The FirstVoices development team has been working hard on the new release, which sees the launch of new features, as well as solutions to bugs and glitches on the site. In addition, we’ve also published new information on our blog. All of these 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

New features

GIFs can now be added to entries

If you've ever wanted to add a GIF to an entry, now you can! Just like you would upload any other image to a word, phrase, song or story, moving images in a GIF format will now upload and render properly. GIFs that had been previously added to entries will now load.

The Alphabet section is now bigger and easier to read

In order to make the Alphabet section more accessible and easy to use (especially on touch screen devices), we've made the buttons bigger and the play icons easier to discern from the characters.

Videos now display first on Songs and Stories

Since some communities are now using the Songs and Stories features to showcase videos, we have changed the order of media displayed so that if a video is uploaded to a song or story cover page it is displayed before the photo.

Coming soon: Immersion Mode!

We are excited to give everyone a sneak peek of our newest upcoming feature, Immersion Mode. Immersion Mode allows language teams to translate parts of their FirstVoices language sites into their Indigenous language so that users can immerse themselves. We will be working with language teams to release this feature in the coming weeks.

The FirstVoices Sm'algya̱x app is now available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices

We're excited to announce that the Sm'algya̱x FirstVoices app is now available on both the App Store for iPhone and iPad and the Google Play store for Android devices. The app was created using the data from the Sm'algya̱x FirstVoices site.

Bug fixes

Alphabet sounds no longer play at the same time

Previously, clicking on an alphabet sound while another alphabet sound was playing would cause them both to play at the same time. Now, pressing one alphabet button will cause the other sound to stop playing.

Media Browser filter/search now returning results properly

The Media Browser was affected by a bug that caused results to not show up as expected, or at all! Now, all results will return properly when searching for content in your Media Browser.

If you're logged in and click on a private language site, it will now email the FirstVoices development team to let us know you would like to join

Now that private language sites are visible on the Explore Languages page, you may see a site relevant to your language community that you didn't know was there before. Previously, clicking on one of these private "locked" sites would take you to the create an account page, whereas now it will email us to let us know you're interested in joining that site.

Contact us

Send us your questions, concerns, ideas, bugs and feedback at hello@firstvoices.com!