History of the various versions of software and the notable changes/improvements.
More info on how to update to latest software version.
v440 - July 8, 2024
-General improvements to how we handle volume for music, calls, podcasts, alerts etc. (you will notice a different volume indication bar with more steps for volume level)
-Upgraded to the latest HERE SDK for Directions tool (no change to user experience)
-Fixed an issue where the directions tool results overflowed if there were duplicates in the results list
-Improved default location setting flow for Directions tool
-Ensures messages do not vibrate when silenced
-Adds temporary warning if user tries to adjust in-call bluetooth volume using the phone's volume controls (this will be removed once our next firmware update is available and resolves this!)
-Fixed a rare state where long press menu shortcut was not working
-Ensures calendar alert settings are persisted on reboot
v438 - May 28, 2024
-Introducing the Directory tool
-Added Bluetooth menu to "call connected" screen
-Improve network shortcut flow when re-opening those setting
-Fixed an issue in podcast player when viewing details of a specific episode where the rest of the tool is no longer visible
-Fixed an issue with Calendar tool month view
v436 - May 10, 2024
-Patch that resolves a rare issue where a users previous ringer settings which are no longer supported since the previous revert (Do Not Disturb or ringer level 6 or 7) causes the phone to crash when updated to v434
v434 - May 9, 2024
-Patch that reverts all ringer upgrades from v430/v432 which have unfortunately caused a few rare issues for some users and incoming calls. We will continue working on a long term solution to bring back those upgrades asap.
v432 - April 5, 2024
-Fix a bug with outgoing calls when the phone ringer is set to Do Not Disturb
-Fix a bug in calculator tool when clearing a negative number
v430 - April 1, 2024
Audio Player (music/podcast tools):
-Reworked how these player is built for improved stability
-General improvements to the state management of audio player
-Temporarily pauses audio player when previewing a ringtone
-Auto resolves some bluetooth headphone reconnection issues (resets bluetooth and reconnects to headphones, with dialog in the player explaining the state)
-Bug fix where audio player crashes when it reaches the end of the buffered podcast
-For Music tool, fix a bug where timestamp wasn't always cleared when skipping tracks
-Fix a bug when pressing shuffle from the main music tool playlist view
Ringer Volume and Notification Settings (incoming calls/texts):
-Reworked how we set ringer volume and notification settings to improve stability
-Adds link to Notification Settings from ringer volume screen (when changing the ringer volume)
-Setting to toggle off this shortcut in Settings > Notifications (page 2)
Alert Volume and Notification Settings (calendar/alarm/timer):
-Reworked how we set alert volume and notification settings to improve stability
- Adds link to notification settings on alert volume screen (shortcut shares setting with ringer above)
Incoming Call Handling:
-Improve how we register an incoming call (to resolve a rare bug where users didn't see the screen to answer a call)
-Haptic feedback added to buttons on active call screen
Calculator Tool:
-Flip numbers on keypad to align with conventional layout
-Add a backspace button
-Remove percentage sign and moved +- button to where it used to be
-Fix errors when 0 is used in an equation
Calendar Tool:
-Adds an indicator to each day of the monthly calendar view that has a calendar event
-Fix bug where all-day events also appear on the next day when the phone is in the GMT timezone
Settings:
-Adds “ALL SETTINGS” shortcut on network settings page from the lock screen (i.e. if you press the top left for network shortcuts, you can now jump to ALL SETTINGS)
v428 - March 11, 2024
This is a simple patch update to optimize the battery efficiency of the GPS Priming feature (Settings > Preferences > Tools > Directions).
v426 - January 16, 2024
This is a simple patch update to resolve an alarm bug in which expired alarms remained on the alarm tool, though they were not actually set to go off.
v424 - January 8, 2024
We technically re-worked the compose text screen (using Java):
-There are now three lines in the compose text draft per page
-Improves performance and reliability of the keyboard, especially in regards to breaking a draft into multiple pages
-The pagination ellipsis indicator for when there are multiple pages is now above/below the text area, improving clarity of the drafted text and adding a little bit more room per page.
