Quick Info
  • With the Designer integration in Photos app, you can edit images with more AI features.
  • It is currently rolling to Windows 11 users in the insider channels (all) only.
  • The feature is available in most countries but is currently limited to users who have their Windows Display language set to English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, or Portuguese (Brazil).
  • To try the feature, update your Photos app to version number 2024.11070.12001.0 or higher.

A couple of months ago, Microsoft integrated Designer in the Windows Photos app so you could leverage its capabilities right from the app. However, the integration was superficial at best.

Currently, the Photos app features a 'Designer' button in the title bar when you're viewing a single photo. Click on the button, and it opens Designer in the default browser. The only good thing about this feature was that at least it loaded the photo you were viewing directly in Designer so you get to working on it right away. But as I said, the integration was superficial.

However, that's changing now. With the latest update to the Photos app, Designer has been integrated deeply in the Photos app. Clicking the new 'Edit with Designer' button opens the photo in Designer, directly within the Photos app, i.e., no more redirection to the web app in your browser.

Source: Microsoft

It will also leverage AI to help you edit your images. Using AI, Designer will be able to detect the subjects in the photo, so you can erase them using Generative AI, remove the background or blur the background of the photo to put the subject in focus. It'll also have other features like Color Pop, Auto Crop, Filters, Adjustments and Text and Markup features. This brings more AI editing options to the Photos app; Microsoft previously introduced an AI eraser to the Photos editor.

Source: Microsoft

If you sign in with a free personal Microsoft account, your edits will also be automatically saved so you can resume later at any time.

It won't offer the complete experience of using the Designer web app, though; options like Brand Kit, Templates, etc. that are available with Designer seem to be absent from the Photos integration.

The Photos integration of Designer is focused on introducing AI editing capabilities instead of the graphic design app experience that the web app embodies, which makes sense. If you want to use Designer to create graphic designs, social media posts, etc., you can always open it in your browser anyway.