For digital artists in the Apple ecosystem, Procreate is practically a household name. The iPad version—long a favorite among illustrators and designers—has set the bar for creative tools, and its iPhone counterpart has always held its own. Now, Procreate Pocket just dropped a game-changing update that narrows the gap even further.
The first thing you’ll notice is the revamped UI, built around a sleek, compact card system that makes navigation a breeze. And finally, dark mode—one of the iPad app’s most-requested features—has landed on iPhone. Procreate Pocket was already a top pick for our best iPhone apps for designers, but this refresh makes it both more powerful and more visually polished.
Bridging the divide with its tablet sibling even more is the addition of the Valkyrie graphics engine. We were blown away by how it transformed performance in the iPad’s Procreate 5X update, and it brings that same lightning-fast responsiveness to mobile. “Thanks to new advanced shaders, Valkyrie absolutely flies on iPhone,” Savage International noted in a press release . For artists working on detailed pieces, that speed difference is a game-changer.
The update also packs in a host of fan-favorite tools from the iPad version. Brush Studio lets you craft custom brushes or import your go-to Photoshop brushes seamlessly—handy for anyone who switches between platforms. Animation Assist, meanwhile, covers everything from quick looping GIFs to intricate, frame-by-frame animations, turning your phone into a portable animation studio.
While porting iPad features is a win (let’s be real, Procreate for iPad is one of the best Photoshop alternatives out there), some tools feel made for iPhone. Take Palette Capture: it uses your iPhone’s camera to snatch real-world colors—like a physical eyedropper tool for the world around you. And if you’re using one of the best camera phones, you’ll get even more precise color picks than you would on a tablet .
Sure, the iPhone can’t match the iPad’s screen real estate for sprawling canvases. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in portability—it’s a full creative studio that fits in your pocket. For designers, there’s a time for both: the iPad for deep dives, the iPhone for on-the-go sketches or last-minute tweaks. This update ensures the iPhone experience keeps pace when inspiration strikes.
The new Procreate Pocket is available now as a free update for existing users. If you don’t have it yet, it’s a one-time $4.99 purchase on the App Store—no subscriptions, just permanent access to pro-level tools . Want to get the most out of the update? Check out today’s top iPhone 12 bargains to pair with it.
