Skillshare: Online Classes App

Review by eFreeware

Learning a creative skill on your own is rarely a straight line. You pick up a pencil or open a design tool, follow a few free tutorials, then stall on the parts nobody explains. The gap is usually structure: someone who knows the craft laying out what to practice and in what order. Skillshare, from Skillshare, Inc, is built around that idea, packaging thousands of video classes on creative subjects into an Android app.

The catalog is broad by design. Drawing, calligraphy, graphic design, photography, animation, illustration, hand lettering, pattern and icon design, watercolor, music, creative writing and digital marketing all appear, and the developer frames the range as suitable for hobbyists and professionals alike. Some lessons focus on the tools of the trade, including Procreate, Fresco, Illustrator and Photoshop.

The app is free to download and carries no ads, though it offers in-app purchases. It has been on Google Play since May 2015 and sits at a 4.1 average from more than 58,000 ratings, with over a million installs behind it. That history suggests a settled product rather than an experiment, and the most recent update was a round of bug fixes and stability work.

Building a drawing or design practice

For anyone who draws, paints or works in design software, the appeal is the guided lesson format. Instead of hunting through disconnected tutorials, you follow a class from start to finish, which is closer to how a workshop or evening course works. The developer describes the teaching as coming from leading professionals, and the subject list reaches into specific niches such as pattern design, icon design and hand lettering rather than staying at the level of general drawing.

Several of the listed classes are built around particular applications. If your interest is digital illustration, lessons covering Procreate, Fresco, Illustrator and Photoshop suggest you can learn the software and the craft in the same place. That combination is the part I find most useful in principle, since tool knowledge and technique are usually taught separately.

The trade-off is depth. A video class can show technique and set assignments, but it cannot watch your hand move or correct a wobbly line in real time. What you get instead is a consistent structure you can repeat, which suits people who practice on their own schedule and want a clear path rather than a tutor looking over their shoulder.

Photography, writing and marketing lessons

Not every class is about making marks on a page. Photography, creative writing and digital marketing are all part of the catalog, which widens the app's reach beyond traditional art. Someone building a small business might use the marketing material to sharpen how they present work, while a writer could work through craft-focused classes alongside their own drafts.

Music and language learning also appear in the developer's list, alongside arts and crafts. That breadth is deliberate: the pitch is that the app covers whatever creative skill you have been meaning to develop, whether it stays a hobby or turns into paid work. The risk with a catalog this wide is that quality and depth vary by subject, and no single app can be equally strong across all of them.

For readers weighing this up, the sensible approach is to check whether the subjects you care about are represented before committing. The range is genuinely wide, but it is a creative catalog, not a general-purpose course platform, and the strongest fit is someone whose interests sit inside that list.

Watching lessons on a phone or tablet

The app is designed for learning away from a desk. Progress syncs across multiple devices, so a class started on a phone can be picked up later on a tablet without losing your place. There is also a mini viewer, which keeps a lesson playing in a smaller window so you can follow along while working in another app.

Offline viewing is part of the offer, though with a distinction worth noting. The developer describes offline viewing as a general convenience, and separately states that Premium members can download classes to watch offline. If you travel or work in places without a reliable connection, that difference matters when deciding which tier you need.

The developer's own framing is that the app goes where you go. On a phone, that mostly means short sessions fitted around other things, and the mini viewer is the feature that supports that style best. It is a small addition, but it acknowledges that people often watch instruction while doing something else.

What you get before paying

Skillshare is free to download and includes hundreds of free classes, so you can start watching as soon as the app is installed. That is enough to judge whether the teaching style works for you before any money changes hands.

The full library sits behind Skillshare Premium, a subscription that gives unlimited access to premium, subscription-only classes. A 30-day free trial is offered. After it ends, payment is charged to your Google Play account and the subscription renews automatically unless auto-renewal is switched off at least 24 hours before the current period ends, with renewal charged within the 24 hours before that period closes.

The practical implication is that this is a subscription product with a free entry point, not a one-off purchase. Anyone who tries the trial should treat the renewal date as a real deadline, since the default is to continue. The app carries no ads, so the subscription is the main commercial relationship here.

Getting set up

There is very little between downloading the app and watching something, since the free classes act as the entry point.

The main decision comes later, when you hit the boundary of the free selection and consider the Premium trial. Because the subscription is handled through Google Play, the billing stays in one place.

The app was last updated in September 2026 with bug fixes and stability improvements. More improvements are planned, which is a modest signal rather than a promise of new features. For a product that has been on the store since 2015, that pattern is normal maintenance.

Who it fits best

This app suits people who want structured creative instruction and are willing to pay a subscription for a large catalog. If you already know which skill you want to build and prefer following a class rather than assembling your own curriculum from scattered sources, the format lines up well. Hobbyists and working creatives both appear in the developer's framing, and the subject list supports that range.

It also fits learners who move between devices or want to watch while doing something else. Progress syncing and the mini viewer are aimed at exactly that pattern, and offline downloads for Premium members extend it to situations without a connection.

Skillshare is a subscription library of video classes, and its value depends on how much of that library you will actually work through.

A subscription library worth trying for creative learners

Skillshare is a well-established option for learning creative skills on Android, with a catalog that stretches from drawing and watercolor to photography, writing and digital marketing. The free classes let you sample the teaching before committing, and the 30-day Premium trial opens the full library if the free selection clicks with you.

The caveats are straightforward. It is a subscription, it renews automatically unless you turn that off, and the breadth of subjects means quality will vary across them. Offline downloads for classes are tied to Premium, so the tier you choose affects how you can watch.

I would point this at hobbyists and working creatives who want a steady supply of guided lessons and will use the catalog regularly. If your interest sits inside the subject list and you like learning by following a class from beginning to end, the free classes and trial give you a low-risk way to find out whether the format suits you.

What's new in version 5.4.81

This release we've fixed some bugs and improved app stability. Stay tuned for more improvements—we're working hard to make life easier for creatives like you to learn and create!