Canva unveils global developers platform

GaryPageau
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Canva Developers Platform includes a set of APIs and development tools

Canva introduced its new Canva Developers Platform, which includes a set of APIs and development tools,  at the company’s first developer conference, Canva Extend in San Francisco. Canva also announced a $50 million Canva Developers Innovation Fund to support app developers.

Canva unveiled a multitude of ways for developers to build on the platform and released the Canva Apps SDK (Software Development Kit) for public use. Additionally, the company announced its first Canva Connect APIs (REST APIs) coming later this year, unveiled the Canva Apps SDK UI library and previewed the company’s API roadmap.

The Canva Apps SDK has been in beta for the last nine months, with more than 11,000 developers on the waitlist.

“We’re thrilled about the momentum gained from working with our beta partners to streamline app creation in Canva,” says Anwar Haneef, Head of Ecosystem at Canva. “By opening our design engine to a wider community of developers, we’re enabling instant distribution of their apps and services to millions of people on Canva. They can tap into the valuable feedback and creativity of our community, who will benefit from new ways to achieve their goals.”

The APIs used to build these beta apps have been refined over this time and at Canva Extend, the company announced that the following APIs are now available to the public:

  • Asset: Upload media to a user’s media library with the Asset API for a fast, efficient experience.
  • Data: Use the Data API to become a data source and make importing data seamless.
  • Design: The Design API can build new design tools that add content to a design, read and edit what’s already there, or let your users export and publish their designs to complete an end-to-end content management flow.
  • Fetch: Send HTTP requests to a third-party server with Fetch, a multi-purpose web API for tasks like integrating with external services and offloading tasks to a server.
  • User: Bridge the gap with the User API. Keep your app secure and allow users to authenticate via your platform.

AI Apps on Canva

As with Canva’s own AI-powered tools, AI Apps on Canva optimize the creative process and make it easier to get ideas off the ground. They are built to support AI app development with a range of targeted AI capabilities. In just nine months, more than 200 million unique images were generated with generative AI products like Text to Image and Magic Edit.

The suite of AI apps on Canva has expanded with the recent launches of AI audio apps like Soundraw, and D-ID, which creates AI-generated avatars for use in presentations, social posts, infographics, digital resumes and more. Apps from Murf AI, Neiro AI, Play HT, vAIisual are launching soon to bring further productivity and creativity gains to Canva users, the company said.