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Adobe Aero

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Adobe Aero
Information
Type Augmented reality authoring software
Industry Augmented reality
Developer Adobe
Operating System iOS and iPadOS (creation and viewing); macOS and Windows (desktop beta); Android (Aero Player beta, viewing only)
License Proprietary, free of charge
Supported Devices iPhone and iPad; Mac and Windows PCs; ARCore-capable Android phones (viewing)
Release Date November 4, 2019 (iOS); October 20, 2020 (desktop public beta); discontinued November 6, 2025
Website https://www.adobe.com/products/aero.html (now redirects to the end-of-support FAQ)


Adobe Aero was a free augmented reality (AR) authoring and publishing application made by Adobe as part of its Creative Cloud service. It let designers and artists build interactive AR scenes from 2D and 3D assets without writing code, then share them as links or QR codes that viewers opened on a phone or tablet.[1][2] Adobe first announced the project as "Project Aero" alongside Apple's WWDC keynote in June 2018, opened a private beta at Adobe MAX in October 2018, and released the app on iOS on November 4, 2019.[3][4][5]

A desktop version for Mac and Windows entered public beta in October 2020, and an Android viewer app, Aero Player (beta), followed in February 2021.[6][7] In August 2025 Adobe announced that it would end Aero. Under the schedule it published, the app was withdrawn from Creative Cloud, the App Store and Google Play on November 6, 2025; shared Aero scenes stopped working on December 3, 2025; and user data was scheduled for deletion from Adobe's servers on December 16, 2025. Adobe said Aero had been developed "with the goal of eventually being used with mixed reality glasses" and that "the industry landscape for AR has changed since 2020."[8][9]

Reviewed 6 October 2026. Re-checked history dates, quotes, release versions, behaviors, file formats, system requirements, sharing and end-of-support schedule against archived Adobe Help Center pages, Adobe blogs, the Adobe Community announcement, 9to5Mac, Road to VR, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Forbes, MIXED, XR Today, Google sources, and the three research citations via Crossref. About review dates.

History

Project Aero (2018)

Adobe introduced Project Aero on June 4, 2018, the day Apple announced ARKit 2 at its Worldwide Developers Conference. On stage at the WWDC keynote, Adobe chief technology officer Abhay Parasnis announced that Creative Cloud would support USDZ, the AR file format Apple developed with Pixar. Adobe said Project Aero would let designers prepare AR content in tools they already used, such as Photoshop and Dimension, and that it was working with open standards efforts such as usdz and glTF.[3] Road to VR described the project as an AR authoring tool and multi-platform system for building simple scenes for Apple's ARKit; it quoted a blog post in which Parasnis wrote that assets could be converted "into usdz that can be natively consumed in the Apple ecosystem."[10] To promote the project, Adobe hosted The Festival of the Impossible, an exhibition of work by 15 artists in San Francisco from June 8 to 10, 2018.[3][10]

At Adobe MAX in Los Angeles on October 15, 2018, Adobe started the private beta. In a blog post, Parasnis described three parts of the plan: making existing tools such as Photoshop CC and Dimension CC "AR ready", building new immersive design tools for desktop and mobile devices, and adding cloud services to publish content to the real world.[11] VentureBeat reported that the tool would let creatives make AR content without learning a game engine such as Unity, and quoted Parasnis as saying that anyone who knew Creative Cloud tools such as Photoshop, Premiere or Lightroom would "know AR."[4] During the MAX keynote, Simone Cesano, Adidas's senior director of design technology, described the company's work with the Project Aero team. Later that month, at Apple's October 2018 iPad Pro event, Adobe product manager Chantel Benson demonstrated Project Aero together with the upcoming Photoshop for iPad.[12]

Launch on iOS (2019)

At Adobe MAX 2019 on November 4, 2019, Adobe dropped "Project" from the name and released Aero as a free iOS app for iPhone and iPad. Desktop versions for Windows and macOS stayed in private beta.[13][5] Stefano Corazza, Adobe's head of augmented reality, wrote that "thousands of users" had taken part in the private beta. Adobe also ran an AR Residency program in which artists worked with the product team. At MAX, Adobe showed artist Gabe Barcia-Colombo's updated AR project Descent and a Terminator: Dark Fate AR experience built with Aero.[1] Forbes reported that more than 200 free assets were available at launch. Corazza told Forbes that other companies had "mostly focused on desktop tools, but with AR, you need to have that world-facing camera."[13]

