Login
Adobe Premiere comes to Android — here’s what 'free' gets you
- Adobe Premiere on Android has officially launched
- The free video editing app adds easy 4K video editing, AI, and more
- I checked out how the app runs, what you get, and if it really does offer 'effortless editing' for creators
What works: Easy edits, unlimited 4K exports, clean interface, loads of templates, quick generative AI
What doesn't: Limited free AI tokens
Adobe Premiere for Android has arrived - finally, since Apple users got this app almost exactly a year ago. The mobile editing app is promising to deliver 4K video for content creators, alongside a slew of other tools including templates and AI generation (did you ever doubt it?).
Like most of Adobe's mobile apps, Premiere is free to download from the Google Play Store, although you'll need a subscription for extra AI generations and storage.
The upshot is, I've been keen to try out this Android app for a long time now, so here's what you can expect after I spent an hour dabbling with it on my Fairphone.
What's new?
This new Adobe Premiere app is specifically designed for Android phones, including foldables. According to Adobe, you'll need a device running Android 13 or later, with a minimum of 5GB RAM.
The app serves up a host of useful tools for content creators, including 4K video, simple-to-use templates for speeding up production, multi-track timeline editing, music and audio effects, and generative AI for image and video.
One of the high-points, as far as I'm concerned, is that it has no ads and exported videos are watermark-free.
A lot of 'free' mobile video editors could learn from this. There are no added intros and outros promoting Adobe either. So you can basically start creating video for social channels immediately. You can read the full write-up in Adobe's blog here. But is it any good? Here are my thoughts...
First impressions
I spent the last hour toying with Adobe Premiere to see whether it lives up to the promise of creating "stand out edits to share on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook."
Spoiler alert: It's good stuff. A responsive app that's worth checking out if you need a free video editor that does everything I'd expect it to do. Especially if you have a paid Adobe account for those extra AI generations.
Layout
Adobe Premiere on Android feels very clean, very sensibly laid out. That's a relief, because often I find Adobe's user interface to be unintuitive as a result of too many features. A phone screen is the last place you want to combat that.
Along the top of the screen are shortcuts for the main functions. This includes 'New from files' and 'Create for YouTube Shorts', as well as AI generations tools 'Image to video' and 'Text to video'. Once you start editing, your most recent projects can be found below this.
Under those key tools are a ridiculous number of templates for quickly spinning up videos - notably, there are ones designed specifically for YouTube, with "exclusive music and effects."
All in all, it's very simple to jump into the timeline and start creating.
Editing process
Editing video is incredibly straightforward. It's not laggy or clunky like I've seen with some mobile apps.
In fact, I was impressed how responsive it was overall, even with relatively larger video files. Helpfully, there are undo and re-do buttons sitting beneath the large preview window. An absolute godsend when editing on a phone.
Once you have a clip loaded on to the timeline, double-tapping the video brings up the handles for trimming. There's a Plus sign for adding (or generating) more clips. And you can select from a range of transitions with the tap of a button.
Running along the bottom of the screen are options to add text and audio, modify aspect ratio. I particularly liked this, because inside the frame options are logos, letting you know which ratio is suitable for which platforms.
AI generation
You do get access to a limited number of free tokens for AI image and video generation.
And when I say limited, I mean it. It's not very generous, and Firefly eats through them. I managed to squeeze out a single 4-second 720p clip before I needed to upgrade (or rather, sign into my main account).
Still, the generation itself works well, and it's relatively quick. Functionally, it's exactly what you'd get if you were using Adobe Firefly in your browser, or the Premiere desktop app.
I like that you can define the first and last frames of a video, generate in 720p and 1080p resolutions, change the duration, and opt to add audio. But to really make the most of this part of the app, a paid subscription is essential.
Video export
Super-simple, this one. When you're done editing, tap the ever-present Export button in the upper-right corner. You're then able to either export direct or tweak the settings.
Those settings include changing the resolution (720p, 1080p, 4K), the frame rate, between 24 and 60fps, and quality (low, medium, high).
Once you've got it set, Adobe Premiere offers an estimated file size, which is a nice touch. I exported a 17-second video at 4K in highest quality. The 106.5MB video took 34 seconds to complete. I then had the option to share via the usual channels.
My initial verdict
The Android spin on Adobe Premiere is actually very good - although I'll be keen to put it under the full review process. But it's very easy to use, and the 4K res video export without watermarks is excellent.
The real catch is the laughably small AI generation limit. Unless you're a paid subscriber, I'd swerve those and use it strictly as an editor for your own clips. On that score, it delivers everything I'd expect from a free video editor for your phone.
