The Microsoft Designer app has finally gone out from its preview phase!
This innovative application, now available to users on iOS and Android platforms, as well as on the web and Windows, offers a fresh approach to digital creation.
The Microsoft Designer app enables users to generate a wide array of visual content, from stickers and greeting cards to invitations and collages, all through the power of text prompts and artificial intelligence.
What makes Microsoft Designer app a unique product?
The Microsoft Designer app stands out with its user-friendly interface and powerful AI capabilities. At its core, the application utilizes text-to-image technology, allowing users to describe their desired designs verbally. This feature opens up a world of possibilities for both experienced designers and those new to the creative process.
One of the key features of the Microsoft Designer app is its collection of “prompt templates“.
These pre-designed starting points serve as catalysts for creativity, offering users a variety of styles and descriptions to experiment with. Users can share these templates, fostering collaboration and inspiring new creative directions. The template sharing feature facilitates learning and improvement of prompting skills over time.
Expanding creative possibilities
The Microsoft Designer app offers specialized tools for various design needs. Users can create custom emojis, clip art, wallpapers, monograms, and avatars from simple text descriptions. Content creators and social media enthusiasts can leverage these tools to add personal touches to their digital communications.
AI-powered image editing is another notable feature. Users can upload existing photos and transform them using AI-driven styles and effects. This functionality enables quick image enhancements without complex editing software or advanced technical skills. Users can erase unwanted objects from photos, remove backgrounds, or auto-crop images with minimal effort.
The app excels in creating personalized greeting cards and invitations. Users describe the occasion, mood, or theme, and the AI generates custom designs with personalized messages. This feature addresses the challenge of finding appropriate words or design elements for special occasions.
Integration with Microsoft ecosystem
The Microsoft Designer app integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products. It’s accessible through Microsoft Copilot in applications like Word and PowerPoint, allowing users to create images and designs within their workflow. This integration enables document and presentation enhancement without switching between multiple applications.
Users with a Copilot Pro subscription can create images and designs directly within Word or PowerPoint. Microsoft has announced plans for a feature that will generate document banners based on Word document content, further integrating text and visual elements.
Microsoft plans to extend the Designer app’s generative AI editing and creation capabilities to other applications, starting with Microsoft Photos. This expansion will bring advanced editing tasks to familiar photo management software. Similar capabilities are expected to roll out to Microsoft Edge in the future.
How smart is its intelligence?
The Microsoft Designer app demonstrates AI’s potential in the creative industry. It generates complex designs from text prompts, making sophisticated design tools accessible to a wider audience.
The “Restyle image” feature allows users to transform photos into new artworks. Users upload an image, choose from a set of styles, and add extra details through text prompts to create entirely new visuals based on their original photos.
Custom image frame creation is another innovative feature. Users can upload an image and describe or choose a style for a personalized frame.
For multiple images, the app offers collage creation, where users select photos, choose styles, and add descriptions to customize their collages.
More to come
Microsoft is developing new features for the Designer app. The upcoming “Replace background” feature, in preview for select markets, will allow users to swap photo backgrounds using text prompts. This feature has potential applications in product showcasing, craft projects, or creating imaginative scenes.
Currently, the Microsoft Designer app offers 15 free daily “boosts” for creating or editing AI-powered images and designs. These boosts are used automatically when creating or editing in the Designer app or integrated Microsoft apps. A Copilot Pro subscription ($20.00 user/month) provides 100 boosts per day for more intensive use.
Responsible AI implementation
Microsoft shares the implemented measures for responsible and ethical use of AI technology in the Designer app in a blog post. These include guardrails, threat monitoring, abuse detection, and provenance technology. These measures aim to mitigate potential negative outcomes and prevent system misuse. Microsoft continues to strengthen its safety systems to maintain a secure user environment.
Hands-on experience with the Microsoft Designer app
Upon launching the Microsoft Designer app, users are greeted with a simple login screen, followed by a dynamic video showcasing the app’s capabilities. This introduction provides a quick overview of the app’s potential, setting the stage for the creative journey ahead.
Microsoft’s commitment to user privacy is evident from the start. The app presents a text explaining how Microsoft protects user security, followed by an optional data-sharing request. This transparent approach to data handling is a refreshing feature not commonly found in many AI-powered applications, highlighting Microsoft’s dedication to user privacy.
The home page presents two main categories:
- “Create with AI”
- “Edit images with AI”
Under “Create with AI,” users can find options for generating Images, Social media posts, Invitations, Avatars, Stickers, Wallpapers, Monograms, and Coloring book pages.
The “Edit Images with AI” section offers “Remove background” and “Blur background” features.
Testing the social media post creation reveals the app’s prompt template feature. These Microsoft-prepared prompts guide users through the creation process, allowing for customization by editing bracketed sections. When requesting an informative post about dynamic AI usage, the app generates multiple design options, which users can download as desired.
The app’s bottom drawer contains Home and My Projects buttons. While newly created posts may not immediately appear in My Projects, users can access images previously created through Bing Image Generator using their Microsoft account. This integration of the Microsoft ecosystem adds a nice touch to the user experience.
The Microsoft Designer app demonstrates a user-friendly interface combined with powerful AI capabilities. Its integration with the broader Microsoft ecosystem, emphasis on user privacy, and diverse creation options make it a versatile tool for digital design. As the app continues to evolve, it has the potential to become an indispensable resource for both casual users and professional designers, further solidifying Microsoft’s position in the AI-powered creative software market.
Featured image credit: Microsoft
