Why Canva's Droptober Update Has Everyone Talking: New AI Tools and Features Unveiled

It’s release season, and that goes for software, too, which is why it’s no surprise that Canva announced a slew of new features in its ‘Droptober’ release.

Lifewire received the press release announcing Canva’s Droptober feature launches via email. Among the new features coming to Canva is a new image generator called Dream Lab, which the company says is powered by Leonardo.Ai, which it acquired in July 2024. The image generator is designed to sit atop Canva rather than be built into the program interface.

You can use Dream Lab to create custom images that you can then use in your Canva designs, and you can create multiple images at once. The new feature also allows you to use a “reference image” in much the same way Adobe does with its Reference Image feature (which was announced in March 2024 as ‘Structure Reference’).

Another feature Canva just introduced is branded Captions, which lets you create captions that fit your brand. More Whiteboard features are also on the way, including the ability to sort features, simplify summaries with Magic Write, and add Reactions on stickies that let your team or class vote on ideas in real time.

Polls and quizzes you can add to your presentations and social media posts are also coming to Canva soon. Magic Write is also getting some design updates that include smarter suggestions and new iterative capabilities using commands like “more like this” and “this, but.”

Rounding out the top features are Custom Mockups, which let you use your images in mockup templates, and interactive charts, with new options like Area and Statistical Charts.

Some of the new features (like Dream Lab and Branded Captions) are available now, while others (like Mockups or polls and quizzes) are “launching soon.” Also, some of the features require a professional subscription to access. Head over to Canva’s Droptober page to learn more about what’s new and coming soon.