Latest / ThinkInsideTheSquare / Squarespace Updates 2026: New Design Tools, AI & Forma [108]

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Squarespace Updates 2026: New Design Tools, AI & Forma [108] · ThinkInsideTheSquare

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: In August of 2022, Squarespace hosted the very first Circle Day, both in person and online.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely wowed us with some product updates and some exciting things that were happening with the platform.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Since then, every year on Circle Day, we get exciting new updates, but this year might be the one to take the cake.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these updates are available right now, others are coming soon, and one of them is giving us a very interesting look at what the future of Squarespace might be.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something particularly interesting about this round of announcements.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Squarespace is no longer just giving us more ways to design websites.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's starting to expand what we create for the businesses that use them.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're digging into in this episode of Think Inside the Square.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Think Inside the Square.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Becca Harpane, Squarespace expert and educator and creator of insidesquare.co.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we go any further, I do want to mention that the term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Incorporated, and this podcast is not affiliated with Squarespace Incorporated.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I recently had the opportunity to attend Circle Day in New York City, which is an event that Squarespace hosts for its professional design community.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really fun to be surrounded by people who care about this platform as much as I do, people that I can nerd out with.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I work from my home office, sometimes co-working space, by myself.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: No one really gets why I get so excited about specific things that Squarespace is doing, except for other Squarespacers.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So sharing the excitement with other people is definitely my favorite part of Circle Day.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But today, I don't want to talk about the event itself.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about what they've announced.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everything I'm discussing today has been publicly published by Squarespace, and I'll have a link to the official product keynote recap in the show notes of this episode and insithesquare.co forward slash podcast.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start with the design updates because they're ones that I think most Squarespace users are going to be excited about.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, they're the ones I'm most excited about, starting with stacks.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Stacks came out not too long ago, and they're a way to group content together and keep these elements organized inside a section.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Stacks I personally use them to pair text along with a button or an image to make sure that things won't weirdly overlap.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've personally used them to pair text with a button or an image or all three together to make sure that things won't weirdly overlap as the screen as the screen resizes responsively.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And for a while now, we've been able to add a background color, we've been able to curve the corners, add a stroke, also known as a border, and control the spacing between the items inside of it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: All of that's great, but what they released at circle day is now we can also add a gradient or an image as the background to the stack.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my favorite update, we can turn the entire stack into a link.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't spend your days building websites, that might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but if you've ever spent way too much time trying to get a group of blocks to look just right, you know why this matters.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine designing a services page and you've got three cards.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Each card has a heading, a little description, and a link to learn more.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the past, you might have created that design with multiple blocks or with the list section.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then again, you'd need custom code if you wanted the whole card to be clickable.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But with these new stack controls, we have more options for creating that kind of layout directly inside the editor without any additional code required.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I don't like writing CSS.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, have you met me?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of what I do, but because I don't think we should need custom code for every single creative idea that we have.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: If Squarespace can give us more control directly inside the editor, that means fewer workarounds and more time to focus on the design itself.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another update I'm pretty excited about is vertical video support.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Squarespace has added portrait video aspect ratios, along with options for backgrounds, padding, and styling controls.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really smart addition.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So much of the video content that people are creating these days is vertical.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Think about reels, TikToks, and YouTube shorts.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever created a fantastic vertical video for social, you might want to put that content on your website too.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't always work well when you try to fit it in the widescreen layout.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely have a go-to CSS code to modify that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: But just as I was saying before, the less workarounds that we have, the more time we have to focus on the design itself.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that Squarespace can do this without me having to customize anything makes me pretty darn happy.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the next update I want to talk about might seem like a small one, but I have a feeling it's gonna make quite a few people very happy.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: We can lock a block inside a fluid engine section.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: While this will be handy for us as designers, so we don't accidentally grab or move the wrong block, I think this is even better for client handoff.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to make sure that what I design stays the way I designed it.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's pretty great.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: This feature is available now, and I'm genuinely excited about it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are a few other updates that Squarespace mentioned that are related to design.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of them is Image Studio, which is already available.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: They have an AI image generation tool and editing tool.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that they do that's kind of cool is it doesn't have to just be one image.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can make a set of images with a consistent visual style.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of interesting from a creative direction perspective.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: But most of my clients, they're not fans of AI images.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that one I'm not too excited about myself.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But having those tools built inside the website building process, it could be useful for some clients.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now there are three updates that they mentioned that aren't available yet, but I've got to bring them up here on the show.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is drafts, second is autosaving, and third is AI sections.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Squarespace said that it's working on automatically saving pages while you build, allowing you to prepare and share drafts before publishing anything.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely compulsively click that save button quite a few times while I'm editing, just out of habit.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly don't think I'll stop that habit even once autosave is available, but we'll have that feature soon.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're also about to release something called AI sections.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But until I have a chance to get my hands on it, I don't want to share details here on this podcast.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get too excited until I know just how awesome it is.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So those are pending.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'll include links to all of the publicly released information in the show notes for this episode inside thesquare.co forward slash podcast.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got stacks that now have cool backgrounds and links.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've got vertical video, locked blocks, that image studio, drafts and auto saves and AI sections that are coming our way.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let's switch gears a little bit and talk about some of the business tools.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think the most exciting business related update that they shared is still pending, still coming soon, and it's called customer profiles.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: The idea is that they're going to take all of the information about a customer and put it in one visible screen.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Things like contact info, communication preferences, purchase history, activity in the business.