Appspace 8.5 Orion Release Notes for Cloud

The Public Cloud release notes for the Appspace 8.5 Orion platform contain valuable information on the latest features, enhancements, bug fixes, and resolved escalations available in each public cloud release. 

For Appspace Cloud security compliance information and release cadence, please refer to our Appspace Trust and Cloud Architecture & Platform Release Cadence pages.

The following is the release management schedule as per our Release Calendar for Public Cloud:

• New Appspace functionality and major platform optimizations will now be released under a ten-week release cycle, scheduled at 08:00 pm CST on Friday.
• Scheduled minor feature updates, cloud service optimizations, and bug and escalation fixes are typically scheduled at 08:00 pm CST time throughout the week, typically on a Tuesday or Friday.
• Critical updates including security patches or emergency fixes that support the reliability and availability of the Appspace platform will be deployed as necessary and as soon as it is administratively feasible.

5 Apr 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.6.4

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10481 – Performance issues experienced resulting in “Error getting channels” and “Failed to get your network. Please try again.” error messages displayed.
• AE-10486 – Sync issues with O365 provider when syncing all resources except one.

4 Apr 2024, Thursday

Orion build 8.5-ac.4.3

(Private Cloud Only Build)

FIXED BUGS

• AP-42443 – Unable to close User window that contains a pending user status and assign with 2 or more licenses, as the page becomes unresponsive

29 Mar 2024, Saturday

Orion build 8.5-ac.6.3

FIXED BUGS

• AP-42267 – The Content Feed service queries Subscribers every 15 seconds when flagged for a refresh, causing a memory outage.

23 Mar 2024, Saturday

Orion build 8.5-ac.6.2

(Private Cloud Only Build)

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10287 – Performance issues experienced resulting in “Error getting channels” and “Failed to get your network. Please try again.” error messages displayed.
• AE-10440 – The Just-In-Time provisioning feature does not work correctly.
• AE-10449 – Home posts do not display on the Employee App portal.

Orion build 8.5-ac.5.5

(Private Cloud Only Build)

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10287 – Performance issues experienced resulting in “Error getting channels” and “Failed to get your network. Please try again.” error messages displayed.
• AE-10449 – Home posts do not display on the Employee App portal.

22 Mar 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.6.1

(Internal Build)

This is an internal build focused on general platform stability, and bug fixes for upcoming or limited released features.

9 Mar 2024, Saturday

Orion build 8.5-ac.6

Appspace Employee App

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Supported File Types	Word file formats (.doc and .docx) are now supported on the Employee App, allowing employees to upload these documents within a User Post and Event Post.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10055 – Unable to upload SVG file format to update floor plan.
• AE-10336 – Unable to display Power BI dashboard cards on Samsung Tizen devices.
• AE-10364 – Check-in duration is not consistent with what has been configured.
• AE-10366 – Filtering for conflicts does not display the list of conflicted reservations in Reservation History.
• AE-10407 – Unable to import resources via .xlsx file to Reservations.
• AE-10410 – The Contextual Help links do not display.

9 Mar 2024, Saturday

Orion build 8.5-ac.5.3

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10305 – Performance issues when loading the user list for Advanced Channel Permissions.

4 Mar 2024, Monday

Orion build 8.5-ac.5.2

FIXED BUGS

• AP-41522 – Content selected from Library in a playlist does not get automatically published to Enterprise Messaging Apps.
• AP-41559 – An Event post with “All Day” enabled spanning across multiple days only displays the first date on Enterprise Messaging Apps.
• AP-41565 – An Event post with “RSVP” configured does not get automatically published to Enterprise Messaging Apps.
• AP- 41643 – PNG formatted content thumbnails of post are not displayed on Enterprise Messaging Apps.

4 Mar 2024, Monday

Orion build 8.5-ac.5.1

FIXED BUGS

• AP-41583 – Channel remains unpublished on the Employee App if assigned exclusively to a specific location.
• AP-41588 – Inconsistent behavior noticed across Shortcuts and App Links when the Disable In-App Browser setting is set to default.

2 Mar 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.5

NEW FEATURES & UPDATES

Appspace Console

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Users Enhancements	The Account Authentication and User Provisioning configuration settings on the Account Management Portal have been moved to the Users Settings on the Appspace console.	The Account Authentication and User Provisioning settings is located in Users Settings on the Appspace console.

Appspace Employee App

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Disable In-App Browser for External Links	Account Owners may disable the in-app browser for the Employee App on mobile devices, ensuring external links are launched from the default system web browser for enhanced security measures. This setting is configurable under Settings > App Configuration > Settings within the Appspace console.	The Disable In-App Browser for iOS and Android native applications option is located under Settings > App Configuration > Settings on the Appspace console.
Publish content to Enterprise Messaging Apps Improvements	Content published to Enterprise Messaging Apps has been updated to use the latest designs for user posts, event posts, pages, and stories. Previously, published content utilized the digital signage card’s design.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10042 – File conversion fails for uploaded content on Appspace.
• AE-10086 – Unable to access the Configure Common Library settings in Library.
• AE-10108 – Content disabled when moved from one folder to another in a playlist channel.

1 Mar 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.4.2

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10322 – Unable to select the Home Location on the Employee App on mobile devices.

24 Feb 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.4.1

FIXED BUGS

• AP-41263 – Error received when adding the Story or Page banner section from Library.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10322 – Unable to select the Home Location on the Employee App on mobile devices.

24 Feb 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.4

NEW FEATURES & UPDATES

Appspace Employee App

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
App Language Localization	The following additional languages are now supported: Czech Slovak Dutch Turkish Thai Portuguese

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10055 – Unable to upload SVG file format to update floor plan.
• AE-10109 – The “Configure Home Location” list does not populate correctly.
• AE-10125 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10159 – Customer exceeds the limit of allotted Premium User Licenses due to SCIM.
• AE-10162 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10165 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10166 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10173 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10177 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10190 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10191 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10197 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10211 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10213 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10225 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.
• AE-10243 – The user invitation process fails, due to the “user already existing” within the cloud platform error.

7 Feb 2024, Wednesday

Orion build 8.5-ac.3.1

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10298 – The Check-In option does not display during the active check-in period of the reservation.

2 Feb 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.3

NEW FEATURES & UPDATES

Appspace Enhancements

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Audit Trails for Channels	To improve troubleshooting escalations related to Channels, we have enhanced our audit trail logs for Channels. While these logs are currently only accessible internally by Appspace support, there are plans on the roadmap to have these made available on the Appspace console.

Visitor Management and Space Reservations

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Improved Error Messages for Conflict Notifications	Error messages displayed in conflict email notifications have been updated to be more aligned with the messaging found on the Employee App.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10068 – SharePoint Connector unstable or unresponsive for a couple of hours before displaying SharePoint Collection content in the drop-down menu.
• AE-10123 – Pending Approvals breaks Publisher permissions when viewing channels in private libraries.
• AE-10144 – Unable to import new resources from Office365.
• AE-10159 – SCIM continues to allocate users with Premium User licenses even after exceeding the provisioning limit.
• AE-10271 – Content changes to playlist channel not reflected in Device or Device Preview.

19 Jan 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.2

NEW FEATURES & UPDATES

Visitor Management and Space Reservations

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Colleague Connect Improvements	UI improvements for better user experience. Improved error messaging for email notification access. Weekly Digest building records are now deleted when customized email templates are deleted.
Points of Interest (POI)	The following Points of Interest (POI) have been added to the existing list of resource sub-types: Music Room Equipment Storage Evacuation Zone Lab (updated icon)
New Conflict Template for Email Notifications	A new Conflict template for email notifications to provide better error messaging for both Enterprise Messaging and Email notifications.

Appspace Employee App

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Switch Home Location	All employees (users) now have the ability to switch their Home Locations on the Employee App via Settings on their user profile. This functionality however requires an Account Owner to first enable via General Settings in Users.	Account Owners can enable or disable users from switching their Home Locations via Users > Settings > General. When disabled, the Home Location is displayed without the ability to be changed (read-only).