-Updated logic when using the 'punctuation keyboard' to auto return to the keyboard after using apostrophe or pressing space bar
-Fixed the bug where letters at the end of the message were deleted when holding down backspace to delete full words in the middle of the text
-Fixed instance where a word could get lost between pages in draft
Calendar Tool
-Changed default date on the add event page to the last viewed date instead of the current date
-Fixed bug where recurring all day events were not displaying if they began at the start of the month
Notes Tool
-Stopped the phone from sleeping when editing or creating a note
-Improved note deletion reliability between dashboard and phone
-Ensure alarms behave correctly when daylight savings shifts occur in the user’s timezone
-Added ability to toggle airplane mode on and off by clicking the network shortcut on the standby screen (clicking the top left corner where signal bars are)
-Removed the haptic feedback on the standby screen when clicking the network shortcut location when the shortcut is toggled off
v422 - November 2, 2023
-A simple update, mostly to support our limited edition collaboration with pgLang, which includes an exclusive "Language" tool for those specific devices
-Fixed overflow of title/artist lines on some podcast tracks
-Ensure notes view page respects haptic feedback setting (if haptic feedback is turned off, the phone no longer vibrates when the user clicks the note text)
-Some behind the scenes error log reporting optimization to better support quick bug fixing across OS
v420 - October 4, 2023
-Fix issue where podcast episode details page only shows two lines
-Fix issue reading notes with no text (some users saw notes stuck on 'loading...')
-Fix issue with clearing of threads from recents
-Fix blank/missing 'Subscribed Podcasts' list
-Fix podcast title and publisher / music title and artist width
-Fix issue with Qwertz keyboard when emoji and return keys are present
v418 - September 27, 2023
-Fix key error when loading tracks on the music and podcast tool
-Ensure music and podcast title truncation does not run over the screen in lists
-Add the ability to view un-truncated podcast details by clicking the title of the podcast on the player page
-Fix sort order on podcast downloads page so the episodes sort consistently
-Pause music/podcast tracks when the user is listening to or recording an audio note
-Re-introduce and improve all recent episodes home page
-Ensure podcast tracks play from the last position after the tool has been stopped
Messaging & Keyboard:
-Add the ability to send and receive contacts
-Fixed QZERTY & AZERTY keyboard issue when creating titles
-Add caps lock feature to keyboard (long press SHIFT to activate)
-Ensure the last page of a message thread aligns to the bottom of the screen
Contact Searching:
-Improve contact searching speed and results
-Added loading indicator while search is being carried out
-Searching a contact with existing history will now load the existing thread
-Add the ability to search by group nickname or participants name
Notes Tool:
-Fix hyphenation issue which was causing some words to overflow the page
-Improve general performance of the notes tool (loading in particular)
-Improve how we set titles for notes without a title
-Add lazy loading to the tool (load pages as the user scrolls instead of the whole list of notes when opening the tool)
-Lazy load large notes (instead of loading the whole note, we load chunks as the user scrolls)
-Add ability to disable emojis in Notes tool (this can improve battery life slightly for serious notes tool users, nominal for normal notes usage)
-Improve performance of drafts (we were saving drafts to the db every time the user typed a new letter. Now we save to the db only when they save the note)
-Improve notes view page to more reliably renders line breaks and fit text on the whole page
Calendar:
-Fix issue where notes/event descriptions can overflow the reminder screen and the event view screen
-Ensure location is present on the calendar event reminder screen
Settings:
-Add the ability to override the network timezone with a manual timezone in the settings (Settings > Preferences > General > Time)
-Add shortcut to wifi/bluetooth connection page from home screen (to disable: Settings > Preferences > General > Home Screen > toggle Network Shortcut)
-Fix sync setting for contacts (previously might display as blank)
-Move hidden threads from the blocked contacts page into their own setting (if you leave a thread, you can view that list in Settings > Preferences > Phone > Messages > Edit Left Threads)
Other:
-APN settings now visible in Device Info, just viewable at this point
v408 - July 26, 2023
v378 - June 8, 2023
This is a simple patch update to accommodate a recent change for how connecting external Google calendars with the Light Phone works. A larger update coming soon!
v376 - April 6, 2023
-Added support for multiple calendars imported under the same email
-Fixed bug where updating a contact would not work for devices in certain states
-Nightly reboots will now be performed at a random time between 3:30 and 4:30 AM local to the user.
