Introducing the New Photo Editor by Aviary, Now Part of the Adobe Family

Today we’re introducing our first significant release to Photo Editor by Aviary since joining forces with Adobe a few months ago. Adobe VP of Products - Community, Scott Belsky spoke of how the two companies, dedicated to building world-class digital products for creative, were coming together to empower the future of mobile creativity. With today’s release of Photo Editor, available for both iOS and Android, we’re taking our first major step in that direction.

We heard from many of our users who wondered what the partnership might mean for Photo Editor, an app that has become globally synonymous with fast, fun, and intuitive mobile photo editing for millions. We think today’s release serves as a simple answer to these questions: Photo Editor is only going to get better. Today’s release is one of our biggest ever, loaded with new features to help take your creativity to the next level. Here are a few highlights:

●      Sync with Creative Cloud to keep your supplies forever - Now you have the ability to sign in to the app with an Adobe ID, which will sync all of your photo editing supplies - effects, stickers, frames, and overlays - to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Not only will this preserve your supplies forever, but it will also let you take them over to Photo Editor on another device.

●      Everything is free in November - What good is the ability to sync your supplies if you haven’t downloaded any? For the rest of November, all of Aviary’s awesome effects, stickers, frames, and overlays are free when you sign in to Photo Editor with an Adobe ID. Grab as many as you want, and keep them forever in your Creative Cloud. This is a $200 value, completely free for a limited time.

●      Overlays - Place stencils over your photos to make unique and creative images, perfect for sharing on social media. We’ll be adding new overlay packs all of the time and like effects, stickers, and frames, you have the freedom to make this tool all your own.

●      Vignettes - One of our big user requests, Aviary’s vignette tool makes it super simple to place a dark or light vignette over your photo, with support for custom size, shape, and intensity.

●      New photo adjustments including Highlights, Shadows, Tint, and Fade - These new adjustments (or “slider tools” as we call them here at the Aviary HQ) give you more creative freedom when it comes to manipulating your photos to achieve that perfect look.

●      Draw Brush - On iOS, our user-favorite Draw tool now comes with re-built brush technology that makes drawing on photos feel more natural and lifelike.

And this is just the beginning. Over time, we’ll be introducing even more creative features from inside our cozy new home at Adobe. Follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop on all of the great things we’ll be rolling out over the coming months, or drop us a line to tell you what you think of today’s release. And if you want to help us test exclusive features before they make it into our app, join our Android or iOS beta groups. Your feedback and involvement in the beta is invaluable and will help shape the future of Photo Editor for millions across the globe.

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Effects Intensity Comes to Photo Editor by Aviary for Android

We're thrilled to announce that today we're bringing effects intensity to Photo Editor by Aviary for Android, v3.4.7. You may recall that last week we released this very same feature in our iOS app, which lets users get the most out of our powerful effects by tweaking them to a specific strength. It's an incredibly simple and easy to use feature that adds a ton of value to our most popular tool.

To adjust the intensity of the effect, all you have to do is slide your finger up or down on your photo while you have an effect selected. This will bring up an intensity slider that fills and empties as you slide, indicating the strength of the effect. It's that simple.

This update also includes some important bug fixes and other optimizations. Please let us know what you think on Twitter. We hope you love it!

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Introducing Effects Intensity in Photo Editor by Aviary for iOS

Today we introduced a small, but important feature to Photo Editor by Aviary for iOS, v3.4.1: effects intensity adjustments.

We've heard from many of you about how much you love our awesome effects. But we've also heard how sometimes you want the creative freedom to alter the strength of those effects. With today's update, now you can.

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To adjust the intensity of the effect, all you have to do is tap on an effect once you have it selected. That will bring up a simple intensity slider that you can move up or down to your liking. Click 'Apply' and you're good to go with another beautiful photo.

In addition to this feature, we've also fixed some bugs and re-introduced the ability to share and Print to Walgreens from the app's home screen. Just tap and hold on any photo in the grid selector and you'll see a small menu of these options.

Have you checked out the update? Hit us up on Twitter to let us know what you think of the new effects intensity feature!

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Aviary's Holiday Gift to You: Photo Editor v3.2 for iOS

Seasons Greetings from Aviary! Today we’re introducing version 3.2 of our Photo Editor for iOS. This version was built with the Holidays in mind and is perfect for making beautiful holiday greeting cards out of your favorite photos, or for editing and printing your favorite holiday snaps. New features include:

• Brand New Text Tool - In response to Aviary’s #1 user request for new font support, version 3.2 brings a completely re-imagined Text Tool with support for 11 new fonts, including a special Happy Holidays typeface. Plus, new colors, auto-straighten, and multi-text object support make text more customizable than ever in Photo Editor.
• Holiday Bundle of Stickers, Frames, and Effects - Just in time for the Holidays! This version includes a bundle of limited edition seasonal content that features three new sticker packs, six delightful frames, and a new filter pack - available at a reduced price and perfect for making Holiday-themed greeting cards right from your iOS device.
• Upgraded Print to Walgreens Feature - Now that you’ve created gorgeous holiday pictures, print them out to the nearest Walgreens directly from the app! The Print to Walgreens Feature has been completely re-built to support multiple photo selection and an improved workflow, making the selection, checkout, and pick-up process easier than ever.
• Several important bug fixes including an issue that was causing photos’ EXIF data to be stripped from the photo upon saving.

Click here to download the new version from the App Store. Happy Holidays from everyone at Aviary!

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Photo Editor by Aviary App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Enhanced for iOS7

Come and get it! Aviary today announced the launch of its updated Photo Editor by Aviary App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, completely remade and enhanced for iOS 7. 

We’ve fully embraced the gorgeous iOS 7 design principles and features to make your photo editing experience fast, fun and more delightful than ever before.

If you’re new to Aviary – welcome! If you’re one of 20 million people who already have Aviary’s app installed on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, we can’t thank you enough for your continued support and feedback! You should automatically get the latest version of Photo Editor by Aviary when you update to iOS 7.

The new app gives you all the fantastic photo editing capabilities you’ve come to expect from Aviary but with an incredible number of updates and enhancements, including:

• All ­new interface! We’ve completely redesigned the app based on iOS 7 design principles. It's crisp, clear, beautiful and fluid, while making sure that the most important things – your photos – are at the very heart of the whole experience.
• Introducing the Supply Shop! We’ve made it ­easy to find all of Aviary's awesome Photo Filters, Frames and Sticker Packs in one place at the Supply Shop. We’re continually introducing new content packs to the Supply Shop which will make your photos look amazing. Be sure to check it out!
• Aviary’s gone global! We’ve always translated our app for people in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Now, it’s also available in Arabic, Turkish, Thai and Bahasa Indonesia! You can also now seamlessly share your edited photos on the largest social networks all around the globe – including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo.

The Photo Editor by Aviary App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or at www.AppStore.com/PhotoEditorbyAviary. 

If you're in NYC, come by AviaryHQ next Tuesday for a talk on how we handled the iOS7 migration and how you can bring your own apps up to speed. Register for the event here: https://aviary-ios7.eventbrite.com/ 

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Aviary Android SDK 3.0 Now Available

Photo Editor for Android

Today we're bringing all of the awesome changes we introduced last week in our Android Showcase App to our new SDK, version 3.0. In case you missed it, these changes included a beautiful redesigned interface and some important new features for both users and developers.

To recap, this huge update included a sleek, streamlined interface that's optimized to highlight photos (the most important part of the experience) by switching over to a darker theme and reducing padding throughout the editor. We also drastically improved the ever-popular Enhance tool by adding a new Hi-Def feature that sharply smartens and defines, an Illuminate function that's great for improving poorly-lit photos, and renaming Balance to Color Fix, which performs incredible color correction to photos. Plus, the Text Tool now finally supports multiline text editing!

Also, like all SDK releases, 3.0 includes many under-the-hood tweaks and improvements, including support for a whopping 30 Megapixels (for Premium Partners) and a 10% reduction in SDK bundle size. That reduction means a smaller file size for app developers, and less precious hard disk space taken up on users' devices (your users will thank you for that one).

Visit our website to check out the nitty gritty in the official changelog and to get your hands on the SDK. Already up and running with 3.0 and have some feedback? Let us know what you think by hitting us up on Twitter!

Big Update: Aviary Releases Version 3.0 of Android App

Photo Editor for Android

Today we're introducing Version 3.0 of Photo Editor by Aviary for Android. This is a gigantic update - our biggest for Android, ever! It features a beautifully redesigned interface that’s faster, easier to use, and a lot of fun.

