Let users know about new changes to your product with a public product changelog.
Written By Markus from Featurebase
Last updated About 1 month ago
Overview
Changelog is a useful tool that lets you publish product updates for your users to see in one place. This keeps everyone updated and shows that you are continuously improving and listening.
You can subscribe users to the changelog to send them email notifications about the latest releases. You can also embed the changelog into your app or website using different available methods.
Posts
A changelog post consists of the title, body, and illustration.
You can create changelogs for everyone or just certain customer segments. This can be useful for large, sophisticated companies and products. Learn to do that here: Segmenting changelogs
You can also create changelogs in your customers' native languages, automatically visible only to the language speakers. Learn to do that here: Changelogs in multiple languages
After creating the post, you can choose whether to notify users via email. Finally, you can publish posts immediately or schedule them for future release. Learn to do that here: Creating changelogs
Categories
The changelog has categories you can use to show users the type of update. Categories can also be used to filter changelogs.
By default, your organization will have the categories New, Improved, and Fixed. But you can create and edit them however you like: Configuring the changelog
Subscribers
Subscribing users to your changelog sends them email notifications about new releases. This is one of the most impactful setups you can take for your changelog’s success!
Learn to subscribe users to the changelog: Subscribing users to changelogs
Emails
Whenever you publish a new update or release, we'll automatically send an email to your subscribed users. The email mirrors the actual changelog post. You can see an example here →
You can also select an option to not show the update on the public changelog page or widgets (only send an email). This lets you use the changelog as just an email tool for newsletters, for example.
Comments & reactions
Changelog also has comments & reactions to create a more collaborative environment around your public portal. They also work in the Changelog Popup and the Messenger widget.
Tip: Encourage your users to leave their thoughts at the end of your changelogs with a CTA!
Analytics
It’s important to know how your updates are performing and where they’re viewed from. From the Changelog analytics, you’ll quickly see what’s popular, which posts are most reacted with, and whether they’re viewed from widgets or the public page.
Learn more: Changelog analytics
Sharing your changelog
There are three different ways to integrate the changelog into your product.
Add a link
The easiest way to add a changelog to your product or site is to link it to a button or a text. This could be anywhere, from the footer to your product’s menu.
Just copy the URL of your live changelog (e.g. https://feedback.yourcompany.com/changelog) and paste it where you like on your page or app.
Tip: Many of our customers like to feature their changelogs in their marketing page’s footers and product menus.
Changelog widget & popup
The second way is to use our neat Changelog widget & popup or Messenger to show the latest updates straight from your app.
This is great because it means users don't need to leave your app to see updates. Plus, the changelog popup can be toggled to automatically show users fresh updates when they enter a page.
Learn to set it up: Install Changelog Widget
Good to know: You can automatically authenticate users in the widget using SSO for a seamless experience.
Embedded changelog view
The last method is embedding your changelog directly into your app in its original form, allowing users to see all of your product updates.
Here's how to set it up: Embed Featurebase
More on changelogs: