Designer Comes to Photos App in Windows and Microsoft 365 Copilot App on Mobile

Microsoft Designer is a generative AI-powered graphic design solution that’s available in standalone web and mobile app versions. But Microsoft has been integrating Designer capabilities into other apps in Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 since its inception. And this week, it is highlighting two new integrations.

“Microsoft Designer is an AI-powered visual creation and photo editing app that helps you generate custom images, stickers, greeting cards, and more – with just your words. You can also easily edit your photos to make them just right, removing distractions, photobombers, and more,” Microsoft’s Lisa Chan and Akshiv Baluja explain. “Microsoft Designer is now integrated seamlessly into [the] Photos [app in Windows] and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (iOS, Android), the one-stop mobile app that brings together Designer and other Microsoft 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint, and more, all in one place.”

Microsoft announced Designer as a new Microsoft 365 offering in October 2022, launching it in private preview on the web at that time. Its generative AI image creation capabilities are based on OpenAI DALL-E and are essentially identical to what’s still available separately as Bing Image Creator. But the full Designer product is similar to Canva or Adobe Express, in that it targets individual, amateur, and professional designers and other content creators with a wide range of tools for creating graphics for online and print use.

Designer went into open preview in April 2023, when it was integrated into the Microsoft Edge sidebar. Microsoft released mobile app versions of Designer for Android and iOS in July 2024, along with Restyle image and Replace background features that it also added to the Photos app in Windows 11.

Those features remain in Photos, but you can also now access a more full-featured Designer experience directly in the app. Just open an individual photo and click the “Edit with Designer” toolbar button. This new experience offers several generative AI features, including selective edit (with object erase, move, color pop, cutout, focus, and more), auto-enhance, background removal (and blur and color replacement), generative text suggestions, and generative image, sticker, and icon additions.

As for the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Android and iOS–which, yes, was previously called the Microsoft 365 app–you can access Designer directly in the app by tapping Create in the bottom toolbar and then Designer. From there, you can use “Create with AI” to create images, social media posts, invitations, stickers, wallpapers, and other content, “Edit with AI” to use generative erase, frame image, edit image, remove background, and blur background on a phone-based photo, or “Design from scratch” to start a new design. I assume this works much like the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint capabilities in the app in that it’s a full-featured mobile experience without the need for separate apps.

(If you use Microsoft 365 Copilot in Windows, navigating to Create > Designer will open Microsoft Designer on the web.)

Designer in Photos for Windows and Microsoft 365 Copilot on mobile requires a personal Microsoft account, while generative AI capabilities require a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription.