Improvements

• We implemented a better library for toast messages which is easier for us to use and nicer to look at.
• We fixed a bug where answer cards would be dragged when you double clicked on them.
• We improved the UI that shows you when you're offline and your changes are not being synced.
• A bug where your selection state was lost has been fixed.
• Various performance improvements.

You can now filter your answers in Channel!

We've released the first version of filtering answers. This lets you quickly update an answer to do things like: change the date range on an answer (instead of last month, see last quarter's data, or last weeks), change the cohort for an answer (see the sales for a particular customer or team, for example) or even more complicated things. Channel uses AI to pick which filters should be applied by default to a question, and understand which dimensions you're most likely to filter by. We've very excited about this feature so let us know what you think!

Improvements

• The UI for comments used to be blurry - it's sharp now!
• You can now hide answers again.
• We fixed some bugs where the canvas websocket connection would be lost.
• We improved the way text is rendered on sections.

Pivoting in Channel got a lot easier

Previously, if you wanted to pivot data in Channel you would have to explicitly ask Channel to do it, which made it quite cumbersome to do! Now, we have a specific part of the AI pipeline that decides whether pivoting is appropriate and if so what the ideal pivot is. Please let us know how you get on with it!

Improvements

• Channel does a better job of responding to requests in the right language now.
• We fixed a bug where creating and updating definitions would report erroring, even though it hadn't.
• We sped up how fast the Channel app loads.
• We added resize handles to tables.

This week we mostly worked on bug fixes with nothing major to release.

Improvements

• Tool keyboard shortcuts are now disabled when the user invite modal is open.
• You can customise the default date formatting (particularly useful for american users!)
• We fixes some bugs where messages from the AI could be presented in the wrong order.
• We improved search for definitions and canvases.
• We did a load of performance improvements.

A new invite flow

When you invite your team mates to Channel, you can now choose which role and which teams they have access to much more easily.

Excel export

You can now export answers to Excel files, as well as the CSV and PNG options we already have!

Improvements

• You can select multiple items on a canvas much more easily now. The UI for this also improved.
• We improved how the AI decides to generate additional data for scorecards.
• We redid the UI in the settings section of the product.
• We made datasets more customisable, with custom colours and icons so you can see which one you're using at a glance.
• We fixed a lot of small bugs!

Quite a big update this week!

Channel has teams

Channel now has teams! When you create a team you can choose which datasets it has access to and which users have access to that team, so you can control access to data better. Teams have their own canvases (renamed from dashboards!) and definitions. Dana has done a video explaining teams in more detail which you can see here.

A new sidebar

We've also completely redesigned the sidebar and moved a lof of features to the settings section which you can access by clicking the gear in the top right of the sidebar. We think it should be significantly easier to get around Channel - let us know what you think!

Personal canvases

A few of you mentioned that you sometimes fee uncomfortable sharing your work in progress with your team. We've added a new type of canvas called a personal canvas which is only visible to you. You can create a personal canvas in any team.

Improvements

• We moved the question card title to be more helpful.
• We made various performance improvements to SQL queries.
• We added excel and png download for questions.

Another week of polish, bug fixes, and performance improvements so no major features to announce.

Improvements

• The question input box can now be multi-line for longer questions.
• We fixed a bug where the conversation with Channel would have messages in the wrong order sometimes.
• Comments can no longer move around.
• We fixed decimal places not working in the data table.
• Channel no longer asks for specific columns in the question asking panel.
• Locked dashboards have a better tooltip indicating who locked them.

Channel learns from conversations

Channel can now look back through the last few conversations and learn about your preferences from them. This means that if you've already told Channel you prefer to see weekly revenue starting from Sunday instead of Monday, you won't have to tell it again. Channel will also ask less clarifying questions when it thinks it has a good idea of what you're looking for.

Improvements

• Channel is better at telling you when it can't answer your question with the available data.
• We fixed a bug on the data source page where we'd say you had unsaved changes even if you didn't.
• Heading nodes got a little bit of a facelift.
• We added some UI for when the conversation has gotten too long and we need to cut it off.

A better commenting experience

We've introduced two large changes to commenting this week. First, you can now @ your data team. This means that any business user can get help on whatever they're working on without having to specifically name someone. Next, we've added a comment sidebar so whenever you open the comment tool you can see all the comments on the dashboard you're working on. This makes it much easier to see what's going on in your dashboard.

Improvements

• The definitions page is now much more performant due to a variety of optimizations.
• We added a new question asking input which makes it easier to ask questions.
• We tweaked some of the prompts Channel uses to answer questions, which makes it easier for Channel to effectively use all of the data in your dataset.
• We fixed a bug where newly added columns wouldn't get descriptions autogenerated for them.

Datasets got a lot better

We've added a load of new features to Datasets, including:

• You can now give Channel instructions on what to use the dataset for and what not to use it for.
• We regenerate the column descriptions whenever the SQL changes for a dataset.
• We made the dashboard cards for datasets a lot less cluttered.
• We improved the UX for adding a definition to a dataset.

If anyone has any feedback on datasets (especially compared to the previous way of asking questions in Channel) please let us know!

Improvements

• We fixed a bug where logging out of Channel would cause your screen to flicker for a while.
• We fixed a bug where deleting the parent card of a pinned card would cause the pinned card to spin forever.
• MySQL users have improved performance when Channel needs to search for a value in a column.
• We added an Intercom widget to the bottom right of the screen during onboarding.