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These two functions are fully optional. You must decide to download/install the models if you want the functions, and you must then decide to use the Object Selection Tool or the Select Subject function on a project if you want to use them. 
Either don't install the models, or don't use the functions on a particular project, and they're not used.

I love the fact that these are optional. I hope it will be kept that way and there will be choice of modules we want to install or keep it light and old school. If yes - thats absolutely fantastic solution.

We are using pre-trained libraries. The library authors may go on to improve their model with more training yes, and we would choose whether to make that available to you if it gives significantly better results.
We can do that but it's more likely to be done optionally in an update.
That's not relevant, seeing as we are not doing the training (see my first answer).

Hi All,
Below is the list of all new feature and improvements which are included in the 2.6 beta (bug fix list is available here).
To learn more about these features please click on the links below to go to each feature's dedicated post. To give feedback or report bugs against any of these features please reply to that same post (also check out bug reporting and feedback tips).
Advanced Page Management: Multiple Pages Feature  Page Reflow Control Page Migration Improvements General Improvements Machine Learning: Object Selection Tool  Select Subject  Pencil, Pen and Node Tool improvements Colour Picker Improvements  Updated SerifLabs RAW Support & Lens Recognition Database  Reading Order Panel QR Code as a Data Merge Field Photo Usability Improvement <NEW> Other Improvements Affinity's Machine Learning Features
As you will see there are two new features which use machine learning models for automatic object and subject selection. These features are optional and require downloading of the relevant models for them to work (instructions included in the posts themselves). We want to make sure it is clear that these are installed as pre-trained models and they do not use any of your own data for further training. Furthermore these operations all work ‘on device’ meaning none of your data leaves your device at any time.
Getting the 2.6 beta
If you have not enrolled into the beta program yet and would like to take part, you can do so here. This will immediately give you access to the latest 2.6 beta builds from your account to try for yourself.
If you are already enrolled in the beta program you have two options:
If you still have the 2.5 beta installed, you can now run up those beta versions and you will be prompted to update them to the 2.6 beta. If you have uninstalled your earlier beta, you will need to go back to Your Account -> Downloads and product keys and find your previous order for the Affinity Beta Software Program, and you can download the 2.6 beta from there. Using the 2.6 beta
You should take particular care to work on backups of your existing documents when trying them out in this new beta in case there are bugs or oversights converting from the 2.5 file structure to the new 2.6 data structures. Once a file has been saved in any 2.6 build that file cannot be read in the release version 2.5.5
Thanks,
Patrick

Apps: Designer, Photo and Publisher
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
Auto Apply (Colour Panel) Colour Picker to Selection
Previously when you used the Colour Picker available from the Colour or Stroke Panel it would first add the picked colour to the well next to the picker and then you would be required to apply the colour manually by clicking the well.
We are now changing this to automatically apply the picked colour to the selected object, so you’re no longer required to select the colour well.
If you would prefer not to apply the selected colour (i.e the previous behaviour) you can hold Alt down whilst picking the colour (note this Alt behaviour is currently only available on Windows).

Apps: Photo
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
A Machine Learning Feature
As you will see there are two new features which use machine learning models for automatic object and subject selection. These features are optional and require downloading of the relevant models for them to work (instructions included in this post). We want to make sure it is clear that these are installed as pre-trained models and they do not use any of your own data for further training. Furthermore these operations all work ‘on device’ meaning none of your data leaves your device at any time.
Select Subject
Where to find it
"Select" Menu > "Select Subject"
Initial Setup
Automatic Select Subject relies on Machine Learning Models, which need to be installed prior to using the feature.

 
To install the Machine Learning Models, you will need to visit Settings > Machine Learning Models. Both Segmentation and Saliency need to be installed. Since all machine learning inference happens on the device itself, the models need to be downloaded and stored locally. These models can be quite large in size, making it impractical to include them in the initial app installation. Users also have the choice to uninstall these models to free up space if they are not needed.
Segmentation
The Segmentation model allows Photo’s Object Selection Tool to create precise, detailed pixel selections from pixel layers or placed images.
Saliency
Saliency, installed alongside Segmentation, allows Photo to understand what is visually significant on a pixel layer or placed image. It is required for the new one-click Select Subject to work.
How to use it
select subject short video.mp4
Available from top menu’s Select > Select Subject, the feature analyses the scene and selects what it considers to be the main subject. This operation can be recorded as a Macro to aid setting up foreground/background retouching workflows for example.

