Canva has been hitting the headlines of late, with a stream of updates – including the launch of its Creative Operating System and, more eye-catchingly, the big news that one of my favorite pro-grade design platforms Affinity is now free for everyone.
Keen to find out what’s really going on, I asked Anna Wood, Product Marketing Lead at Canva what the latest developments mean for users.
- Canva’s ‘Creative Operating System’ positions it as a central hub, not just a tool. What does this signify about Canva’s ambition beyond visual communication, and how do you define your competition now that you’re an ‘OS’?
When we refer to Canva as a “Creative Operating System,” what we’re really saying is – this isn’t just a tool to make a single graphic anymore. We’re building something much bigger. We like to see it as this all-in-one platform that enables the entire creative journey, from your first idea all the way to publishing and tracking performance. Whether you’re designing, collaborating with a team, running a campaign, teaching a class, or using AI to speed things up, it all happens in one place.
When it comes to competition, we’re not just playing in someone else’s lane. We’re creating an entirely new category around visual communication. No one else in market offers a platform where design, collaboration, and publishing happen seamlessly. Now with our new Canva Design Model, we also offer fully editable AI outputs with manual control, wrapped into a platform where everything from forms and email design and video is connected. It’s this blend of simplicity, power, and interoperability that really sets Canva apart.
- Affinity is now free for all forever. It’s a major disruption to the creative software industry. Why now? And why switch from a successful perpetual license model to go free, rather than a subscription?
When Affinity joined Canva, we saw a chance to do things differently. Too many designers have been stuck with expensive subscriptions or clunky software that gets in the way. We’ve heard the same thing from thousands of creatives: they want speed, power, and freedom. So we rebuilt Affinity with the community—every detail shaped by real feedback and our Designer Advisory Board. And then we made it free.
We didn’t want cost to be the reason someone couldn’t create. Going free opens the door to millions more designers and lets us focus on long-term value: growing the community, deepening engagement, and connecting Affinity with the broader Canva platform.
- What will the transition from three separate Affinity apps to an all-in-one tool be for existing users and professionals whose workflows rely on Designer, Photo, and Publisher?
The functions of Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher are reflected in the Vector, Pixel and Layout Studios in the new Affinity, so existing users will quickly feel right at home. Switching between them is simpler than ever and users can even create their own custom Studio, containing their most-used tools from all three.
- With a free professional suite in Affinity, a simplified design platform in Canva, and an end-to-end marketing engine in Canva Grow, who is the Creative Operating System for? Are you targeting the individual creator, the small marketing team, or the large enterprise? All of the above?
It’s for all of them and more. When we set out to empower the world to design over a decade ago, we really meant everyone. The Creative Operating System is built to serve creators at every stage, from solo designers using Affinity for pro-grade work, to small marketing teams needing to create, publish, and measure campaigns fast with Canva Grow, to large enterprises rolling out brand-consistent content across thousands of people.
Wherever you sit, our goal is the same: remove friction, simplify your workflow, and give you the tools to create your best content, all in one place. That’s the power of an OS. It truly works for everyone.
- Your new AI is billed as the “world’s first model trained to understand the complexity of design.” In a world with powerful image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E, how does Canva’s model differ? How does it understand design logic and principles like hierarchy and balance to create fully editable content over simple static images?
The Canva Design Model does something fundamentally different – it creates fully layered, editable designs with real structure. Because we’ve spent over a decade building a design platform, we’ve trained our model not just on text or images, but on the actual DNA of great design, including our own library of professionally designed templates. That means it understands layout, hierarchy, branding, spacing, composition, and how to adapt across formats like presentations, social posts, websites, and more.
So when you generate something in Canva, it’s not just visually appealing – it’s editable, responsive, and built to be used. You can tweak each layer instantly, without re-prompting or starting over. It’s design logic baked into AI, and it’s built for real-world use.
- One of the big issues with AI design tools is the same-y designs that all mirror each other. How does a tool like Ask @Canva stop this and what’s the strategy for ensuring the AI acts as a creative amplifier, not a replacement for users’ unique creativity?
The most original ideas come when people riff with AI, not just take its first suggestion, and that’s exactly what Ask @Canva is built for. It’s not here to replace creativity, but to enable it. It’s a true creative partner for design advice for everything from formatting, quick edits to generating first drafts, so people can stay focused on their vision, voice, and taste.