We blogged recently about 100% growth in the Aviary partner network in 2013. Similarly, Aviary’s own-brand Photo Editor apps have seen a surge in installs this year. We now have more than 11 Million Monthly Active Users across our own-brand iOS, Android and Windows apps, with over 50% on Android. That's up from just over 30% in January - making Android by far and away our fastest growing platform. So we're thrilled to introduce an all-new version of the app today. Here are a few of the great improvements we've made:

• Sleek, Streamlined Interface – First and foremost, the user interface has been completely redesigned, and it's beautiful. The main editor toolbar now scrolls instead of paging, making it way easier to find all of the Editor's great tools. We've also gone to great lengths to highlight the most important part of the Editor - your photos - by switching over to a dark theme and reducing padding.
• Improved Enhance Tool – Enhance, has been…enhanced! This incredibly popular tool now has three great settings: Hi-Def, Illuminate, and Color Fix. Hi-Def smartly sharpens, adjusts contrast, and brings out the best parts of your photo, while Illuminate makes poor-lit photos look like they were taken in great lighting. Color Fix (previously called Balance) does intelligent color correction and works beautifully.

• Beautiful Filters – One of the awesome things about our Android Showcase App is that you can customize your version of the app by installing content packs. You can add incredible Filter packs for even greater flexibility and additional editing options. With today's new Android release, we're introducing the Woodland Effects Pack, perfect for outdoor photos. This pack has been a big hit on iOS, and we think our Android users are also going to love using it this summer.
• Super Fun Stickers – Users love taking advantage of our stickers to add fun, creativity, and surrealism to their photos. Like Filters, users can install new sticker packs through our in-app store. Packs like Space, Mustaches, and Hats have been incredibly popular, and we’re adding new stickers all the time.

• Improved Focus Tool – Focus helps draw attention to the subject of a photo by defining the photo’s focal point and blurring out background objects. We've modified the User Experience so it’s easier to use, and more fun to play with. We bet a lot of you are going to be making miniature-looking photos these next few days ;)
• Color Splash – Our awesome ‘Splash’ tool strips out color from your photo, then lets you paint it back in a super fun way. The Smart Color brush intelligently limits splash to the color of your choice, while the Free Color brush lets you just go nuts and color in whatever you want. It’s one of our favorite tools, so check it out.

• Reduced Bundle Size – We've reduced the file size of the editor by over 10%, which means it's quicker to download and takes up less, precious space on your device.

And there are all sorts of other little tweaks and improvements going on underneath the hood, which makes for a faster, more stable, and all around better app. So check it out and get editing some photos! Want to show off your work or let us know what you think? Hit us up on Twitter to get in touch. Happy editing!

iOS users: we didn’t leave you out! A brand new version of Photo Editor is also available for iPhone, iPad, and iPad Touch in the App Store.

Aviary iOS SDK v3.0 is Officially Live!

Aviary Editor, v3.0

Starting today, the long-awaited version 3.0 of the Aviary iOS SDK comes out of beta for its official release! This is one of the biggest SDK updates we've ever released, stacked with lots of new features, bug fixes, and even some changes to the way the SDK works under the hood, specifically around customization.

3.0 has all of the great features we rolled out to our iOS Showcase app, which has gotten tremendous feedback from our users. This app is used by millions around the globe, so you can be sure that the features we're introducing today in the SDK have been officially road-tested and are ready for prime time. If you haven't had a chance to check out the app, let me recap on what we've introduced and also fill you in on the SDK-specific stuff:

• Sleek, Streamlined Interface with Improved Customization 
• New Interface Customizer - Dedicated Mac App that makes editor interface customization simpler and much more flexible
• New Focus Tool - Also known as Tilt Shift, this tool draws attention to the subject of your photo by defining the photo's focal point
• New Warmth Tool - Adjusts the photo's color balance
• Improved Enhance Tool - Hi-Def enhance smartly sharpens and adjusts contrast, Illuminate improves poor-lighting, and we've renamed Balance to Color Fix
• Instant Editor Load - Actual editor load time has been drastically reduced due to improved interface rendering
• Less Memory Consumption for High Resolution Editing
• Reduced Bundle Size - Halved the weight of the SDK's asset bundle
• Bug Fixes
• Stability Improvements
• Removes all references to UDIDs - We've updated our Localytics analytics library to the most recent version to comply with new App Store guidelines.

That last bullet is incredibly important. After May 1st, Apple will start rejecting apps that make reference to UDIDs, so if you plan on submitting an update to your app after that day, you'll need to update to 3.0 before doing so. Check out Localytics' blog for more information on the UDID issue.