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-9546 – “We’re working on it” error displayed when editing a layout in Advanced Channel.
• AE-9855 – Text color reverts back to the original default when changed in Cards.
• AE-9983 – “Canceled” spelt incorrectly.
• AE-10000 – User unable to change Home location settings.
• AE-10010 – Checkpoint notification email not sent to organizer.
• AE-10013 – Channel Playlist approval workflow issues.
• AE-10056 – Channel Playlist pending approval workflow issues.
• AE-10155 – Broadcasts CAP response code requires to be updated to 204 from 200.
• AE-10156 – Content published disappears from the Employee App once posted.
• AE-10222 – The View Map function disappears from specific maps.

5 Jan 2024, Friday

Orion build 8.5-ac.1.3

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10021 – Unable to activate suspended users.
• AE-10080 – Unable to access Devices on the Appspace platform.

19 Dec 2023, Tuesday

Orion build 8.5-ac.1.2

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10120 – Floorplans does not display correctly on the Employee App.
• AE-10121 – Floorplans does not display mapped resources on the Employee App.
• AE-10124 – Resources take longer than expected to load on the Employee App.
• AE-10134 – Broadcast CAP push feed fails.

14 Dec 2023, Thursday

Orion build 8.5-ac.1.1

FIXED BUGS

• AP-39877 – Scheduled postings are published immediately and not on the scheduled date, unless the post has been updated.
• AP-39910 – Duplicate user post created without title and author.

RESOLVED ESCALATIONS

• AE-10090 – Unable to load maps.
• AE-10100 – Unable to access Channel or Devices on the Appspace platform.
• AE-10114 – Unable to display Room resources on the Employee App for a specific floor.
• AE-10122 – Unable to access Channels on the Appspace platform.
• AE-10124 – Resources take longer than expected to load on the Employee App.
• AE-10136 – Resource bookings missing from Appspace Reservations.

9 Dec 2023, Saturday

Orion build 8.5-ac.1

NEW FEATURES & UPDATES

Appspace Enhancements

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Enhanced Signup and Login Validation	Appspace has upgraded its Account Sign-up process for both public and private cloud customers, solving several issues that have caused inconvenience to new users such as: Employees inadvertently sign up for a new account (free), rather than join their organization account (paid). Employees with existing free accounts (used for trial purposes) cannot be invited to their organization account (paid), until their free accounts are deleted.  With the new Account Sign-up process, the system automatically checks for matching email domains associated with paid public or private cloud accounts, ensuring new users the option to seamlessly join their paid organization account, or create a new account based on their email address. The process is much easier for employees with existing invitations from their organizations (paid public cloud), as they can accept the invitation directly from the Appspace sign-up page. This process is also available for private cloud customers that have enabled the feature through a request with their Customer Success Manager. This solution provides better data management, ensures account consolidation, and optimizes the overall customer experience across both public and private cloud services.	Roadmap Feature
Microsoft Teams Activity Notifications	Microsoft Teams Activity Feed section now supports displaying Appspace notifications, such as reservation check-ins, checkpoints, and visitor arrivals.	Roadmap Feature
Playlist Channel – Email and Weekly Digest Publishing	The Channel Email and Weekly Digest Publishing feature receives an enhancement enabling publishers to send updates about channel content via email, resolving the need to manually craft emails. This process streamlines channel publishing with the newly introduced email configuration in channels. Publishers have the option of customizing the frequency of these emails, choosing to receive them whenever new content is added, or opt for a daily, weekly, or monthly digest.	Roadmap Feature
Playlist Channel – Connecters	Playlist channels may now pull content directly from third-party platforms via available Connectors, automating post generation from third-party sources.	Roadmap Feature
Playlist Channel – Volume Control and Mute Button	With this release, we are introducing a new feature to enhance device support by enabling per-content volume properties. This means users can now mute or set volume levels to individual content items within a playlist channel. The specific content that can be muted at the playlist level will also be supported at the content level, ensuring consistency across both levels of control.
Analytics Reports – Device Directory Template	The new Device Directory template for Analytics Reports, provides in-depth information on devices registered to the Appspace platform, allowing for better reporting capabilities. These reports are highly customizable, allowing for custom reports to be generated and exported with information such as device registration, connectivity, app version, and firmware versions.
Skipping the End-User License Agreement	Organizations on private cloud, now have the option to bypass the End-User License Agreement (EULA) during logins for their employees, once the organization has acknowledged and signed the Master Service Agreement (MSA) relevant to their account. To enable or disable the EULA during logins, please contact your Customer Success Manager.	This feature is only available to Private cloud customers.