-Added additional error logging around Calendar device tool metadata (to further debug users who cannot get default Light Calendar to work)
-Fixed bug that would create duplicate numbers in the phone’s database for a contact when it was edited, exported and re-imported their contacts.
v374 - March 22, 2023
-Prevent ‘phantom notifications’ related to contact/calendar syncing in the background
-Adjusted vertical spacing on the "call connecting/connected" screens
v370 - March 16, 2023
-More contact syncing improvements
-Fixed a UI bug when deleting contacts on the LP
-Final preparation for all users being able to have a default Light Calendar option created, sorry for the delay
v358 - March 8, 2023
-Improved contact syncing
-Improved UX for calendar tool
v356 - March 6, 2023
-Introducing the Calendar Tool
-Fixed an issue with scrolling in the notes tool
-We've made some improvements to the handling of failed/corrupted audio downloads or deletions for music tool which could previously cause the tool/phone to freeze. If a file was corrupted it will now be removed from your playlist incase you notice a track is missing.
v354 - February 23, 2023
-Fixed delay when sending text messages and returning to the thread
-Fixed styling issue on 'compose group message' page
-Optimized list view when adding lots of contacts on 'compose group message' page
-Fixed issue receiving sms for users without Light Account
-Fixed bug to clear notes draft after saving note
-Added better error reporting to music download process
NOTE: There are some outstanding Music tool issues that surfaced with the previous update v348, we are actively working on a patch for this and apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.
v348 - February 9, 2023
-Sending a message to a new contact now navigates to the conversation thread
-Improvements to how scrolling list work, which fixes a few instances like where a user could not add more than 10 contacts when composing a new group thread.
-Fixed a few bugs with draft messages not properly saving/clearing
-Fixed case where out-of-date Podcast information from iTunes caused downloads/streaming to fail
-Private podcast links which use basic auth can now be added to LightOS
-Fix issue with map crashing on directions tool
-Fix enclosure error thrown by podcast tool
-Fix null-pointer error thrown by spell checker
-Fix issue downloading mp3 files with music tool
-Add more details to the logs captured when an error is thrown by the keyboard cursor
v344 - October 20, 2022
-Added Wifi Calling to settings (Settings > Preferences > Phone > Wifi Calling). There are three options, 'off', 'cellular preferred' and 'wifi preferred'.
- Updated the main phone recents page to include a Contacts Icon which allows you to view all contacts. Compose a group message now lives in that contacts page as well.
- Redesigned Bluetooth settings page. It now shows all previously known devices, with the added ability to disconnect/reconnect to previously known devices. There is a new page for pairing a new device which does not time out listening for new devices until you leave that page.
- Reconnecting to some bluetooth devices like AirPods is greatly improved
- Bluetooth no longer disabled by turning on airplane mode
- Fixed draft creation in message compose and notes. You can leave a text draft using menu button. If you get an incoming call/alarm, the draft is also preserved.
-Fixed issue where you can't send a second text message (in very quick succession) if previous message hasn't been successfully sent.
