Release Notes

Follow every step of our journey, from the very first launch to a full-featured subtitle platform

  1. Major Update

    Voice Cloning Launched — Make Dubs With Your Own Voice

    New Features
    • New Voice Cloning feature — Upload a sample of your voice, the system learns your voice fingerprint and uses it for any future dubbing
    • Privacy-first design — Your voice belongs only to you, never used for model training, never sold, encrypted storage
    • Free demo page — Try voice cloning once without signing up, hear the sample immediately
    • Dedicated voice cloning intro page — Full explanation of how it works, privacy protections, and popular use cases (preserving a loved one's voice, audiobooks, podcasts, branded virtual hosts, and more)
    • One-click jump from the cloning page straight to the voice studio — your new voice and matching language are pre-selected so you can try it right away
    • Voice studio default switched to audio-only mode — short video panel is no longer forced, cleaner interface, faster to get started
    • Usage stats added to homepage and voice studio — see how much voice content has been generated on the platform
    • Free-plan voice limits now shown on the pricing page — 500 chars per generation, 3 generations per month
    Fixes
    • Fixed wrong share image showing on multilingual blog articles
    • Fixed scroll-counter animation only triggering on page load instead of when scrolled into view
  2. Voice Studio Improvements — Audio-only Mode + Smarter Transcription

    New Features
    • New audio-only mode in the voice studio — skip the short video when you only need audio, generates faster
    • Glossary hints for transcription — add proper nouns, names, and brands when uploading (e.g. "Hung Wan, Ah Fai") to reduce errors with English and technical terms
    • Confidence indicator — colored bar in front of each subtitle line helps you spot what needs review
    • New ghost-story short video example added to the homepage hero — see text-to-video in action
    Fixes
    • Fixed browser still showing old version after voice regen
    • Fixed background image not being replaceable on regen
    • Fixed server restart accidentally wiping subtitle text
    • Fixed final-line hallucination caused by silent tail being misinterpreted
    • Fixed Traditional Chinese voice language sometimes producing Mandarin tones
  3. Major Update

    Text to Video Launched — One Text Input Generates Voice + Short Video

    New Features
    • New Text to Video feature — Every text input now generates both audio and a vertical short video, complete with a looping background ready to upload directly to IG Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok
    • Custom short video background — Use the default or upload your own photo (up to 10 MB)
    • Blinking top headline — Customize bold text (e.g. "Limited Free") for eye-catching visuals
    • Brand watermark toggle — Paid plans can hide the bottom-right watermark
    • Animated voice indicator — An animated icon is automatically added to the center of the short video, signaling to muted viewers (IG Reels / Shorts) that audio is present
    • Voice library redesigned — Each creation now has separate audio and short video buttons. Desktop shows full download and share options; mobile simplifies to one-tap share (pick "Save to Photos" or send straight to IG Reels)
    • Brand-new guided tour — Step-by-step walkthrough of the new library and studio layout, beginner-friendly
    • Homepage top banner carousel — Subtitle editor, AI voice cast, and education plans take turns in the spotlight
    • Education page copy refreshed — Doubles down on Cantonese AI voice positioning
    Fixes
    • Fixed 404 on login / register pages when switching languages
    • Fixed Traditional Chinese captions using Cantonese colloquial terms — now unified to formal written Chinese
    • Fixed slow processing of large photo uploads for short video backgrounds (auto-compressed to save storage)
    • Fixed garbled or missing characters in short video headlines on the server (automatic font fallback)
  4. New Comparison Article + Free Plan Adjustment

    New Features
    • New blog article — Hey Subtitle VS Subanana full comparison, breaking down pricing, processing speed, and features to help you choose the right tool
    • Homepage tagline updated — revised to "2x Cheaper, 8x Faster" based on latest data
    Fixes
    • Free plan monthly quota adjusted to 5 minutes — due to rising AI transcription and proofreading costs, the free quota has been adjusted from 10 to 5 minutes per month. New users still receive a 15-minute welcome gift, and paid plans are not affected
  5. Education Page Launch + Translation Speedup + CEO Card QR Bonus

    New Features
    • New education page — AI dubbing solutions for teachers and educators, 4 locales
    • CEO business card QR bonus — received a card at an event? Scan to claim free minutes instantly
    • Translation engine speedup — proofreading and translation now run in parallel, significantly faster
    • Translation quality guard upgrade — auto-retries when abnormal blank results detected, reducing missed translations
    • Brand new landing page copy — cheapest & fastest positioning, see how we compare at a glance
    Fixes
    • Fixed occasional wrong language display after switching languages
    • Fixed promo overlay UX — now dismissible + remembers already-redeemed state
    • Fixed promo overlay register/login link redirect issue
    • Fixed ad tracking parameters lost when switching languages
    • Fixed education page feature card height inconsistency
    • Fixed missing page animations on some pages
  6. Transcription Now 18x Faster! Nav Fix + AI Dubbing Guard

    New Features
    • Transcription engine upgrade — multi-endpoint parallel processing, up to 18x faster
    • New post-login hub page + secondary navigation bar for better navigation
    • Google avatar sync + breathing pulse animation on account icon
    • New blog article: No Audio in Your Video? AI Dubbing in 5 Minutes
    Fixes
    • Fixed nav bar links overlapping on iPad portrait / iPhone landscape (breakpoint adjusted from 768px to 1024px)
    • Fixed dubbing timeout issue (timeout extended to 180 seconds)
    • Fixed dubbing language setting not being applied + added retry button
    • Fixed retry button incorrectly shown after AI content moderation rejection
    • Fixed empty subtitle lines causing dubbing errors — batch dubbing auto-fills silence, single-line re-dub shows error overlay
    • Fixed search icon overlap + auto scroll-to-top on pagination
    • Fixed account page card style inconsistency
    • Fixed secondary nav bar layout on mobile
    • Fixed nav bar link centering + Japanese text wrapping
    • Fixed blog CTA buttons causing 404 in non-default locales
    • Fixed duplicate brand suffix in Voice Studio SEO title
  7. Redesigned Upload Page, Clearer Error Messages