Aero 2.0 and the desktop beta (2020-2023)

On October 20, 2020, at Adobe MAX 2020, Adobe announced Aero 2.0 for iOS and opened a public beta of Aero for desktop on Mac and Windows. The desktop app let creators build and edit scenes in a non-AR view on a computer. At that point an iOS device was still needed to view the finished AR content. Aero 2.0 added GIF and PNG import for 2D animation, multi-track animation, playback of pre-recorded animations on 3D characters, custom thumbnails and QR codes for share links, a Discovery tab of curated AR content on iOS, and publishing of Aero projects to Behance profiles.[6]

The Aero Player (beta) app for Android, released in February 2021 as version 0.2.0, could open Aero experiences but not create them. Adobe directed creators to the desktop beta or the iOS app.[7][14] Adobe's October 2022 release added an iOS App Clip, a lightweight viewer that opens a shared experience without installing the full app.[7] Shared links could then be opened on iOS through the App Clip and on Android through an Instant App player.[15]

Geospatial Creator (2023-2024)

In May 2023 Google announced Geospatial Creator, a tool for placing AR content at real-world locations, inside Adobe Aero and Unity. It was powered by ARCore and the Google Maps Platform.[16] MIXED reported that the tool was not yet publicly available at the time, and that only selected users and partners had early access.[17] Google's codelab for the "Adobe Aero Geospatial pre-release" explains that creators used Google's Photorealistic 3D Tiles to preview a location in the Aero editor without visiting it. They then placed 3D content, added behaviors and published the experience to Adobe's App Clip or Play Instant app for viewing on ARCore-supported iOS and Android devices.[16] Aero's November 2023 release (iOS 2.24.1, desktop 0.24.1) added location anchors based on Geospatial Creator.[7] At Google I/O in May 2024, Google said Geospatial Creator in Adobe Aero was open to everyone with no waitlist, for AR experiences in more than 50 countries.[18]

End of support (2025)

Adobe announced the end of Aero on August 7, 2025, in an Adobe Help Center FAQ and in a post by community manager Jeremie Noguer on the Adobe Community forum. Adobe gave the following schedule:[8][9]

Date Step
November 6, 2025 Aero removed from Creative Cloud, the Apple App Store and Google Play; installed copies kept working and files could still be downloaded
December 3, 2025 Aero decommissioned; files no longer accessible from Adobe's servers; Aero scenes (.real files) stop working for authors and viewers; support ends
December 16, 2025 Aero user data removed from Adobe's servers; no recovery after this date

Adobe said that Aero had always been free, so subscriptions were not affected. In answer to whether a replacement was planned, the FAQ said "Not at the current time." It said that "while Adobe is continuing to explore mixed reality, the team is choosing to focus its resources on alternative areas of development." To keep their work, users had to export a scene from the desktop beta as a .real file and rename it to .zip; the 3D assets were then in an Assets folder.[8] In XR Today, publisher Rob Scott wrote that the shutdown showed that mainstream adoption of AR remained elusive, and that marketing teams, training departments and retail businesses that had built AR content with Aero now had to choose between moving to other platforms and reassessing their AR plans.[19]

Features

Authoring and anchors

Aero was built around authoring in place. On iOS the scene was assembled through the device camera, with touch gestures used to place, scale and animate objects; the desktop beta added a non-AR editing view.[5][6] Scenes were positioned with anchors. A surface anchor was a trackable position found by scanning the room until enough feature points appeared; Adobe recommended well-lit spaces with contrasting colors and textures and few reflective surfaces.[20] An image anchor locked content to a printed image such as a poster, recognized and tracked with computer vision. Adobe advised against images with rotational symmetry or repeating patterns.[21] The 2023 releases added location anchors, along with mask objects (invisible objects that hide content behind them, used for holes or portals), reference objects that appear only while editing, and per-asset shadow settings.[7]

Behaviors

Interactivity in Aero was built from "behaviors", each made of a trigger and one or more actions arranged as blocks in a Behavior panel. Actions could run one after another or in parallel. The triggers were Start, Tap, Enter Proximity and Exit Proximity. Actions included Play Animation, Play Images, Play Audio, Spin, Bounce, Aim, Show, Hide, Move, Rotate, Scale, Move to, Orbit, Follow, Wait and Open URL. Actions such as Aim, Orbit and Follow needed a target, which could be the camera, the scene anchor, another object, or a pin placed in space.[22]