So head over to aviary.com/iOS to grab the brand new SDK and get started with your integration. And as always, if you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you!

Aviary iOS Showcase App v2.0 Available Now

Photo Editor by Aviary, v2.0

After months of brainstorming, white-boarding, designing, coffee-drinking and coding, we are incredibly proud to announce the release of Photo Editor by Aviary, version 2.0, for iOS. This is the most significant update we have ever made to the app, with tons of enhancements, tweaks, changes, features, improvements, and a whole lot more. We couldn't be happier with this release and we're confident our users will be, too. Plus, all of these great improvements that we are rolling out today will be available in our iOS SDK in the coming weeks. So developers, stay tuned!

Now, about those improvements. There are lots, so lets get into it:

• New Focus Tool - Focus helps draw attention to the subject of your photo by defining the photo's focal point and blurring out background objects. This tool is known as 'Tilt Shift' among some photographers, and is also used to make objects in certain types of photos appear miniature.

• New Warmth Tool - This tool adjusts color balance to bring out both cool and warm tones within your photo. It's a feature our Android users have been able to take advantage of for some time now, so we're excited to finally be able to offer it on iOS.

• Improved EnhanceTool - One of our all-time most popular tools, Enhance, has been...enhanced. The new Hi-Def enhance feature smartly sharpens, adjusts contrast, and brings out the best parts of your photo, while Illuminate makes poor-lit photos look like they were taken in great lighting. We've also renamed Balance to Color Fix to better inform users of what it's actually doing to your photo.

• Instant Editor Load - In previous versions of Photo Editor, some users had to wait up to two full seconds for our editor to load after choosing a photo. Not the case, anymore. Now when you choose a photo, the editor loads near-instantly. This is due to drastically improved interface rendering (Devs - you're going to be able to take advantage of this feature big time in the SDK).

• Less Memory Consumption for High Resolution Editing - Your iPhone is essentially a computer in your pocket, but that doesn't mean it has an abundance of memory inside. So apps needs to be careful about how much of it they're using up, which makes high resolution photo editing tricky (it's a very memory-hungry process). But when editing high resolution photos in version 2.0, much less memory is consumed, which means quicker rendering & saving times and better functioning of your device, in general.

• Blur is 10x Faster - On the surface, blur may not seem incredibly important to the average user, but under the hood its used in many features inside the editor. Certain Effects, Sharpness, Blemish, and even our new Focus tool all take advantage of Blur, meaning those tools are now lightning-quick.

• Saving Photos is Up to 50% Faster - There are all sorts of behind-the-scenes enhancements going on in this new editor, and the payoff is huge. Saving photos is super fast now, and in some cases, up to 50% improved. That means more awesome photo editing in a lot less time.

• Sleek, Streamlined Interface - The most noticeable change in version 2.0 is the beautiful new interface (and we can't stop looking at it). The main editor toolbar now scrolls instead of paging, making it easier and faster to find your favorite tools. Plus, the dark-colored layout and reduced padding help to bring out the most important part of Photo Editor by Aviary - your photos. (Side note to our partners: this new darker layout will still be completely customizable in the upcoming SDK release, with an all new way to change the editor's colors)

And there are tons of other small (yet significant) improvements going on in the background that make for a much better photo editing experience, all around. We think you're going to love this new editor. So check it out and start editing some photos!

Have you tried Photo Editor v2.0? Let us know what you think on Twitter!

Celebrate St. Patty's Day with Aviary's Shamrock Stickers!

Shamrock Stickers

Happy (early) St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate this great, green holiday, we're announcing the release of the Shamrock Sticker pack in our iOS Showcase App. It's available now for a limited time only, so grab it while you can.

Aviary Showcase users love seasonal sticker packs. Our Holiday pack, which we put out back in December, became one of our most popular sticker packs ever. So, we decided it'd only be right to continue the holiday sticker tradition, and thus the Shamrock pack was born.  It features all the St. Patty's day stickers you'd expect like a four-leafed clover, pot of gold, rainbow, lucky horseshoe, and other green goodies. Plus, you can even dress your friends up like a Leprechaun with a hat, glasses, pipe, belt buckle, and some orange facial-hair.

Have you tried out the Shamrock pack? Show your Irish spirit by sharing your Shamrock photos with us on Twitter!