Select Subject is available both on Affinity Photo 2 desktop and iPad.
COMPATIBILITY: Sorry but due to the functions we need to run the Object Selection and Subject Selection functionality, the Machine Learning features only available on Apple Silicon iPads and macOS devices (and those need to be running on a recent macOS, as Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey do not support the required calls). Machine Learning will run on both Windows x64 and Arm64 hardware running Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Apps: Photo
Platforms: All
A Machine Learning Feature
As you will see there are two new features which use machine learning models for automatic object and subject selection. These features are optional and require downloading of the relevant models for them to work (instructions included in this post). We want to make sure it is clear that these are installed as pre-trained models and they do not use any of your own data for further training. Furthermore these operations all work ‘on device’ meaning none of your data leaves your device at any time.
Object Selection Tool
It is now possible to automatically select objects of your image, as well as their parts, to speed up your targeted editing process.
Where to find it
Access the Object Selection Tool from the Tools panel.
Initial Setup
Automatic Select  Subject relies on Machine Learning Models, which need to be installed prior to using the feature.

To install the Machine Learning Models, you will need to visit Settings > Machine Learning Models. Both Segmentation and Saliency need to be installed. Since all machine learning inference happens on the device itself, the models need to be downloaded and stored locally. These models can be quite large in size, making it impractical to include them in the initial app installation. Users also have the choice to uninstall these models to free up space if they are not needed.
Segmentation
The Segmentation model allows Photo’s Object Selection Tool to create precise, detailed pixel selections from pixel layers or placed images.
Saliency
Saliency, installed alongside Segmentation, allows Photo to understand what is visually significant on a pixel layer or placed image. It is required for the new one-click Select Subject to work.
How to use it
Access the Object Selection Tool from the Tools panel.

 

The tool uses a segmentation model to identify different objects on a layer. After the inference process is finished, you will be able to hover over different areas of the document and see hatched outlines appear. By clicking once, an initial selection can be made, with subsequent clicks adding to the selection (the mode on the context toolbar will switch automatically to Add).
Note: the selection will be post-processed if Soft Edges is enabled, but for complex subjects with hair/fur etc. you will still want to use Refine on the context toolbar.
Context Toolbar options:
Multi-part Objects
These are enabled by default, will include all parts of an object if it is obstructed by another object. When disabled, the sampling of the object mask is bounded to the area the user is hovering over.

Multi-part Objects ON
 

Multi-part Objects OFF
 
Above, note the selection result is different as a result of the tool’s Multi-part Objects recognising similar areas of the branch (ON) vs fragmenting the selection when detecting the snake (OFF).
 
Soft Edges
Enabled by default in most raster-based workflows, Soft Edges refine the selection by adding a small border value to help matte and soften the selection bounds. While it is recommended to keep Soft Edges enabled for the majority of projects, it may be beneficial to disable it for edge-case workflows such as pixel art.

 
Modifiers
When using Option (Mac) / Alt (Windows), you can break down a selection into components such as outfit, hands, and face. Holding Shift while doing this will further break it down into parts, like separating an outfit into top and bottom halves. - Click-dragging can be used to make a partial selection of an object, which is helpful for selecting segmented areas like foreground detail when holding Option (Mac) / Alt (Windows). [[ IMG: Modifiers.png ]]

(A) Object Selection at its default,
(B) Object Selection with option (Mac) / Alt (Windows),
(C) Object Selection with option-Shift (Mac) / Alt Shift (Windows).
 
Click-drag select.mp4
 Click-drag to select part of the main subject.
All of the above functionality is also available on iPad.
COMPATIBILITY: Sorry but due to the functions we need to run the Object Selection and Subject Selection functionality, the Machine Learning features only available on Apple Silicon iPads and macOS devices (and those need to be running on a recent macOS, as Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey do not support the required calls). Machine Learning will run on both Windows x64 and Arm64 hardware running Windows 10 or Windows 11.
 