Assets and file formats

Aero could import layered Photoshop files and spread their layers out in 3D space.[5] Parasnis described the app's library of pre-built animations and behaviors as working by drag and drop, "without any coding."[13] Aero also shipped with starter 2D, 3D and audio assets and could import assets from other Creative Cloud apps.[2] Adobe's list of supported formats was:[23]

Asset type Formats
2D images JPEG, PSD, PNG, TIFF, GIF
Audio WAV, MP3 (recommended)
3D GLB (recommended), FBX, archive (.zip), OBJ with MDL or MTL materials, PNG sequence
Aero projects REAL

Sharing

From either the iOS app or the desktop beta, a creator could publish an experience as a public link with a title, author name and thumbnail; Aero also generated a QR code. The shared version stayed fixed until the creator applied later changes from the share menu. Viewers did not need to install an app, since links opened in the iOS App Clip or the Android Instant App player.[15]

Supported devices

Adobe's requirements for the July 2023 release (iOS version 2.23.6 and Android Player version 0.23.2) were:[24]

App Requirement Supported devices
Aero mobile (iOS) iOS 16.0 or later; Apple A11 Bionic or newer iPhone X and later; iPad 8th generation, iPad mini 5th generation, iPad Air 3rd generation, iPad Pro 2nd generation and later
Aero Player (beta) on Android Android 11 or later; ARCore support and Vulkan 1.1 or later Samsung Galaxy S22 and S21; Google Pixel 7 and 6

The iOS app was available in English, German, French and Japanese.[24] The desktop beta required macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or a 64-bit version of Windows 10. Adobe listed 8 GB of RAM as the minimum and 16 GB as recommended.[25] Adobe's latest listed versions in its release notes were iOS 2.24.1 and desktop 0.24.1 (November 2023). The desktop app was still labeled a beta when Aero was discontinued.[7][8]

Reception

In TechCrunch's launch report, Frederic Lardinois wrote that in the demo he saw, Aero was "indeed extremely easy to use."[5] Michael Steeber's hands-on review for 9to5Mac compared it with Apple's Reality Composer. He called the interface approachable and praised Photoshop import, but found that Aero gave less control over materials, physics and behaviors. He also reported that precise positioning was difficult, that he could not find an undo function, that imported PSDs looked low in resolution and lacked blend modes, and that scenes could only be built in live AR view.[26]

