In today's update I added new type of post - "Feature highlight". How can you use it?

Easy - just remind your customers about features they don't use or don't see. There are many cases when you worked hard on something you think important - but your users don't use it. One of problems - they might not know about it. Especially if they joined after you released it, so they totally missed your release notes.

Feature highlight: Email notifications

Email notifications already a part of subscription, you can send them through dropdown menu(on screenshot below). Just make sure it's final revision of your release note, since you can't edit it after it was sent.

Today I shipped new update that adds small feature - previews, both HTML and Markdown. This feature available in the actions dropdown -

With HTML its all clear - just look at how your post will look like for your customers.

With Markdown - the main deal is to provide you a way to reuse this text somewhere else. Markdown preview includes also hero image, so you can literally copy text(via button in top right corner) and use it anywhere else(your own blog, emails, etc).

With this release you can now import releases from multiple repo under single GitHub integration. This will simplify a workflow for multi repo apps, especially open source, when parts of your apps are separate repos for easier maintaining. I tried to make ui as simple as possible, so let me know if something isn't clear. Here's how to use it:

Page cut:

With this release I added a new tool to editor toolbar - page cut ✂️. The idea is to help you to shorten text on blog pages allowing you to hide part of text from index page and be visible on blog post page.

Please keep in mind - page cut does not affect your notes in widget, so if you have long release changelog - it will be fully visible in embedded widget.

Btw this release note, when viewed via blog has all the text below this line hidden under page cut, check it out - https://notes.updatify.io

Today I added a small feature to allow you to open widget programmatically, using your own buttons, events or any other way.

By simply calling window.openUpdatify() you will open updates widget. It should also handle issues some users had with React based apps when widget script was loaded before main app, making triggers inactive.

Other fixes

• Removed paywall on widget code embedding page. Now you don't need subscription to embed widget to your app(but you still need subscription to show it)

• Improved SEO on blog pages

Notes

I'm working on new editor feature called page cut - its an element that will allow you to hide part of your text on blog index page, moving it inside blog show page giving you more control over how you structure your posts

This new release adds new integration - SendGrid 🚀 It's one of those "bring-your-own-key" integrations that removes limits on usage. With sendgrid integration you can use your own API key and sender identity to remove limits on # email subscribers and generally send as much emails as possible, using your own instance and domain.

Other changes:

• Fixed "canonical" tag on blog pages, now it refers to original updatify.io domain. In future this can be edited via blog page settings

• Fixed counting views while scrolling though widget. Now it calculates post as shown when its scrolled at least 50%

• Under the hood changes & fixes

What it is and why do I need it?

Release notes is usually a list of whats changed in your application since you last deployed it. Thats how it looks for us - developers. For end users it's more than just whats changed. For some of them it's a way to find out about new features or about bugs that were fixed. For others it's a way to know that product alive and still develops.

Release notes are often treated as a technical afterthought, but they're actually one of the most powerful tools for improving user retention. Well-crafted release notes can significantly reduce churn by addressing a fundamental user experience problem: unexpected product changes. For example I found a screenshot tool which I like. Paid version removes watermark and adds some extra features. But the problem is - last release note was done in 2023 so I have no idea whether they still operate and will it be supported with newer OS releases. I didn't get paid version, moved on because of that reason.

How Release Notes Boost Retention

• Drive Feature Adoption: Many valuable features go unnoticed without proper announcement. Release notes help users discover and adopt new functionality, and higher feature adoption correlates strongly with increased retention.

• Build Trust Through Transparency: Users who understand what's changing and why are significantly more likely to stay. Release notes create transparency that directly translates into trust and long-term retention.

• Reduce Support Friction: Clear release notes dramatically decrease support tickets related to product changes, creating a better user experience while reducing costs.

• Prevent Surprise - Driven Churn: Unexpected changes are a primary churn trigger. Release notes provide advance notice and context, helping users adapt rather than feeling blindsided.

Best Practices for Impact(from experience of running release notes for 7 years)

• Write for users, not engineers: Focus on user benefits, not technical details

• Be specific: "Reduced page load times by 40%" vs. "improved performance". Mostly users don't really understand value behind numbers, but they like to feel themselves more technical.

• Acknowledge disruption: If changes affect workflows, address this honestly and provide guidance. But its best to be sent via email notification, since not all users actually read release notes.

• Include visuals: Screenshots and GIFs improve comprehension dramatically

"The Strategic Advantage"

Companies that treat release notes as a strategic communication tool - rather than a technical requirement - build stronger user relationships and achieve measurable improvements in retention metrics. In crowded markets where acquisition costs continue rising, the small investment in quality release notes delivers outsized returns in user loyalty and satisfaction.

Release notes aren't just documentation - they're a retention tool that builds trust, reduces friction, and keeps users engaged with your evolving product.

Welcome to first updatify's update ever 🚀

With this update I introduced few new features which will be useful to many

GitHub Integration

With this GitHub integration you can import your releases from GitHub, reducing time it takes to write public release notes. GitLab and Gitea will be added soon

Inline image upload

New button on toolbar to upload image and paste it at your cursor

Other changes

• Gmail Login: Added Gmail authentication for seamless account access. Sign in with your Google account for faster, more secure login.

• Improved gif playback

• Added email subscribers count(and # of available subscriptions) on subscribers page

• Added profile image which later will be shown on blog pages

Today is the day!

I finally pushed the latest build to the server.

This means I'm getting closer to release. So far I've wrapped up all the features I wanted for the initial release and am now ready to help others deliver their update notes to their customers.

Here's what's available with this initial release:

• Update widget

• Automatically generate blog page on your selected subdomain (SSL handled for you)

• Email subscriptions, including management of your current subscribers (email opening analytics coming soon)

• Hero image upload including gif animation on pro plan

• Scheduled posting - schedule posts sometime in the future

• Interactions on posts - see upvotes/downvotes for your updates

• Post view statistics

Keep your users informed and engaged with an embeddable update widget. Share product updates directly in your app, let users vote on features, and build an email subscriber base - all from one simple tool. Start your free trial today!

As you probably noticed on update's screenshot - new landing page is done and my wife said its awesome and she likes it!

Jokes aside, I've been asked few times recently on reddit whats the status of updatify, and how long till release, so here's my plan

• Landing page ✅

• Setup payments ✅

• Setup emails ✅

• Updates, scheduling, etc ✅

• Blog pages ⚠️ - currently in progress

• Email subscriptions ❌ - haven't started yet, thinking whether it makes sense to remove them from initial release

What's happening with updatify? When release?

I've been asked these questions for last 2 months on twitter. Unfortunately I do have 9-5 and thats what stops me from committing more time to updatify. At some point 9-5 turned to more like 9-9 making really low time to work on updatify.

Right now I almost have landing page done, so thats pretty much last thing that stops me from making this initial release

So to answer those asking when release - I think 2-3 weeks, so stay tuned!

Widget script embedding

These weekends I worked on script embedding. So far updatify.io didn't have a way to show you how to embed script to your page.

Well, now its available right after you add new website to your dashboard.

For now it provides configuration asks you to enter data-updatify-trigger which will act as a trigger button to open and show your widget.

I also working on adding extra configuration parameter which allows you to also add an attribute which could be used to show # of notifications to view or simple ping animation.

This is just first initial release, but over time I plan to add more configuration options to make updatify.io even more customizable

Custom triggers

Custom trigger is basically an element on your page which will open modal widget with all your updates.

To add one(or multiple) you just need to set data attribute to data-updatify-trigger

Here's how it looks on my landing page

<button data-updatify-trigger class="...ommited classes">
     Preview notes widget
</button>

Initial release note

I'm proud to announce that initial updatify.io gets to the stage when I can post app updates through the update widget embedded on landing page!

As I'm going through development I'll put interesting things about platform as release notes and today its a bit of details about text editor because its one of core features of the updatify.io

Text editor features

• H1/H2/H3 headings

• Italic/bold/strikethrough/underscore/mixed typography

• Unordered and ordered lists

• updatify.io - custom links

• Default Keybindings(cmd+b, etc)

Or even code blocks

onCreate({ editor }) {
  _this.updatedAt = Date.now();
  _this.updateHiddenInput(editor.getHTML());
}

One of few things I'm currently working on:

1. Inline image uploads

2. Code syntax highlight

3. Autosave as you type