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TOP STORY
📱 OpenAI releases “Sora 2” app
This week, OpenAI released "Sora 2," its flagship video and audio generation model, alongside a dedicated TikTok-style social app.
The release represents a significant leap in video generation, with improved physics accuracy, realistic rendering, and synchronized dialogue and sound effects.
Despite the gated release that requires an invite code, the video creation tool has already shot to #1 in the Apple App Store.
The Sora iOS app is currently invite-only and rolling out in the U.S. and Canada, though ChatGPT Pro users can access the Sora 2 Pro model without an invite.
The standout feature is "Cameos," which lets users insert themselves or friends into AI-generated scenes after a short one-time recording to capture their likeness and voice.
For creatives, this opens new possibilities:
Generate videos with realistic sound: Create clips with synchronized audio, including dialogue, ambient sounds, and sound effects, all generated from text prompts.
Follow complex prompts: The model excels at following intricate instructions spanning multiple shots while accurately maintaining world state across cinematic, realistic, and anime styles.
Model failure, not just success: Unlike prior models that "cheat" physics by morphing objects to execute prompts successfully, Sora 2 can model realistic failures and mistakes, which is crucial for any useful world simulator.
Videos created in the app can be shared on a TikTok-style feed, with an algorithmic system that curates content based on user activity and preferences.
The feature is fully opt-in, protected by verification challenges to prevent impersonation, and revocable at any time.
The release signals a growing trend of AI-native social platforms designed exclusively for synthetic content:
Video generation app Pika launched an invite-only social app in July, billing it as "the first-ever AI-only social video app" that transforms selfies into stylized videos users can share within the app's social feed.
Whether this wave of AI-native social platforms represents the future of content creation or just another passing trend remains to be seen, but, one thing is clear: the barrier between imagination and published content has never been lower.
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VIDEO EDITING
✂️ Riverside releases "Chat-Based Editing"
This week, Riverside released "Chat-Based Editing," transforming post-production from a tedious multi-hour process into a conversational workflow that takes minutes.
The feature allows creators to edit and repurpose content simply by chatting with a built-in AI agent, making post-production significantly faster and freeing up creators to focus on creation rather than editing.
Riverside is known as a leading platform for recording studio-quality podcasts and videos remotely.
Now, the platform is bringing the same innovation to the editing side of content creation.
With Chat-Based Editing, you can now:
Enhance content instantly: When you know the desired result but not the editing steps, the AI agent can make videos look sharper, sound clearer, or feel more engaging with minimal effort.
Apply specific edits: Add titles to different sections, insert AI-generated B-roll or music, enhance audio, fix eye contact, remove silences, and more.
Repurpose into new formats: Instantly turn recordings into blog posts, thumbnails, social media posts, newsletters, and beyond.
The AI agent doesn't just follow instructions; it also suggests edits to improve content, leveraging a deep understanding of Riverside's editor, the user's content, and what makes great video.
For creators who prefer manual control, Riverside's traditional editor remains available, letting users choose their own balance between AI assistance and hands-on editing.
The feature is now available to all Riverside users on desktop.
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WEB DESIGN
🎨 Squarespace announces "Refresh 2025"
This week, Squarespace unveiled "Refresh 2025," its annual release of new products and features designed to help entrepreneurs stand out and scale in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
The release pairs new design features with AI-powered innovation and personalized business guidance, providing creatives with everything they need to create professional websites, increase visibility, and manage every aspect of their work.
Here's what was announced 👇
1) "Finish Layer" (Coming Soon) ✨
Finish Layer is a suite of professional-grade design features that brings websites to life with animations, transforms, and advanced styling controls.
With Finish Layer, you can now:
Animate blocks: Add interactive animations to content blocks that trigger on scroll or hover, creating immersive experiences without code.
Apply custom transforms: Add visual depth with customizable block transforms, including rotation, scaling, and positioning effects.
Import external fonts: Upload custom typefaces to maintain complete brand consistency beyond Squarespace's font library.
Create device-specific layouts: Design different mobile and desktop experiences, ensuring optimal viewing across all screen sizes.
2) Blueprint AI 💬
Blueprint AI received major updates, expanding Squarespace's AI website builder with more intuitive starting points and deeper ChatGPT integration.
With Blueprint AI, you can now:
Build sites through chat: Describe your vision in natural language to generate tailored imagery, copy, and design recommendations (coming soon).
Design from ChatGPT: Use Squarespace GPT in the ChatGPT Store to start building personalized websites, then continue editing in Squarespace's platform.
Access adaptive templates: Choose from designer-made templates with embedded, curated content that instantly adapts to your industry and business intent.
Generate AI backgrounds: Select from new libraries of premium-quality, AI-generated image and video backgrounds to support your creative vision.
3) Beacon AI 📈
Beacon AI is Squarespace's new AI-powered business partner that guides entrepreneurs through every aspect of running an online business.
With Beacon AI, you can now:
Get step-by-step guidance: Ask Beacon to write product descriptions, generate discount codes, build FAQ pages, or optimize your site setup—all through conversational prompts.