Research and education

Aero appears in education and art research as a no-code tool. A poster paper at the ACM Southeast Conference in April 2024 described workshops that introduced AR art creation with Aero to audiences from middle school to college.[27] A 2024 book chapter by Shalin Hai-Jew discussed using generative AI image tools to produce visual material for Aero-based mobile learning designs.[28] A narrative review published in December 2025 compared Aero, used for site-specific mobile AR, with Spatial, used for multi-user virtual galleries, in graphic art exhibitions.[29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stefano Corazza (2019-11-04). "Introducing Adobe Aero: Step into a New Reality". Adobe Blog. Adobe. https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2019/11/04/introducing-adobe-aero-step-into-a-new-reality. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "What is Adobe Aero". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20260106003541/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/what-is-adobe-aero.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Michael Steeber (2018-06-04). "Adobe's Project Aero will let designers easily create AR content using existing Creative Cloud tools". 9to5Mac. https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/04/adobe-project-aero-arkit/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Khari Johnson (2018-10-15). "Adobe launches Project Aero AR authoring tool in private beta". VentureBeat. https://web.archive.org/web/2018/https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/15/adobe-launches-project-aero-ar-authoring-tool-in-private-beta/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Frederic Lardinois (2019-11-04). "Adobe launches Aero, its AR authoring app". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/adobe-launches-aero-its-ar-authoring-app/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jesse Damiani (2020-10-20). "Augmented Reality At MAX 2020: Adobe Announces Aero 2.0 With Public Beta For Desktop App". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2020/10/20/augmented-reality-at-max-2020-adobe-announces-aero-20-with-public-beta-for-desktop-app/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "What's new in Adobe Aero". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20260109015322/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/whats-new.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "Aero End of Support FAQs". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. 2025-08-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20250812181832/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/aero-end-of-support-faq.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Jeremie Noguer (2025-08-07). "Announcing Adobe Aero End of Support". Adobe Community. Adobe. https://community.adobe.com/questions-82/announcing-adobe-aero-end-of-support-1219182. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Scott Hayden (2018-06-05). "Adobe's Project Aero Aims to Help Creators Build AR Content". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/adobes-project-aero-aims-help-creators-build-ar-content/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  11. ↑ Abhay Parasnis (2018-10-15). "Adobe Previews Project Aero: Augmented Reality and the Incredible Future of Storytelling". Adobe Creative Blog. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20190319161639/https://blogs.adobe.com/creative/adobe-previews-project-aero-augmented-reality-and-the-incredible-future-of-storytelling/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  12. ↑ The Creative Cloud Team (2018-11-19). "Augmented Reality at Adobe MAX: How Project Aero Will Put the Power of AR in the Hands of Designers". Adobe Blog. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20190715223646/https://theblog.adobe.com/augmented-reality-at-adobe-max-how-project-aero-will-put-the-power-of-ar-in-the-hands-of-designers/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Jesse Damiani (2019-11-04). "Adobe Announces The Official Launch Of Aero, Its AR Authoring And Publishing Tool". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/11/04/adobe-announces-the-official-launch-of-aero-its-ar-authoring-and-publishing-tool/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  14. ↑ "Aero Player (beta) on Android - Common Questions". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. 2025-08-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20251208135054/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/android-faqs.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Share your AR creations". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314214525/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/share-ar-creations.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Get started with the Geospatial Creator in Adobe Aero pre-release". Google for Developers. Google. https://web.archive.org/web/20250808143810/https://developers.google.com/codelabs/arcore-adobe-aero-geospatial-creator. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  17. ↑ Martin Schwarz (2023-05-13). "Google turns the world into an AR stage with Geospatial Creator". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/google-turns-the-world-into-an-ar-stage-with-geospatial-creator/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  18. ↑ Bradford Lee, Jenny Sun (2024-05-15). "Google AR at I/O 2024: New Geospatial AR features and more". Google Developers Blog. Google. https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-ar-at-io-2024-new-geospatial-ar-features-and-more/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  19. ↑ Rob Scott (2025-08-27). "End of an Era: Adobe Pulls the Plug on Aero as AR Industry Reality Bites". XR Today. https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/end-of-an-era-adobe-pulls-the-plug-on-aero-as-ar-industry-reality-bites/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  20. ↑ "Scan a space and set a surface anchor". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20260311224856/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/scan-a-space-and-set-a-surface-anchor.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  21. ↑ "Set an Image Anchor". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20251206125402/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/set-an-image-anchor.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  22. ↑ "Add interactivity to digital assets". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20260113042243/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/add-interactivity-to-digital-assets.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  23. ↑ "Supported file formats". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. 2023-07-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20250624015004/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/using/supported-file-formats.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Adobe Aero mobile system requirements". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. 2023-08-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20241226115011/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/system-requirements.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  25. ↑ "Adobe Aero desktop system requirements". Adobe Help Center. Adobe. https://web.archive.org/web/20251201061437/https://helpx.adobe.com/aero/system-requirements-macos-windows.html. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  26. ↑ Michael Steeber (2019-11-04). "Hands-on with Aero, Adobe's new AR creation app". 9to5Mac. https://9to5mac.com/2019/11/04/adobe-aero-ar-app-review-ipad/. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  27. ↑ Kelechi Ariwodo, Carina George, Thien Nghi Duong, Anca Doloc-Mihu, Cindy Robertson (2024-04-18). "Teaching Art Creation with Augmented Reality and Aero". Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Southeast Conference (ACM SE '24), pp. 311-312. Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603287.3656158. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  28. ↑ Shalin Hai-Jew (2024). "Using Artmaking Generative AIs to Support Augmented Reality Learning Designs With Adobe Aero App". Inquiries of Pedagogical Shifts and Critical Mindsets Among Educators, pp. 132-152. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-1078-6.ch006. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
  29. ↑ Nur Adilah Abdullah, Muhammad Fadhil Wong Abdullah (2025-12-09). "Narrative Review: The Synthesis of Metaverse and AR Technologies in Graphic Art Exhibitions Through Spatial.io and Adobe Aero". Journal of Information System and Technology Management, vol. 10, no. 41. https://doi.org/10.35631/JISTM.1041012. Retrieved 2026-10-06.
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