What you describe applies to this forum as a whole. There are very few professional or knowledgeable users, but the forum is otherwise packed with posts from users who apparently have found the meaning of life in commenting on everything here, rather than creating graphics and publications. I have more often seen these people demonstrate their lack of knowledge about using software and software development than the opposite. And there is something particularly curious about the obsessive craving for non-stop releases.
It gives me a very clear idea of who Serif's customers and potential customers are, and it’s a segment that Adobe and Corel comfortably leave to small companies, who survive on small fish, with a great deal of risk. I also think Canva is well aware that they need to collect small coins from many small customers, not bills from big ones. They’re not going to compete with Adobe. They’re just casting their line wider than Serif.
Who out there, with the slightest bit of knowledge, couldn’t assume that this time there might be technical, cultural, procedural, team-related, integration-based, customer database-related, and many other activities happening in preparation for the next release? It just shows that Serif's customer base is so dominated by hobbyists, and what deadlines are they up against? We’re not standing outside a hotdog stand at a train station with growling stomachs, trying to catch a train. There is no rush.
If Affinity needs to be significantly refactored – and it must be for anyone to even dream of gaining larger market shares – then you're going to have to wait longer. And it's surreal to have to tell, presumably, grown adults that these are the conditions. But well, now you know why I'll be migrating away from Affinity and this forum soon. Unless Canva throws an amount equivalent to the U.S. military budget and a significant (!!!) number of specialists into the Affinity plan – and I would wait for the results of that – the core algorithms in Affinity are decades behind the competition.
So wait patiently. But don't expect much. The only basis for hope you have so far is hot air from the standard business playbook to keep customer attrition in check. The foundation for hoping for a breakthrough couldn't be smaller.

This ☝️ (but that was just me)

No 2.5.5 will launch 2nd September and there will be no 2.6 beta for some time (a number of weeks) after that. There are no plans for a 2.5.6 unless we mess something up with 2.5.5 and need to patch quickly, which I don't think will happen.
Our releases may have slowed down, true, but that doesn't mean that our work has. The two are not the same. Some development takes longer than others.
It will not. Affinity is the future. Please stop spreading negativity @GRAFKOM 
I would guess later in September or early October
 That's not for me to say, sorry, but I've seen many positive changes since the acquisition.
you may have noticed that the Affinity info bot has been quieter recently, but that was due to a process change. We're currently testing 2.5.5.xxxx and 2.6.0.yyyy builds internally  and the bot posts were getting confusing about "fixed in the next beta" when some fixes were 2.5.5.xxxx and some were 2.6.0.yyyy so I've stopped the info bot posts going out until the build actually is available. So when I released 2.5.5.2613 the information bot posted about all the fixes it contains simultaneously. Therefore when 2.6.0.abcd is released to beta there will be a flurry of posts about all the many fixes that it contains, but not posted until you can actually go and try the fix for yourself.
I'll post more in this thread in a bit....

We are pleased to announce Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 are now all updated to version 2.5.3 (+ 2.5.4) (for all existing customers on all platforms).
Here is the changelog for the whole suite
(2.5.4 is explained here)
And here are the release notes for each application including how to access the update
Affinity Designer 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for Windows           ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Designer 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for macOS              ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Designer 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for iOS                    ( Apple iPad Store )
  Affinity Photo 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for Windows                ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Photo 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for macOS                   ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store )  Affinity Photo 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for iOS                         ( Apple iPad Store ) 
  Affinity Publisher 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for Windows          ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Publisher 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for macOS             ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Publisher 2.5.3 (+2.5.4) for iOS                   ( Apple iPad Store )  Please follow this thread here to get notified when any new releases are made.

We are pleased to announce Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 are now all updated to version 2.5.2 (for all existing customers on all platforms).
Here is the changelog for the whole suite
And here are the release notes for each application including how to access the update
Affinity Designer 2.5.2 for Windows           ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Designer 2.5.2 for macOS              ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Designer 2.5.2 for iOS                    ( Apple iPad Store )
  Affinity Photo 2.5.2 for Windows                ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Photo 2.5.2 for macOS                   ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store )  Affinity Photo 2.5.2 for iOS                         ( Apple iPad Store ) 
  Affinity Publisher 2.5.2 for Windows          ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store [MSIX and MSI/EXE both available for x64 and ARM64] ) Affinity Publisher 2.5.2 for macOS             ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Publisher 2.5.2 for iOS                   ( Apple iPad Store )  Please follow this thread here to get notified when any new releases are made.

We have released a beta build to try and address a number of critical issues found in 2.5.2
We think this is a Release Candidate build and would like to release the build to customers very soon.
If you are suffering from any of the 13 issues mentioned in this 2.5.3.2516 beta post
then please (sign up for and) install the latest beta build 

Is this a sign? 😅

I love this! Works great! 
Only thing that's related to this tool that I hope gets improved is this panel:

It's too small. Being able to resize it and making the Profile feature more global so other features could reuse them, i.e. brush settings, would make it even better. It also needs an option to invert the curves.

I think my Affinity app is snappier since Canva took over!

Is this a sign? 😅

Is this a sign? 😅

Is this a sign? 😅

Canva is definitely going to turn Affinity into a subscription service. And when that happens...

Aged like milk. 

Well holy sh#t, I was about to post the old "what chu talkin bout Willis" line, but thought I'd do a quick Google first, and wow 😲

This is HUGE news, and I'm a little miffed we didn't hear it first from the company we have supported and trusted for many years. I personally hate what Canva has done to the design industry, however I can only assume they have the $$ and resources to actually give Adobe a run for their money, on top of that we may finally get image tracing!! Speaking of money, we should prepare for the inevitable subscription-based model, and / or price increase to return the unconfirmed billion-dollar acquisition to investors pockets.

Overall, I'm quite torn about this news, yet not surprised.

The honeymoon is over.

2.4 Features and Improvements
This post is the list of all new features and improvements included in the 2.4 release, and the next post is a list of the main bug fixes.
Features and improvements affecting all platforms
(Designer) DWG and DXF export  Outlines created in Affinity can now be exported for use in various CAD applications and utilities for vinyl cutters, plotters and CNC tools Supports drawing scale Tutorial on DWG/DXF Import & Export 
Set selection box can be explicitly set for your selections. Double-click / tap to switch from Node to Move Tool so you can now toggle between them (Designer & Photo) Filename available as variable in Export Persona offering Document Name Document Filename Ability to lock insertion target for all new objects you can choose to: lock "Behind" lock "Inside" lock "On Top" Spacebar modifier for ‘Lock Children’ 
hold the spacebar to temporarily toggle Lock Children on or off for the opposite of the context toolbar setting Tutorial for Lock Children Layers (in Photo) 
 
Space Horizontal / Vertical now considers key object 
If you specify a key object in your selection, the behaviour changes to mean the furthest left (or right) object and the key object will not change position, and the other items are spaced evenly. Tutorial on Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Layers (in Designer) 
Tutorial on Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Layers (in Photo) 
 
Size / Rotate objects to same 
Make all items in your current selection adopt the same width or height or rotation 32-bit HDR PNG support added 
Import and export of 32-bit HDR PNG files, as described in the PNG specification (3rd edition) Tutorial for HDR PNG Import & Export 
(Photo & Publisher) Improved RAW processing and support for 58 new camera models including:  Apple iPhone (14 & 15 [inc Pro/Pro Max/Pro Max Plus]) Canon EOS R8 Nikon Z8 Panasonic DC-GH6 Leica Q3 and M11 Monochrom Fujifilm GFX 100 II DJI Mavic 3 Pro (drone) and many more… In addition to those features on all platforms above, these are the Windows and macOS features and improvements
(Publisher & Designer) Layer States added
Already a feature in Photo, the States Panel is an exciting addition to Designer and Publisher, and adds this new functionality to all applications Capture the current layer visibility across your document Create queries based on various criteria to make a selection or toggle visibility of layers Button to select all layers that fulfil the criteria specified in the query Tutorial on Layer States (using Designer):
 
Localised versions of the changes in 2.4 (and those in earlier releases) can be found here
Affinity Designer Feature List  Affinity Photo Feature List Affinity Publisher Feature List As well as all those improvements above, listed below is a list of the fixed bugs in this release

Currently it's only possible to set export name, path and variables per slice. It would be a huge improvement if you could set global values for all slices, like Illustrators prefix and suffix settings. One way would be simple prefix and suffix fields in the export options tab, or there could be a global path constructor for all slices with user variables and path components like document name, date, incremental counter (for versioning) etc.