Since the work-from-home culture went mainstream, Adobe has been rushing to add collaborative features to its products. To help achieve its goals, the company even acquired Frame.io. Now, more collaborative features are coming to Photoshop.
Launching as a private beta next week, the update will allow multiple user to access and edit the same document simultaneously. This presents all sorts of opportunities for collaboration, particularly on large teams, not to mention real-time client feedback.
What’s coming?
The new feature is called “Live Co-Editing”. Essentially it’s a way for multiple users to work on the same file at the same time. While this might sound like a simple feature, it comes with lots of issues. Letting multiple users access the same file at the same time can lead to corruption and data loss.
So, Adobe’s having to be careful how they implement it. Once available, though, Adobe lists a number of perks and use cases:
- Multiple designers can simultaneously work on a Photoshop document, splitting tasks to tackle and complete projects more efficiently, together.
- Creative teams at large enterprises can collaborate on highly matrixed projects, solitic stakeholder input and address feedback all in a single file.
- Creators can collect client feedback more intuitively by inviting them to directly collaborate on a file, view edits and make comments.
- Students can follow along live as educators demonstrate workflows and teach techniques in Photoshop. Comments and edits can be made directly in a student’s document by teachers to help enhance learning and contextualise feedback.
Adobe – Giving users what they want?
This has been a highly requested feature in Photoshop. With more people working from home, it’s not surprising why. Working with others online, sometimes thousands of miles away, is an invaluable ability. However, the software has taken a while to catch up to user needs.
Now, it seems that companies are starting to pay attention and deliver what we’re asking for. At least, they’re working on it. The new Photoshop features aren’t being released just yet. They’re not even going public beta yet. It’s launching next week as a private beta.
This is going to upset those who’d hoped the announcement would be available immediately. But wouldn’t you like them to actually get it right? The fact that they’re announcing it at this early stage suggests they’re trying to do exactly that.
And given the recent price hikes for its lowest package customers, Adobe needs to win back some trust amongst customers. It needs to show its subscribers how their money is being spent and how it will continue to benefit them.
There’s no news on when this will come to public beta or a final release yet, but we’ll let you know when that happens.
