Product updates
What's new in Porchlight Relay
This page summarizes recent caregiver-visible changes in plain language. Use it to catch up quickly without rereading the full help guide.
August 4, 2026
Safer My Day connection recovery
- The recipient day page now shows a persistent, plain-language warning when it cannot securely load or update instead of substituting sample care information.
- Care actions and reminders stay unavailable while day-page information may be out of date, with a large Try again action and clearer caregiver backup guidance.
- Temporary connection problems no longer discard saved tablet access. A genuinely invalid or expired device link now uses simpler My Day recovery wording.
July 14, 2026
Future schedule planning
- Added date selection to Schedule so caregivers can create day-page schedule items for today or up to one year in advance.
- Updated the caregiver Schedule list to show upcoming schedule items with clear date and time labels, while the recipient day page continues to show only the selected date's plan.
- Updated Help and manual QA guidance for future schedule items and one-year date limits.
- Added a recipient setting that can repeat tablet alert sounds for 10, 15, or 30 seconds so important reminders are easier to notice.
- Improved repeated tablet alert sounds so test buttons use the same repeat behavior as real alerts, and scheduled repeat tones are more reliable on tablet browsers.
- Added schedule reminder lead times so caregivers can remind the recipient and care team minutes, hours, or days before an appointment without showing future items in today's plan.
July 7, 2026
Clearer access wording
- Clarified Settings wording for one-time pairing links, paired devices, caregiver invitations, member removal, and session revocation.
- Polished caregiver invitation emails so new users get clearer single-use setup guidance, existing users know to review invitations from Settings, and both flows keep care details out of email.
- Added user-support readiness links from sign-in, password reset, and invitation pages, plus clearer troubleshooting guidance for missing emails, security-token errors, tablet pairing, and what details are safe to share with support.
- Polished the first-session Getting started card so invited caregivers see clearer Needs attention, task ownership, preferences, and Help steps, with a short privacy-minded helper note.
- Fixed nested Owner tools collapse labels so sub-sections show Show or Hide based on their own state instead of inheriting the parent section's label.
- Updated tablet access buttons so unused setup links say Cancel pairing link and already paired tablets or laptops say Revoke device access.
- Updated Help and QA wording to use the same terms caregivers see in the app.
- Made Settings sections collapsible by default, while still opening sections automatically when an invitation, pairing link, support request, system issue, or unsaved change needs attention.
- Polished Settings on smaller screens with larger collapse tap targets, cleaner mobile spacing, and stacked access/action rows that are easier to use on phones and tablets.
- Refined task ownership labels so unassigned tasks show Needs owner status, ownership captions say Assigned to or Needs owner, and long caregiver names wrap cleanly instead of crowding nearby actions.
July 6, 2026
Privacy-minded wording
- Added guidance across forms and Help to use the least detail needed, including short recipient labels such as Dad or D. Smith and generic medication labels such as Morning meds when exact medication names are not required for safe follow-up.
- Updated internal QA and documentation checklists so future caregiver-visible changes continue to avoid unnecessary sensitive details in examples, emails, notes, and release notes.
- Made caregiver notification emails more privacy-minded by keeping task details, day-page note text, message text, and medication labels inside the secured dashboard whenever possible.
- Added last signed-in date and time to caregiver member listings while preserving the active/recent activity indicator.
- Reduced sensitive detail in transient dashboard and tablet toasts. Confirmation prompts and opened detail cards still show enough context to avoid mistakes, but quick popups no longer repeat task titles, medication labels, recipient labels, or schedule titles when a generic confirmation is enough.
- Updated tablet pairing email drafts to include both the one-time pairing link and the normal day-page address, so helpers have a fallback if the device does not automatically navigate after pairing.
June 30, 2026
Clearer caregiver labels
- Made personal recipient labels behave as true overrides: if a caregiver's personal label matches the family-wide label, Settings now treats it as blank and uses the shared label instead.
- Moved People & device access higher in Settings so member invitations and session controls are easier to find near recipient and day-page setup.
- Made Owner tools collapsed by default in Settings, keeping administrative controls available without crowding the everyday caregiver setup flow.
- Polished task ownership wording across buttons, toasts, history, and emails so unassigned tasks, released tasks, and takeovers are easier to understand.
- Added caregiver presence indicators so member badges and task owner chips can show when someone is active now or was recently active.
- Polished caregiver invitations with clearer role descriptions, pending-invite expiration dates, and more specific sent-invitation confirmations.
- Added optional sender-address settings so medication alerts, digests, invitations, security emails, task emails, and notes can use clearer From addresses.
- Cleaned up email wording so invitations, message acknowledgements, daily digests, and task details avoid punctuation that can display incorrectly in some email clients.
- Added a consistent Porchlight Relay Admin signature block to automated emails.