Unlike other tools, Ask @Canva has real-time context. It knows what you’re working on and responds in the flow of your design by giving advice, adjusting elements, generating or editing copy and images, all without breaking your creative flow. It’s a totally new kind of collaboration between humans and AI. You’re still in the driver’s seat; the AI just helps you get there faster, with more possibilities to choose from along the way.
- The integration between Canva Code and Sheets is a very specific, data-focused feature. Can you give a practical, real-world example of the kind of interactive widget or live dashboard a team could build with this that wasn’t possible before?
We’ve essentially extended the powers of Canva Code to be more visual, customised and immediately trackable. With the new Sheets integration, anyone can now build full-stack apps, websites or interactive widgets that pull in live data. Think, a small business using it to collect custom orders, live quote requests, or community feedback. While a marketer may use it to launch an RSVP form and track signups in real time, or log expenses.
It’s great for anything from pricing calculators and landing pages to interactive project trackers and team ice breakers, with no coding skills or long admin hours needed.
- You’re also giving Canva Video a major upgrade with the addition of pro-grade tools. How do you see creators using the new tool now, and are you expecting a shift away from software like Premiere Pro for smaller video projects?
With Video 2.0, creators can go from idea to polished video quicker than ever. Magic Video lets you create an on-brand draft from a prompt while our upgraded editing tools give you full creative control. Whether it’s a social post, product explainer, or campaign teaser, anyone can create, edit, and publish straight to platforms like TikTok and Instagram without leaving Canva. It’s built for how creators make content today – fast, flexible & on the go.
As we grow Video 2.0, our goal is to bring the full Canva experience into video in a way that feels as simple, powerful, and accessible as possible. With more than 2.5 billion videos already created on the platform, we’re seeing huge demand for a platform-agnostic tool that works wherever creators are.
Where we’re aiming to stand apart is in mobile-first creation, no watermarks or paywalls, full ownership of your content, and AI that supports your style rather than taking over. It gives creators an alternative to fragmented, single-purpose software without compromising on quality or control.
- With Canva Grow, you’re moving from a creation tool to a full marketing platform that includes distribution and analytics. What’s the pitch for users already using marketing suites like Hubspot or native ad creation tools on platforms like Meta?
Performance marketing is evolving fast, and with AI-driven ad algorithms on platforms like Meta and TikTok, results now come down to the quality, volume, and diversity of your creative – not micro-targeting.
We saw a real gap for an all-in-one creative tool that ties data, distribution, and insights back to the most important asset: the creative itself.
That’s what Canva Grow is built for. Teams that are tired of juggling different tools just to stitch together creation, publishing, and reporting. It brings everything into one simple workflow, letting marketers create on-brand campaigns, publish directly to platforms like Meta, and track performance with AI, all in one place.
It’s perfect for small businesses and solopreneurs who need speed and simplicity, and it’s also the start of a bigger vision to build a connected, end-to-end marketing engine for modern teams of any size.
- Melanie Perkins, Canva co-founder and CEO, believes “we’re moving from the Information Era to the Imagination Era.” Beyond the new tools, what big shifts in a team’s day-to-day workflow do you believe the Canva Creative Operating System enables that embodies this new era of creativity?
In the Information Era, everything was about efficiency and having the right answers. But today, we’re in the Imagination Era where the most important skill that moves people and business forward is creativity. Coming up with new ideas, trying things quickly, and using AI to help you get there faster is what stands people apart now.
Our Creative OS is built for this new era where anyone can take an idea from A to B fast and at scale without specialist skills or having to jump between different tools. You get AI-assisted design, robust brand controls, collaboration, and publishing all in one place. It shifts the rhythm of work to more creating and less coordinating, freeing people up to focus on the storytelling and strategic thinking only humans can do.
Marketing teams, for example, can create a campaign, get instant feedback, and publish to channels like Meta, all without clicking out of Canva. Designers can set up holistic brand systems that automatically apply across every touchpoint, while non-designers can confidently create content on the go. The Imagination Era is all about making it easier to turn ideas into reality, and that’s what we’re really focused on.
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