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Microsoft Designer app is the latest Canva rival– Here’s what it can do
Microsoft Designer app has finally made it to iOS and Android. But is it better than Canva?
Microsoft Designer app, its latest AI-powered Canva rival, is now finally available for both Android and iOS users. I call it Canva’s rival because it will be used for more or less the same tasks—creating thumbnails for creative projects, social media posts, and invitations. I hope you get the gist. That said, I use Canva on a day-to-day basis, despite being adept at other more professional tools like Photoshop. Why? Not only is it quick for basics, but for the mundane, it is the ideal tool. I tend to reserve my energy for the ‘Pro’ stuff. This is a sentiment I’ve heard voiced by many fellow creatives, and I’m all for it.
So, when the Microsoft Designer app finally made it to iOS and Android as a public release, I hopped onto it to check what it can do. The short answer: there’s a big focus on prompts here, and that is how you ‘create’ your own templates, making it more personalised than its rivals. However, Canva can do that too with the Magic Studio feature. More on that later.
Submit Prompts to Let AI Create Templates for You
The major benefit that apps like Canva bring to the table is their myriad of templates, which act as a catalyst in your design process. This is where I feel generative AI really comes in clutch to create something original quickly. Yes, you may see repeated designs, but it is still better than working with generic, already available templates.
Microsoft Designer emphasises this as a feature. Right when you open the app, you see options to create stickers, images, invitations, social posts, and more. I was quick to see how this app would help me create social posts. As soon as you tap, you are greeted with an input box where you can tell Designer what to create and whether you want images to go along with it. For instance, I asked it to create a series of five slides for an Instagram post, detailing the latest features of the newly announced Canon EOS R5 Mark II. After submitting the images and adding details, it created a perfectly legible post where I could add whatever details I deemed fit.
I can even tap an individual slide and fine-tune it to my needs. This includes removing and adding images, removing backgrounds from images, and adding new lines of text. In a way, it is the ideal way to start creating quick and easy designs for your day-to-day life.
What More Can Microsoft Designer AI app Do?
By now, you would have guessed it—Designer can also generate images for you, just like other AI-based apps like Microsoft’s own Copilot and Google Gemini. I submitted the following prompt: “Create a watercolour-style image of a flying pug, loaded with colourful candy. The dog has a cape and glasses.” Here’s what I got from the Designer app. I compared it with what I could get from Google Gemini using the same prompt, but the results were similar, and it is subjective which result you prefer. But, the fact that you can quickly generate an image in the Designer app and add it to your design is where the real value lies.
Remember, you can get similar images in Microsoft’s Copilot as well; it's just that there you have a complete suite of other generative AI features, similar to what you get with something like ChatGPT, which is also based on the GPT family of Large Language Models (LLMs).
Is Designer Better Than Canva?
It goes without saying, in its current form, Canva is the better and more feature-rich app. You can simply do a lot more with it. However, the Designer app is no slouch either, as it can let you quickly create designs, with prompt-based generation being a key feature. It should also be noted that most of the features on Canva are paid, requiring a Canva Pro subscription. With Designer, you get 15 free boosts daily for image generation, and if you buy a Copilot Pro subscription, you can get 100. This means functionalities such as removing backgrounds from images or blurring backgrounds to create a “Portrait mode” style image are free with Microsoft Designer, whereas they are not with Canva.
Overall, for my work, Canva will still be the way to go, at least for the foreseeable future, until Microsoft Designer adds better text-formatting options. However, it cannot be denied that it offers several fun-to-use features like AI avatars and restyling images, some of which are similar to the headliner features of Samsung’s Galaxy AI. So yes, it has a use case, and I’ll try to use it in parallel with Canva for the mundane. Competition is always appreciated, and I’m eager to see what Microsoft Designer brings in the near future.