- Fixed a compose text overflow bug for texts and notes
- Force screen refresh when emojis displayed in messages
- Fixed an issue in Notes tool which should prevent the tool from getting stuck/not loading after a failure to create a note
- Updated when a notification plays (such as an alarm sounding) during an active call, the corresponding notification sound is now less intrusive
- Pressing the power button now disables alarm too (all buttons disable alarm)
- Additional stability improvements: we fixed a handful of minor errors in the OS that we found in our error logs
v338 - August 17, 2022
-Introducing Notes Tool (for text & audio notes + syncing with dashboard)
-Supporting Call Waiting function
-Ability to navigate out of a “call connected” screen to use other aspects of the OS as many times as you’d like by using the menu button
-Ability to return to the “call connected” screen by long pressing the menu button
-Enables Haptic Feedback when using the Dialpad during a connected call
-Adds Return Key to the keyboard when composing messages or notes (can be toggled OFF in Settings > Preferences > General > Keyboard)
-Refactor of existing code for movable cursor and scrolling through messages/notes while composing them (so we could support return key/general improvements)
-Increase spacing for spellcheck suggestions
-Ability to re-arrange the "Settings" in the toolbox menu
-Threads will force a full screen refresh automatically for pages with emojis to ensure they are legible
-Fixes bug involving the recent activity page position after making a call
-Forward MMS for muted group threads
-Allow LightOS Bluetooth discovery by other devices (specifically cars) to improve compatibility
-Fix a rare bug where toggling bluetooth off and on could cause a LightOS fatal error crash
-Bluetooth State (when underlined in Music/Podcast) reflects if actually connected to a device, not just if bluetooth is ON
-Fix issue with “keep history for 30 days” setting in Settings > Account & Info > Storage
-Fix issue when rapidly hitting skip forward/backward buttons in music tool
June 3, 2022 (dashboard)
v318 - May 26, 2022
- Fixed bug where incoming messages when recents page is empty would result in blank screen
- Fixed a typo in the directions tool's "offline mode info" dialog
- Fixed bug where on the blocked contacts list names/numbers were visually cut off
- Several improvements to error logging in sentry
v312 - May 11, 2022
-Hotspot at an optional tool
-Ability to Copy, Forward to Email or Delete individual text messages (via long press)
-Ability to Paste when composing a message (long press in compose message)
-Auto-period setting when pressing space twice (settings > general > keyboard)
-Updated Alarm tool design
-Ability to set multiple alarms
-Ability to repeat alarm daily (set an alarm, then click that time to toggle this ON)
-Ability to control alarm volume when using UP and DOWN buttons in the alarm tool
-Added Storage section to settings (settings > account & info > storage)
-Ability to view device storage breakdown by tool, history and OS
-Ability to clear all phone history or just MMS history
-Ability to automatically clear phone history older than 30 days ("keep history" setting)
-Warnings for when device storage is low, and preventing it from trying to update LightOS
-Rearranged the Settings menus for clarity. Notably a new "Forwarding" page for emailing links/mms to email (Settings > Preferences > Phone > Forwarding) as well as a "Home Screen" page (Settings > Preferences > General > Home Screen)
-Email links/MMS is ON by default for new devices
-Previous "Clear Phone" setting now called "Factory Reset"
-Added haptic feedback when moving the cursor
-Increase frequency and duration of gps priming
-Improve AGPS data when opening directions tool
-Improve mechanism for switching between Offline Mode/GPS Mode
-Added U-Turn icons to Directions tool
-Fixed bug when re-ordering toolbox that causes tools to duplicate in menu
-Fixed a bug that let the screen sleep while using directions
-Fixed alarm bug when receiving call/text at same time
-Fixed bug in removing a number from blocked contact list
-Disable hotspot when Airplane mode is enabled
-Fixed a bug when holding delete key in middle of a sentence
-Fixed a few other issues that were causing some "fatal errors" and crashing the OS
v296 - February 15, 2022
v294 - February 10, 2022
-Add timestamps to incoming messages in a group thread
-Voicemail indicator in top bar when new voicemail is left (when possible carrier depending, internationally we have seen some issues)
-Voicemail icon toggle in settings (Settings > Preferences > Phone)
-Podcast Tool can now subscribe to custom/private RSS feed links on Dashboard (if you previously tried a Patreon RSS feed that failed to sync, please unsubscribe and re-subscribe after this update)
-Retain last paused position on music tracks while the tool is open. Restarting phone, pressing STOP to close music tool or changing song does clear the position in that track.
