Adobe releases Lightroom for Apple M1 and Windows ARM devices

Following the beta version of Photoshop for Apple’s M1 Macs, Adobe is releasing Lightroom today for those machines and for Windows ARM devices. Instead of relying on emulation, the company says the latest version runs as a native app on those computers. “We rebuilt Lightroom to take advantage of the newest performance and power efficiency benefits of the Apple M1 and Qualcomm Snapdragon (for Windows 10) processors,” Adobe’s principal product manager for photography Sharad Mangalick explained in a blog post.

With today’s release, the company says Lightroom is now available across all major desktop, mobile and web platforms. Adobe has offered mobile versions for years, for both iOS and Android, as well as access to the photo editor’s tools in a web browser. The company says it will “continue to optimize” Lightroom for ARM and M1 processors in future updates while also continually improving performance on Intel machines. For now, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw will run on M1 systems via Apple’s Rosetta emulation. Adobe is working on native versions of those apps, and the beta of Photoshop is already available. If you can live with limited features, you can download it inside the Creative Cloud app.

As far as new features go across Lightroom apps, Adobe has added ProRAW support as part of today’s updates. The company says you’ll now be able to import and edit images taken in that format in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic or Lightroom (desktop, iOS, Android and web). Adobe also made new widgets for iOS 14, making quick work of taking photos and selfies using Lightroom camera. Back in October, the company added more film-like color grading tools to the app, and over the summer it began allowing users to share edits.