Adobe buys Aviary to boost Creative Cloud apps

If you've heard of Aviary, it's probably as the maker of a free editing photo platform that's not even on the horizon of most professional designers. Not something you'd think would be of any particular interest to the makers of a high-end tool like Photoshop CC 2014.

But what's interested Adobe about Aviary is as a developer of mobile SDKs (Software Development Kits) for the delivery of creative apps.

With thousands of developers already using Aviary’s SDKs, across mobile platforms, Adobe's acquisition, announced today, ties in with the company's strategy to make its Creative Cloud subscription service a platform for third-party apps.

App platform

Adobe wants this to happen through the Creative SDK, which gives third-party developers access to Adobe APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), previously only available to Adobe’s internal engineering teams.

Adobe Creative SDK Examples include: browsing files stored in Creative Cloud, extracting elements from PSD files, Adobe’s “Touch Slide” software for straight-line drawing and cloud image-editing services like Content-Aware Fill and Upright.

“Aviary has an exceptional team and technology platform, as well as expertise serving a robust developer ecosystem,” said Scott Belsky, vice president of Creative Cloud Ecosystem & Behance at Adobe. “We're thrilled to leverage Aviary's technology to make our Creative SDK even more powerful for app developers.

"This is great news for developers because thousands of mobile apps will have the opportunity to become compatible with industry-defining desktop tools like Photoshop CC, as well as new Creative Cloud services."

Aviary will continue to support and enhance Aviary's SDK as part of Adobe's broader Creative SDK offering.