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So now instead of jumping between different areas of the platform to figure out who someone is and what they purchased and what form they might have filled out, that's all going to be on the same place.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And for businesses that sell products, offer services, and most importantly have a repeat customers, that could be pretty helpful.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's another business management tool that they did release that is available called SMS campaigns.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you have been subject to these at some point in your life where you might be getting a text from your grocery store telling you that they're having a sale on soup, or maybe you're getting a text from a Pilates studio that you tried once and have no intention of going back to.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: SMS campaigns are everywhere.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And real talk, I'm not a fan of the SMS campaigns, but let's say you do, or you want to start sending them.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: There you go, my friend.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's built right into Squarespace.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So not necessarily the right tool for every business, but it gives Squarespace users another way to communicate with their customers.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: We also saw some discussion about their AI visibility tools and about some future extensions where they could connect with other e-commerce programs and other marketing programs like Salesforce or HubSpot or Notion.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look at all of these announcements together, you can start to see a pretty clear pattern here.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Squarespace wants to connect more of the tools that businesses are already using.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And from a website designer's perspective, and as a small business owner, I think that's worth paying attention to.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because when someone hires me to build a website, they might not know which tools they need.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: They might not know that they need a booking system or that they want customers to receive a follow-up text message, or that they're tired of copying information from one platform to the next just to track everything.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Businesses don't always come to me with a perfectly organized list of technical requirements.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's cool that I can introduce them to ways that all of this will fit within the cohesive ecosystem that is Squarespace.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can help them figure out the tools that make sense for their business, what needs to connect, what doesn't have to be complicated, and we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of strategic problem solving that I think is becoming more important as a part of what I do.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no longer just a designer.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've also found myself dipping my toes into the advisor role in this new era of internet that we're in.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that kind of brings me to the final announcement, the one that was a pretty big deal.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Rumor has it there was quite an uproar on the online chat, and there were quite a few gasps in the room at Circle Day.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Forma.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Squarespace announced a new platform called Forma, and this is where things are starting to get a little weird.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: According to the official announcement that Squarespace released, Forma is designed to bring websites, apps, and AI agents together in one connected system.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of focusing exclusively on building a website that represents a business and adding some tools to it, the idea is that we're gonna help people create the systems that run the businesses too.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh what does that mean?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, instead of using one platform for a website, another one for an app for your clients, a separate system for automation, Forma is being designed to bring all of those together.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it is a fascinating direction for Squarespace.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to be super clear that Forma is not a fully released product that you can just sign up for and start using today.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Squarespace says the beta is coming soon.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Circle partners will have the first opportunity to test it and provide feedback.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we still have a lot to learn about how this is going to work in practice.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was a very interesting demo at Circle Day, and I will include a link to that in the show notes.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I really think you should check it out.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the idea behind it, that's the most interesting part to me.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think the important part of this announcement is that they want us to use AI to build more things.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think the important part is that we're going to have more things that we can build, and it will be easier to build than ever using a system that we already trust.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: That means we need to get better at figuring out what's worth building in the first place.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not all of these amazing ideas that we have ever need to see the light of day.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now that the barrier to production is so much lower than it used to be, I feel like we definitely have an opportunity as designers to start thinking beyond individual pages and start considering the entire customer experience.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not just what someone sees when they visit a website that we design, but what happens when they interact with the business.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when they book an appointment, make a purchase, what happens when they need support?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: How can we make those experiences better and authentic?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know exactly what form is going to look like when it's released to everyone, and I'm definitely not going to tell you that every website designer needs to embrace it, but I do think it's something worth watching because it gives us a pretty interesting look at how Squarespace is thinking about the future of the platform.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we covered quite a bit today, and I don't like my episodes to take very long, so I'm gonna wrap this up with a quick recap.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've got new design controls, improvements to the editing experience, we've got some AI imaging tools, interactive sections coming soon, new ways to manage customers, expanded integrations, and a whole new thing called Forma on the horizon.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is a lot.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when a platform releases this many changes all at once, it feels like we're behind, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a whole bunch of new things that we've got to learn before we can get back to doing our job, but I really don't think that's the right way to approach it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be an expert in every single feature Squarespace announces on day one.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: We just need to understand which ones are gonna make a difference for the work we're doing right now.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to do this for me this week, Squarespacer.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one of the features that's already available and experiment with it.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's the assignment.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you want to try out those new advanced stack controls to see if you can make a really cool clickable card.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been designing a section with overlapping elements and you want to experiment with locking a block in place.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you've got some awesome vertical videos that never had a home on your website and it's time to bring them onto a page.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one thing and give yourself a little bit of time to play with it.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that sometimes I can get so caught up in learning about the latest updates and tools that I kind of forget why I'm learning them.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: The goal here isn't to use every feature that Squarespace gives us.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: We need to create websites that work really well, look fantastic, and help the people who use them.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if a new feature helps us do that, great.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, we can leave it alone.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: But spend a little bit of time playing around with the ones that are currently available.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And let me know in the comments or send me an email, hello at inside the square.co, which one of these announcements are you most excited about?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Are you thrilled about finally being able to lock a block and fluid engine?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you looking forward to autosave or are you looking at Forma and wondering what the heck are they thinking?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And for a transcript of this episode, along with the links to the official Squarespace announcements that I talked about, visit inside the square.co forward slash podcast.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're following Think Inside the Square so you don't miss the next one.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: I share ideas, experiments, and some practical tips on making the most out of Squarespace every single week.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Becca from Inside the Square.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for tuning in, and most importantly, have fun with your website.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.