Visitor Management and Space Reservations

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Multi-Resource Reservation Improvements	The Multi Reservations features have been significantly improved in this Orion release, by resolving issues noticed during its initial release. Reservation listings now display “Multiple resources” rather than the resource name when a meeting has more than a single resource tied to it, while Reservation details will list all resources within the multi-resource reservation. Users are now able to select up to 50 resources when making a multi-resource reservation. Exceeding this limit will hide the radio button, preventing additional resources from being selected. Improved handling of Resource Capacity when bookings are made through calendar providers, by marking meetings as conflicted if the total number of attendees is greater than the total resource capacity. Organizers will then be required to make the necessary adjustments either by setting attendees to “Virtual”, or by removing them. Check-in constraints now allow organizers the flexibility to determine if the check-in process triggers all available resources or only a specific resource within the multi-resource reservation. Attendees however may only check-in to resources that they have been assigned to. If a resource check-in expires and auto-cancellation is enabled, the resource will be removed from the reservation, while attendees assigned to the resource will be converted to “Virtual” attendees. This triggers the resource removal email notification sent to both organizer and in-person attendees. If at least one resource from the multi-resource reservation checks-in, the reservation shall still be valid, and not marked as canceled. The Zombie meeting constraint for recurring reservations behaves similarly to the check-in constraint. However, when the last resource is removed from the meeting due to the zombie meeting constraint, the meeting will be canceled. Checkpoints configured on multi-resource reservations ensure in-person attendees are only able to view and respond to checkpoints tied to their assigned resource. Virtual attendees will not be forced to comply with checkpoints as they are not assigned to any specific resource. Organizers however will have access to all checkpoint’s status regardless of their assignment. Improved handling of unimported rooms when multi-resource reservations contain both imported and unimported resources when booked through the calendar provider. As unimported resources do not abide Appspace reservation constraints or rules, it is hidden from the user interface in order to keep things clear for users.	Roadmap Feature
Support for Multi-layer Floorplans on Reservations	The Multi-layer floorplan feature offers an optimal experience for special needs users and specific scenarios, such as wayfinding kiosks. It enables the representation of a floor with diverse layers, allowing different floorplans to coexist on the same floor. Configurable theming in each layer accommodates accessible users. Employee App users can cycle through available views, and specific layers can be retrieved on call, empowering devices and customization.	Roadmap Feature
Colleague Connect on Reservations	The Colleague Connect feature elevates workplace collaboration by introducing the capability to easily check when their colleagues will be in the office, or receive nudges from colleagues when making reservations.  Employees are empowered to make informed decisions regarding optimal time for office collaboration. The reservation experience is also improved, and users can conveniently mark colleagues as favorites, allowing them to stay updated on their colleagues’ office schedules and receive timely nudges during the reservation process.	Roadmap Feature A new Favorites tab in People Directory, allows employees to mark colleagues as favorites. A new At the Office tab in Places, allows employees to plan their work week and see who is in the office.
Zoom Conferencing	The Zoom integration with Space Reservations delivers conferencing support to customers, allowing users to connect and collaborate virtually by adding the Zoom Conferencing feature to their reservations. Details of the conference call are easily accessible from within the reservation details. Additionally, users may also access conference calls directly from their preferred communication channel, either through the enterprise messaging app or email notifications.	Roadmap Feature
API – Checkpoint Reservation ID	Introducing the Checkpoint Reservation ID API utilized by Checkpoint Cards to improve integration capabilities between third-party platforms and Appspace when checkpoints have been triggered.	Roadmap Feature

