. Google Photos is perfectly fine for stitching a bunch of clips together while trimming the edges and maybe adding some transitions and music.
Adobe Premiere’s multitrack editing makes it super easy to get multiple videos out of the same clips — say, a main video and B-roll, or different videos for different platforms from the same content. This is also a significant leap above Google Photos if you want to do a little more advanced editing with one video over another (like picture-in-picture or layers of video), or if you want to layer graphics.
Easy handoff between app and desktop:I’ve never used the desktop version of Premiere before, but now I’m tempted to make it my go-to because the handoff between the desktop and app versions is seamless. I was able to easily access projects on multiple devices.
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Superior audio editing:Android’s built-in video editor includes basic audio editing, like the ability to add music and adjust volume, but Adobe Premiere takes things further with the option to increase or enhance speech and reduce background noise. I tested this on a quick video, and the difference was noticeable. The video I edited with the default app was fine, but my Adobe video sounded like it was recorded with something much higher quality than my phone.
Precision editing:Google Photos trims videos just fine, but I found myself struggling to hit just the right point if I was looking to edit a cut very precisely. I was able to do this much more easily on Premiere, as the latter lets you edit down to the individual frame.
Much better text assets: You can add a text overlay in Google Photos, but the fonts and colors are limited. Adobe Premiere has a much larger library of title templates, lower thirds, and customizable graphics.
Google Photos isn’t all bad
I like Google Photos‘ brightness and contrast controls, skin tone adjustment, and white point adjustments a little more than Premiere’s, and it has a few free AI features. But overall, it doesn’t even come close to the capability of Adobe’s new app.
If you’re just putting together a few quick videos for a social media post, the default app might get the job done, but if you’re doing anything beyond the most basic of editing — like creating content for YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram Reels, adding voiceovers or text, or using background music — you’ll want to give Adobe Premiere a go.
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The app is designed to work with most modern phones (you’ll need Android 13 or later with a minimum of 5GB of RAM), even foldables. Adobe said that more features are on the way soon, like Adobe Fonts, keyframes, beat detection, and more.