-Added STOP button to Podcast/Music tool player on lock screen. Pausing no longer auto-times out after 1 minute, STOP closes the tool right away.
-Option to disable emergency alerts under Settings > Notifications. This is enabled by default.
-Disable jarring voice commands for emergency alerts
-List Pinning (remembering location in search results/recents/other lists, when pressing back)
-Vibrate + Ring option in settings (Settings > Notifications)
-Setting for removing the “circle” shortcut to Phone on Lock Screen (Settings > Preferences > General)
-“Nothing” ringer setting no longer wakes screen at all
-Fixed bug where phone would re-wake after sleeping directly after ending an outgoing call
-Fixed bug where, after using directions or voice transcription, the phone could reset to a 5 minute sleep timer after a restart/update
-Re-order items in Notifications settings menu
v276 - November 24, 2021
v274 - November 22, 2021
- Audio (music/podcast) will now pause when initiating voice transcription, and automatically resume once complete
v272 - November 2, 2021
- Introducing Voice-to-Text feature
- Added ability to scroll on the message compose screen.
- Fixed a bug where "play icons" would remain on the home screen
- Fixed a bug that would cause podcasts to not retain their previous position after resuming.
- Fixed a bug when switching from a downloaded podcast episode to a non-downloaded podcast episode
v260 - October 8, 2021
- Public Transit Mode added map view options
- Public Transit Mode select-a-route options (3 options)
- Walking & Driving directions now default to the fastest route rather than the shortest route
- Directions 'list view' screen refresh optimization
- Added toggle for GPs background priming (settings > preferences > tools > directions)
- Show trip ETA in (manually set) offline mode
- Allow search radius to be expanded even if no location search results are found
- Added better error messaging during location and route search failures (no location found, device offline, and unknown error)
- Added "live navigation" indicator icon to top bar of settings
- Fixed typo in location status test
- Fixed issue with auto rebootLightOS with music/podcast playing
- Internal Bug tracking clean up
v250 - August 31, 2021
- Launch of the Directions Tool
- Ability to re-arrange the order of tools from settings (Settings > Preferences > Tools > Edit Toolbox)
- Ability to manually reboot LightOS from Settings (Settings > Account & Info > Reboot LightOS)
- Function for automatically rebooting the OS occasionally in the background for better general performance
Firmware 83 - August 3rd, 2021
- Added audio library to the device to support future features like the upcoming Directions tool's voice command option.
v158 - February 15th, 2021
- Added QZERTY & AZERTY keyboard options to settings
(Settings > Preferences > General > Keyboard)
- Optimizations to keyboard performance
- Fix bug with occasional keyboard stutter
- Added a manual sync button to the Podcasts tool
- Fixed a variety of issues with syncing podcast shows
- Fixed bugs with podcast playback
- Fixed a bug when editing phone numbers of contacts
Firmware 79 - February 2nd, 2021
- Standard security update, no effect to user experience
v150 - December 17th, 2020
- Fixed bug with alternative characters
v148 - December 17th, 2020
- Implemented moveable cursor
- Long press for alternative characters (i.e. à, á, â, ä…)
- Setting for auto-forwarding MMS (photo) to Light Account email
- Re-designed the underlying keyboard architecture for performance
- React Native upgrades across OS for performance gains
- Optimize general performance around Contact Search
- Fix issue with device crashes searching with over 1000 contacts
- Fixed some issues with auto-capitalize first letter setting
- Fix rare issue with threads sorting out-of-order
- Fix a small issue with the "Update LightOS" button in Device Settings
- Fix issue with the cursor styling not showing on the inverse color theme
- Fix rare issue where the ringtone is reverted to default after updating
- Improve tolerance for e-ink screen misses
- Fix rare issue with contact formatting crashing devices
- Fix issues with call logs on wrong side of the thread (for IMS Calls)
- Various other misc. bugs
* Beta tested voice-to-text option, will continue to optimize before releasing in a future update
v118 - October 5th, 2020
v114 - September 3rd, 2020
v108 - July 15, 2020
v102 - June 22, 2020
- Introducing the Podcasts Tool
- Re-worked F.O.T.A. updater (not visible to end user)
v86 - April 21, 2020
- Fix screen waking issue, where screen would remain blank when trying to wake it from sleep. In rare cases, this also prevented incoming calls from waking screen too.
