Adobe treated professional and aspiring artists alike with flurry of new apps and updates to its existing portfolio, creating an aura of excitement so intense that a key development went unnoticed. Adobe has eliminated the traditional dependencies of its Photoshop Lightroom app for iPhone and the iPad, making the app a truly standalone product.

Photoshop Lightroom has always been available for iOS as a free download, but required users to be running the Lightroom desktop app and be subscribed to the Creative Cloud. This made the mobile version of Adobe’s app a mere companion app with no real control over standalone photography and image editing.

As of today, you can use the app locally on your iOS device complete with the image editing tools without needing the desktop app and an active Creative Cloud Photography plan subscription – which earlier was a must. "Lightroom for mobile for iOS can now be used on your phone or tablet without a paid membership, coming soon to Android.” Photos can now be captured directly from the updated Lightroom app, and even carries the new Dehaze filter which was just added to the desktop app. There are plenty of other tools to tinker with as well.

Just a few days back Adobe announced two brand new apps for the iOS platform which saw the company making some serious effort with regards to the mobile platform, given the quality and function of the new apps. Interestingly the company seems to have realized that the mobile platform could help generate more revenues than it had imagined.

Adobe is hoping that giving mobile users the freedom to play around with Lightroom could entice a few into opting for the paid desktop app and an active subscription, especially considering that smartphones are increasingly becoming the choice of camera’s for many. Adobe has not said when a standalone Lightroom app will arrive on the Android platform, but it is actively working on such a release.

If you wish to give the app on an iPhone or iPad a whirl, simply head to the download links given below.

(Download: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for iPhone from the App Store)(Download: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for iPad from the App Store)