We've redesigned how recording works to give you more control and help your participants feel more comfortable. Instead of deciding to record before the call begins, you can now start recording whenever the moment feels right.

Simply join your session and start building rapport with your participant. When you're ready to begin recording, click the new recording button directly in the call interface. A timer will appear to let you know your session is being captured.

This update gives you:

• Freedom to establish trust before recording begins

• Control to start recording at the right moment

• Clarity with a visual indicator showing recording duration

We built this based on researcher feedback to create a more natural and comfortable experience for both facilitators and participants.

Introducing Ask AI, a powerful new feature that allows you to ask any question about your research transcripts and receive an answer in seconds, complete with evidence-based citations.

Gone are the days of manually sifting through transcripts to find the insights you need. With Ask AI, simply type your question in the playback screen of a session, and let the AI do the heavy lifting, providing you with quick, accurate answers backed by specific quotes from the transcript.

Start saving time on analysis and focus on what matters most—uncovering actionable insights.

Read about Askable's use of AI models and your privacy →

Fixes

• Fix issue where messages screen on some studies had performance issues

• Fix issue where messages screen was inaccessible on mobile devices

• Fix issue where survey and online task check submission timer was inaccurate

• Fix issue where some users couldn't bulk invite for longitudinal studies

• Fix issue where Focus Group max number wouldn't update

• Fix issue where Assets and Deliverables were inaccurate on Askable+ projects

• Fix issue where participant location map intermittently jumped back to Australia

• Fix issue where some participants were unable to complete tech check

• Fix issue where updating session duration did not adjust credits

• Fix issue where content was being pushed off the participant selection screen

• Fix issue where the whole team was being notified for Insight access requests

• Add ability to copy screener questions from studies within Askable+ projects

We're excited to announce the complete overhaul of our Askable Sessions experience. This rebuild was driven by the following key objectives:

• Upgrade Technology Stack: We have modernised our infrastructure to significantly reduce dropouts and general bugginess, ensuring a smoother experience for all users.

• Incorporate User Feedback: We've listened to your suggestions and made several targeted improvements to enhance the research experience.

Key Improvements

• Enhanced Observer Privacy: Observers are now completely hidden and cannot turn their microphones or cameras on, ensuring a distraction-free environment for participants.

• Session Message Privacy: Messages sent during the call are now only available during the call, preventing a history of prototype links from previous sessions from being accessible to participants.

• Improved Note Taking: Note taking has been optimised for better performance, making it easier to capture and organise insights during sessions.

• Active Speaker Detection: This feature helps identify who is speaking during the call, providing a clearer understanding of the conversation flow.

• Network Connection Detection: We've added detection for poor network connections to help troubleshoot and improve call quality.

• Reduced Visual Distraction: We've made the Observer "request to join" notification more passive so your focus can stay on the participant.

A New Era of Askable Sessions

This rebuild marks a significant step forward in delivering a more reliable, secure, and user-friendly platform for your research sessions.

Read more about Askable Sessions →

Improved project access for Askable+ Researchers

To bolster our security measures, we've updated the process for switching between projects from different clients for Askable+ Researchers.

Now, you'll need to switch teams from your Profile menu, and will only see the relevant projects and studies associated with that specific team. This change ensures that project visibility is restricted to the appropriate team members, enhancing both security and organisation.

Fixes

• Fix issue where some participants were experiencing a loop when signing in

• Fix issue where horizontal scrollbar wasn't appearing on participant table

• Fix spacing issue on participant location step

• Fix issue where some users couldn't update the location in a study

Askable now supports recruiting participants from multiple countries within a single study.

Previously, creating separate studies for each country was required, complicating flexible quota management and increasing administrative tasks. Now, you can handle everything in one place, reducing the need for multiple calendars and extra admin work.

Read more about conducting your first multi-country study →

Enhanced participant quality controls

• Blocking of more sophisticated VPNs

• Preventing bot sign up of new accounts

• Detection of multiple participants using the same IP

• Improved PayPal integration to avoid multiple accounts linked to the same PayPal and only allow verified PayPal accounts

• Improved country verification on account sign up

• Improved internal tools for detecting and blocking fraudulent participants

Fixes

• Fix issue where shortlisting some participants would not persist

• Fix UI issue where demographic fields were overlapping container

• Fix issue where "Study updates available" toast was appearing multiple times

• Fix issue where cancelling a ppt does not bring down the quota of study

• Fix issue where some users could not scroll drop downs in the calendar

• Fix issue where users could not scroll back past the start of the current month in the calendar

• Fix issue where wwitching from Askable Sessions to third party tool does not refund credits

• Fix issue where users can't bulk message participants

• Fix issue where thepPlay button is stuck on Sessions

• Fix issue where participants are unable to access messages

• Fix issue where participants that should be excluded from a study are sometimes appearing in the list

• Fix UI issue with text area size

• Fix issue where a Sessions link still appears even if the meeting has no rooms

Users who are logged into the app and joining a call as a facilitator now have the option to join as an observer OR a facilitator before the call starts. Participants are now automatically logged in when joining from either the participants app or the email.

Read more about the lobby changes →

Fixes

• Clients

  • Fixed issue where invite to survey panel would throw incorrect validation errors

  • Fixed issue where join call button would sometimes resolve to a bad link

  • Fixed issue where teams without a country could not access their accounts

  Sessions

  • Fixed issue where some users where experiencing a infinite loading screen when the network was slow

Blocked participant locations we don't support

We now prevent participants from applying to any study within Askable who are located in countries we do not actively support.

Read more about locations we support →

Blocked VPN connections

Users accessing Askable using a VPN will not be able to log into their accounts. This measure is enacted to ensure a secure and trustworthy environment for all users.

Both changes ensures that participants engage honestly and ethically, fostering genuine interactions between researchers and respondents. This enables teams to make informed decisions based on authentic and compliant information.

Read more about our VPN blocking →

Participant bot detection

We have introduced a check on the participant application flow for an opportunity, which checks if a user on a website is a real person and not a robot. Traditionally websites use a CAPTCHA (the pictures of zebra crossings or buses..). 

We are using instead using more advanced technology to analyse the users behavior, interactions and other technical details, which prevents disruption to real users. If a bot is detected, a challenge will display on the screen. If the challenge is failed, we prevent the participant/bot from being able to apply.

Fixes

• Fixed the issue where some users where seeing incorrect currency.

• Fixed the issue where some users couldn't change organiser in a live study.

• Fixed a bug preventing users from selecting multiple participants to bulk message.

• Fixed an issue causing participants eligibility scores to be calculated incorrectly.

• Issue an issue which was preventing users from being able to filter numeric values in the participant selection screen.

We’ve made improvements to how you manage who can join your teams on Askable, focusing on simplicity and security. Now, admins have the ability to specify which email domains are allowed to join their teams.

The update doesn't impact existing team members. You can easily enable domain access through Settings > Team. For more details refer to our help article below.

Help docs

We've made significant enhancements to our authentication system 🔒, ensuring it's more secure than ever. While most of the changes wouldn't affect your current workflows, you'll notice subtle changes on the sign-in and sign-up flows in the next two weeks.

Passwordless sign-In: We've simplified the sign-in process with our new passwordless feature. Now, you'll simply receive a one-time passcode in your email, which will expire in 2 hours.

Team switching in Askable Sessions: For those part of multiple teams on Askable, we've introduced the ability to switch between teams within Sessions. This feature makes for a seamless experience as you analyse findings and create insights across teams.