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.

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)

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 ✅

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.

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