- Made caregiver requests recover automatically if the browser has an outdated security token, preventing false CSRF errors on task ownership actions.
- Polished task ownership controls so the owner area is labeled, Edit makes assignment changes easier to discover, and Unassigned can be tapped to take ownership.
- Refined the Getting started card so owners, caregivers, and read-only family each see a calmer first-session orientation matched to their access.
- Added an owner-only delete flow for extra care recipients, with typed confirmation, last-recipient protection, and audit history.
June 29, 2026
Tablet reminders, pairing polish, and caregiver settings
- Moved tablet medication and schedule reminders into an inline Needs attention card near the top of the day page, with clearer actions for I took it, Snooze 10 min, and Dismiss today.
- Added device names to one-time tablet pairing links so caregivers can tell which tablet, laptop, or simple device belongs to a recipient.
- Added Copy link and Email link options for tablet pairing. The email option opens a new email draft with a short Porchlight Relay Admin signature.
- Reorganized Settings with clearer group labels and moved tablet pairing controls next to the care-recipient and day-page settings.
- Cleaned up the Settings recipient list so a recipient's name is not repeated when their family-wide label is the same as their name.
- Improved the recipient day page on smaller tablets so reminder cards stay usable without horizontal page scrolling.
- Made Notification preferences remember whether each caregiver leaves that settings section open or collapsed in their browser.
- Made Alert history collapsed by default on the caregiver dashboard, with the open or closed state remembered in that browser.
- Made Recent history collapsible while still starting open by default, and pinned Alert history at the bottom of the dashboard layout.
- Polished tablet and phone dashboard spacing so pinned Alert history and dashboard links behave better on narrower screens.
- Refined weather display options so caregivers can choose Today and tomorrow or Five days for the recipient's day page.
June 27, 2026
Caregiver documentation and cleaner task ownership
- Added a fuller caregiver Help guide with step-by-step instructions for daily use, medications, tasks, messages, tablet pairing, settings, security, and troubleshooting.
- Added this What's New page so caregivers can quickly review recent product changes.
- Updated the Tasks page to group tasks by ownership: Needs an owner, Assigned to you, and Assigned to others.
- Clarified task action labels so caregivers use Take ownership for unassigned tasks, Take over for tasks assigned to another caregiver, and Release when returning a task to the shared pool.
- Aligned task notification emails, dashboard toasts, settings text, and Recent history labels with the clearer task ownership wording.
- Improved invitation handling for users who were removed from all care circles and later invited again.
- Added a per-caregiver recipient label, so one caregiver can call someone Dad while another sees Jim, Grandma, or another familiar name.
- Tightened the notification-preference checkbox layout so the boxes stay compact and aligned.
- Refined task ownership labels so unassigned tasks show a clear Needs owner control and task sections explain when to take ownership, take over, or release ownership.
- Added a caregiver-specific Getting started checklist so invited caregivers can quickly find caregiver focus, task ownership, personal settings, and the Help guide.
- Clarified invitation wording in Settings and on the new-user invitation page before owners invite real caregivers.
- Added support for multiple owners in a family care circle. Owners can promote or demote existing members, and Porchlight Relay prevents changes that would leave a circle with no owner.
- Polished task ownership controls so each task shows a clearer ownership label and the relevant Take ownership, Take over, or Release action together.
June 26, 2026
Multi-circle access and caregiver coordination
- Added support for one caregiver account belonging to more than one family care circle.
- Added care-circle switching so caregivers can move between separate family circles from one login.
- Added accept and decline flows for pending care-circle invitations.
- Tightened invitation state so removing someone from one care circle does not incorrectly change their status in another circle.
- Improved task assignment notifications and invitation email wording.
June 22, 2026
Provider foundation and account management
- Added provider organization foundations for future business/provider workflows.
- Added provider team invitations and read-only provider dashboards.
- Added platform administration tools for creating and managing organizations and family leaders without using Render directly.
- Added account status controls for active, suspended, pending deletion, commercial, and courtesy/permanent accounts.
Earlier foundation
Core caregiver and day-page features
- Added the caregiver dashboard with Today, Timeline, Tasks, Settings, and recipient switching.
- Added the recipient day page for tablet-style use without links back to caregiver pages.
- Added medication reporting, missed-medication alerts, caregiver email notifications, and scheduled alert checks.
- Added caregiver messages, optional acknowledgements, message recall, and message status.
- Added shopping and notes from the day page, weather forecast options, notification sounds, customizable layout, tablet pairing, and recipient-specific settings.
- Added security hardening such as session controls, support access, system status, passkeys, production custom domain support, database backups, and uptime monitoring.
How to use this page
- Caregivers can skim this page after updates to understand what changed.
- For step-by-step instructions, use the Help guide.
- For account-specific setup, sign in and open Settings.