- Fix "ghost notifications" related to a "un-syncable" (invalid format) contact
- Improves overall screen performance/reliability
- Optimization in data caching and some underlying pieces in data management (so we can surface data usage on the device in settings) in preparation future tools that will use more space on the phone like podcast/music
- Adds ability to "Ping" a device from the admin dashboard to test it's live connection (for customer support troubleshooting purposes)
- Fixed a few other outlier bugs
v76 - February 24, 2020
v74 - February 14, 2020
v66 - February 7, 2020
v62 - January 27, 2020
v60 - January 10, 2020
v56 - December 19, 2019
- Fix and stabilize VTObserver E-ink Architecture
- Refactor issues around Activity Streams (missing or disappearing threads)
- Fix Bricked Device due to corrupt database record
- Fix improper wake behavior when passcode set
- Fix issue with Alarm Notifications not vibrating
- Fix issue with dialing numbers that start with # (like #636)
- Fix issues with sender names not showing up in group chats
- Fix issue with deleting thread history not working properly
- Fix issue with "No Caller Id" threads not being usable
- Fix issue with "Alarm does not sound all the time, and sometimes can not be turned off"
- Fix issue where alarms set within a short time of each other are cancelled
- A variety of small other issues
v48 - December 3, 2019
- Show Number when creating a contact from a group message recipient group
v46 - November 28, 2019
- Send Product SKU & other hardware variables to Light API server
- Decouple Alarm Volume from general device volume
- Support private numbers & other outstanding caller ID issues
- Add memory metrics analytics to Device Snapshots
- Support "Logouts" from the LightOS
- Support Factory Resets "provisioning a new sync'd address book"
- Handle Null E164 activities
- Fix (many) bugs
- Implement a lot of stuff 'under hood' to support future Music Player tool
- Fix contact/dashboard sync issues
v30 - November 1, 2019
- fixed a few bugs with alarm
- fixed bug opening "settings" from menu
v26 - October 27, 2019
- added a hotspot icon so that users don't accidentally leave it on
- reworked the experience for 'failed to send' text messages
- fixed issue where speakerphone ended when the phone went to sleep on a long call
- limited the device to 200 blocked numbers (a limitation in our underlying system that wasn't known until recently)
- increased font weight on smallest text of light gray (white background) phone slightly
- ensured the device always normalizes it's IMEI to 15 characters
- fixed a variety of other small bugs coming through our reporting
v22 - October 3, 2019
- optimizations around performance when navigating conversation history
- fixed toggle state bug in settings
- fixed bug with personal hotspot
- speed up "haptic feedback" snappy-ness
v20 - September 22, 2019
- introduced personal hotspot feature to settings
- fixed rare freeze on 'applying update...' screen
- fixed "unidentified" label that was added to important contacts without a last name
v18 - September 10, 2019
- fixed spacing of elements on call connecting screen
- added "Classic" ringtone to notification settings
- fixed thread place holder bug
- improved line breaking in text history
v16 - August 24, 2019
- fixed rare duplicate names in activity feed
- prevent annoying low battery flash on update screen
- fixed standard +1 US numbers without truncation (better international compatibility)
v14 - August 11, 2019
- on-boarding update for creating Light accounts on device
- fixed issue around SIM phone number recognition (user's number)
- improvement in GPS accuracy (although not used yet in any tools other than emergency calls as required by FCC)