Receive growth recommendations: Get AI-powered suggestions for increasing visibility, driving sales, and improving site performance based on your business type and goals.
Access specialized AI tools: Use dedicated composers for products (AI Product Composer), discounts (AI Discount Composer), and FAQs (AI FAQ Composer) that generate professional, on-brand content in seconds.
Many features are available now, with additional tools rolling out in the coming months.
Squarespace Circle members received early access to professional features including reusable section layouts.
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OTHER STORIES
Everything else in creative news 🗞
Perplexity has acquired Visual Electric, an AI creative design tool.
Canva released a new “Work smarter with AI” course.
Adobe Premiere for mobile is now live in the Apple App Store.
Adobe Photoshop on Android is now open for pre-registration.
Figma added support for Claude Sonnet 4.5 in Figma Make.
Figma now allows you to precisely divide vector objects and shapes into separate objects with the Cut tool.
Figma for Government now supports the Figma desktop app.
Figma added a Workspace-level toggle to allow Enterprise users to enable or disable AI features per workspace.
Spline released new AI image generation in Hana, allowing you to: generate images with various models, combine or modify images & frames, make variations, remove backgrounds, and upscale.
Squarespace is partnering with Perplexity as the website-building and hosting partner for Comet, Perplexity’s new agentic browser.
Framer released CMS support for Wireframer, allowing your to generate blog layouts powered by the Framer CMS, with all links and fields set up for you.
Framer Workshop is now powered by Claude 4.5, making it faster and smarter.
Framer released a new “Right-to-Left” layout direction for locales with languages that are read from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew.
Framer added support for “Lucide Icons,” an open-source icon library with 1600+ SVG icons.
Replit released “Connectors,” a new way to build apps and automations that seamlessly integrate with the tools like Google, Dropbox, Hubspot, Notion, and more.
Replit now allows you to add subscriptions or one-time payments to your app with Stripe.
Lovable released “Lovable Cloud & AI,” allowing you to build apps with complex AI and backend functionality.
Jitter now allows you to add gradients to strokes.
Descript now allows you to upload media directly from your phone to Descript.
Descript added support for “Claude Sonnet 4.5.”
v0 upgrade “Design Mode,” now allowing you to: quick-apply a color palette, easily adjust hues, saturation, & lightness, quick-apply fonts, and easily add shadows.
v0 released a new enhanced prompt enhancer.
v0 no longer charges you credits to use “Fix with v0” when v0 makes an error.
v0 added support for the new components by Shadcn UI.
v0 now allows you to accept payments with Stripe.
Gamma released new visualizations: 100+ themes, 45+ smart layouts, 40+ smart diagrams, and 25+ AI image models.
Gamma released a new Zapier integration, allowing you to connect Gamma with 8,000+ other apps.
MagicPath now allows you to switch your Theme (formerly Design System) after creating a component that uses one.
MagicPath added support for the Sora UI kit.
MagicPath added support for the ReUI component library.
Suno released “Hooks,” a new short-form, scrollable video feed that showcases Suno-generated music.
Play released a new “Glass Effect Container” that allows you to morph grouped glass elements into a single shape.
Play now supports the new iOS 26 Scroll Edge Effects.
Rive released “Libraries,” allowing you to publish your components and dynamic data once to reuse everywhere in your project.
Frame.io shipped several updates in August & September, including: Enhanced search, Zapier + Make + Workfront integrations, Star rating shortcuts, iOS uploads, and more.
OpusClip released a new Zapier integration, allowing you to connect your OpusClip account to hundreds of different applciations.
HeyGen added support for Google's Nano Banana AI model, allowing you to transform your avatar’s pose, background, or outfit all within a single prompt.
Screen Studio added background music, allowing you to pick from a royalty-free music or upload your own.
Screen Studio released a new pack of wallpapers.
Bolt released “Bolt v2.”
Cap released a new, lightweight recording picker, improving support for multi-monitor setups.
Freepik released “Clip Editor,” a new tool that allows you to modify scenes with prompts or references, plus extend, upscale, add audio, or trim any clip.
Freepik is now limiting users to 8 generations at once to improve its platform stability.
Freepik added support for “Wan 2.5,” allowing you to create immersive AI videos with fluid motion, built-in audio and voice.
Midjourney has begun publishing education videos on how to use Midjourney.
Contra launched the “Kit Expert Program,” allowing Kit expert to showcase their work, get discovered, and get hired on Contra.
Tella now allows you to watch videos at up to 8x speed while ediitng.
Framer added basic leaderboard-like sorting to the #FramerChallenge.
VEED released "VEED Fabric for Business.”
VEED made its “Fabric 1.0” AI talking video model 3x faster.
VEED added support for “WAN 2.2,” allowing you to restyle videos from an image, swap characters instantly, and create clips 10X faster.
Bolt added support for Claude Sonnet 4.5.
Higgsfield AI added support for “WAN Camera Control” with 15+ camera controls.
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