Appspace Employee App

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
User Posts Enhancements	In a continuous effort to improve our user experience, and be more aligned with the core purpose of User Posts, the following enhancements have been made. Titles have been removed, to emphasize the nature of User Posts as being updates that are quick and informal, similar to social media status updates. Text Color have been removed from User Posts, aligning with Stories and Pages. A simple and clean Sharebox modal that provides a fresh and modern look, allowing for a more streamlined experience. Text formatting options are still available and have been updated to appear only when text is selected, enhancing the overall usability and aesthetics of the interface.	Roadmap Feature

Devices & Partner Integrations

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Support for macOS 13 Ventura	Support for macOS 13 Ventura on Appspace App for Devices.	Roadmap Feature Firmware Support
Playlist Channel – Custom Device App Background and Border Color	This enhancement allows Administrators to further personalize the background and border color of the Device App beyond the default gray shade, allowing organizations to better align the device app’s appearance to their branding or individual preferences. The background and border color can be customized by entering a specific hex code, or by selecting the color from the color picker palette, available in the Playlist Channel Settings Overview tab.	Roadmap Feature
Crestron Desk Scheduling – Desk Touch	Support for Crestron Desk Scheduling – Desk Touch devices for room and workspace bookings, featuring visible LED indicators to display desk availability, ensuring smooth transitions between hot desk areas and offices.
Broadcasts Device Support	Support for Broadcasts functionality has been extended to the following devices, ensuring customers using Alerts to transition to Broadcasts smoothly, once Alerts have been deprecated. Android iOS Cisco RoomOS devices Crestron Google Meet LG webOS Logitech Tap Scheduler Mersive Samsung Tizen
PWA Content Caching Improvements	Content caching on Progressive Web Apps (PWA) has been reworked with the implementation of Workbox, a production-ready service worker library maintained by Chrome, for improved performance and stability. Introducing conditional content caching for PWA devices with limited storage capacity, ensuring caching is performed based on the available storage capacity.
Deprecating Support for Twitter (now X)	Appspace has deprecated support for Twitter (now known as X) due to its API access model, restricting essential capabilities behind a cost-prohibitive paywall. This results in the existing Twitter passport now being non-functional to customers. To preemptively eliminate support cases and related customer satisfaction concerns, we are deprecating the option to create new Twitter passports.	Deprecated

Cards

Features	Description	Impact/Outcome
Beezy Hero Card	The Beezy Hero card displays the contents of the Appspace Intranet (Beezy) Hero Banner. Refer to the Beezy Stories and Hero Card Release Notes for more detailed information.	Roadmap Feature
Beezy Stories Card	The Beezy Stories card displays the contents of the Appspace Intranet (Beezy) Stories. Refer to the Beezy Stories and Hero Card Release Notes for more detailed information.	Roadmap Feature
Room Schedule and Schedule Board Card Improvements	As part of the Reservation service improvements during event syncing on the Room Schedule and Schedule Board card, the device property, the “player.reservations.events.pollingintervalseconds” device property was introduced allowing administrators to configure the events polling interval. In conjunction with the Orion release, both the Room Schedule and Schedule Board card will include the Status Refresh Interval drop-down menu, available in the Booking Options section via the card editor, for a better user experience when configuring the events polling interval. Refer to the Room Schedule or Schedule Board Card Release Notes for more detailed information.	This feature is only available for Appspace Providers.
Announcement Card Enhancements	The Announcement card introduces new enhanced content caching abilities, by ensuring a thorough caching of all card assets and files into the card’s cache storage via a Workbox service worker, enabling efficient local storage and access. Refer to the Announcement Card Release Notes for more detailed information.	This enhancement is part of PWA Content Caching Improvements.
Display User and Card Info in Cards.	In response to customer feedback and requests, we have implemented the inclusion of the following card details displayed in the Card Settings tab, and also content listing in Library. Content Type Card Template Content Size Created Date and User Modified Date and User Content Location Version This enhancement aims to meet tracking requirements, content ownership, and simplify the comparison of card versions with the latest card template version.
Data Visualization Card Security Update	Appsapce has implemented a security update our Data Visualization card template, to ensure a more secure user experience. We urge customers to update utilizing the following card themes to update to the latest Data Visualization 1.9.1 release. Bar Graph Donut Chart Leaderboard Leaderboard Light Line Chart Progress Bar Progress Donut Simple Chart Simple Ranking	Security Update