The FirstVoices development team has been working hard on the new FirstVoices release. All new updates have been prompted by the hard-working Language Teams and community members, whose valuable feedback, ideas and suggestions have been crucial in making FirstVoices a better platform.

If you have questions about any of the updates listed below, or have ideas for ways to improve FirstVoices, please contact us at: hello@firstvoices.com

Happy International Mother Languages Day!

FirstVoices is celebrating the new website redesign and its 20th year as a platform. This release contains some exciting new features and a fresh look in some unexpected places. The FirstVoices team is humbly honoured to work with so many amazing language champions, and excited to share our work with all.

What’s new? 🌄

Search for a FirstVoices language site

Finding the languages and sites you’re looking for is easier than ever! The FirstVoices “Explore Languages” page now contains a search bar for you to search for the name of a site, language, or community. This flexible search will show results even if you don’t know the correct spelling of the language, or if you don’t have a special keyboard installed – no special characters required.

Embed videos from Youtube/Vimeo

Language Teams can now add videos from external websites onto their words, phrases, songs, and stories. This provides another option for teams that wish to add video content to their language site, and is an especially great way to add long videos.

Does your team or Nation have a collection of cultural videos or pronunciations on YouTube? Add them onto FirstVoices in seconds – all you need is a link.

• Videos from YouTube and Vimeo are supported.

• Already-embedded videos from the old FirstVoices will reappear on the new FirstVoices automatically.

• Visual improvements for the “Add a video” area.

Map Widget

Language teams can now highlight their communities and territories with a new interactive widget: the Map Widget! This Widget can be used with any link from the First Peoples' Map of B.C. to provide visitors with an interactive, location-based experience right on the homepage.

• Create this widget from the Dashboard using any link from the FPCC Map.

• Knowledge Base article: List of available widgets ✨

What’s improved? 🐞

A new look for the Parachute game: Pull Together!

This classic FirstVoices game has had a facelift! Now, as players guess different letters, a new set of culturally-inspired images will display their progress toward building a complete word.

• Play the updated game on any language site by visiting the homepage and going to Learn > Games > Pull Together.

• Review how to add content to the game: Building content for FirstVoices games ✨

• Art by Chantelle Trainor-Matties.

Adjustments to the Reports area

• View total number of results. Now you will be able to see the total number of words and phrases when viewing Reports or using the Advanced Search features.

• Edit word/phrase opens in a new tab. When reviewing any report in the Dashboard, clicking “Edit” now opens the edit form in a new tab, and leaves your report behind in the old tab to come back to.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where sharing a link or QR code could lead to a broken page.

• Prevented blank spaces from appearing in the Phrase Scrambler game.

General improvements

• See the total number of words and phrases when browsing the dictionary.

• Visual improvements to the Alphabet widget, Alphabet page, and contact forms.

• Improved handling of Immersion Mode in mobile view and when switching from one site to another.

What’s next? 👀

Got feedback? 🗣️