March 17 (3.5.6-HF) Updates — Improved search algorithm, videos in Songs & Stories, fixed Reports, and more!

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


Searching for words and phrases will be more accurate, and display more relevant results

In response to testing and community feedback, we've made changes to our search algorithm. Searching for words and phrases will now show results which are more accurate and relevant. Give it a try!




Videos now display instantly on the Songs and Stories sections

If you upload a video directly into the Songs or Stories section, and you don't add any pages to the book, it will now display directly on the main Songs and Stories page. It will also be playable without having to click into the book.




Bug fixes


Viewing entries using Reports no longer displays a blank page

A bug affecting the Reports section caused entries to appear blank after clicking on them. Now you can view your Reports and click to see the entries without any page loading errors.

Example of a Reports section


The cover of a song or story can now host multiple images and videos

A bug affecting the Songs and Stories sections caused formatting to break on songs and stories if multiple images or videos were added to the cover. Songs and stories can once again have multiple pieces of media on a cover page without any issues.



Phrases now display properly on the Kids Portal

If child-friendly phrases hadn't been added to a phrasebook, they did not display on the Kids Portal phrases section. There is now a handy link to view all child-appropriate phrases, even if they haven't been added to any phrasebooks.



New documentation






Contact us

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