    New Features
    • Redesigned upload page — File upload and YouTube URL are now separate tabs for a cleaner experience; YouTube copyright notice is now shown inline instead of a pop-up
    Fixes
    • Fixed AI content policy errors now showing a dedicated "Content Filtered" message instead of a generic error
    • Fixed detection of videos with no audio track — now shows a specific "No audio stream" error message
  8. Upload Tips Upgraded, Share Voice Previews Instantly

    New Features
    • Voice preview sharing — After previewing AI voices in Voice Studio or the text-to-speech page, share audio clips with friends via WhatsApp, AirDrop, Email, and more
    • Email notification system — Stay informed with system notifications so you never miss important updates
    • Upload tips revamped — Added guidance on background music handling, vocal isolation tools, and AI content review — a must-read before your first upload
    • Improved error reporting and handling — Enhanced error detection, tracking, and real-time alerts so our team can respond faster
    • New article — Claude Code Dev Diary: Building an AI Subtitle SaaS from Scratch in 38 Days
    Fixes
    • Fixed subtitle text drifting in certain scenarios
    • Improved stability for YouTube video link uploads
    • Fixed account page not syncing unsubscribe status in real time
  9. Editor Evolved — Merge Subtitles with Ease

    New Features
    • Merge subtitles — combine adjacent subtitle lines with one click, auto-handling text joining and timecode expansion
    • TTS usage tips — added voice quality improvement hints in dub prep, TTS generator, and Voice Studio
    • Maintenance page — service pauses safely during maintenance, in-progress work unaffected, resumes smoothly after
    • TTS dubbing comparison added to pricing — see dubbing features across all plans at a glance
    • New article — AI dubbing showcase: 8 voice actors x 4 languages full demo
    • Major deployment infrastructure upgrade — staging environment, phased releases, and automated deployment for stable updates
    Fixes
    • Fixed Cantonese TTS demo producing unnatural accent
  10. Major Update

    Dubbing, Down to Every Last Second

    New Features
    • New Voice Studio showcase page — preview all AI voices and hear them in action
    • Pre-dubbing cost confirmation — see estimated minutes and storage before you commit, with automatic alerts when balance is low
    • Per-line re-dubbing — re-dub individual segments you're not happy with, showing actual deduction
    • Translation and dubbing queue system — handle multiple jobs simultaneously without bottlenecks
    • New English and Mandarin AI voices
    • Exclusive voice clones — private voice models assigned to specific users
    • Auto-pad dubbing audio — dubbed tracks automatically match original video duration
    • Precise billing — charged in 0.1-minute increments, pay only for what you use
    Fixes
    • Full server tuning — HTTP/2 multiplexing, Brotli compression, long-term static asset caching, TLS 1.3 encryption, building a high-performance foundation from the ground up
    • Dubbing panel redesign — theme colors, button layout, audio file download
    • Fixed conflicts when multiple dubbing jobs run simultaneously
    • Minutes display now consistently rounded to 1 decimal place
    • Fixed provider routing error when re-dubbing
    • Prerender acceleration — page reuse and batch parallelism
  11. Major Update

    Words, Now With Soul

    New Features
    • Our voice synthesis experiment is complete — a unified voice library with 13 AI voices across Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Japanese
    • Standalone text-to-speech: type any text and generate expressive speech, no video upload needed
    • AI emotion tag system — AI automatically analyzes text sentiment, injecting laughter, sighs, whispers, and more to give every sentence a soul
    • Emotion tag toolbar for manual fine-tuning of tone and expression
    • All-in-one voice studio: choose language, type text, pick a voice, and generate — all on one page
    • Interactive guided tour for beginners to get started quickly
    Fixes
    • Fixed missing subtitles at the end of long audio — when the speaker finishes their last sentence, AI may terminate transcription early; now auto-detects and rescues dropped tail segments
    • Fixed pricing page display error
    • Improved prerender timeout handling
  12. Major Update

    Standalone Text-to-Speech Feature

    New Features
    • Brand new standalone text-to-speech feature with 6 Cantonese AI voices
    • Smart emotion tag system — AI automatically analyzes text sentiment and injects tone control
    • Text-to-speech studio: an all-in-one workspace to type and generate speech
    • Guided tour for text-to-speech, easy for beginners to get started
    Fixes
    • Fixed missing subtitles at the end of long audio — when the speaker finishes their last sentence, AI may terminate transcription early; now auto-detects and rescues dropped tail segments
    • Fixed pricing page display error
    • Improved prerender timeout handling
    • Blog article cover images now display in original aspect ratio
  13. Dubbing Interface Redesign

    New Features
    • Video list now groups by language — one row per language for a clearer overview
    • New unified dubbing panel with all dubbing actions in one place
    • Export directly from the video list without entering the editor
    • Streamlined icon-only action buttons for a cleaner interface
    Fixes
    • Improved dubbing panel button layout on mobile
    • Fixed dub prep button state detection
    • Fixed voice name display issues
    • Fixed duplicate entries in translation modal
  14. Major Update

    AI Dubbing Engine — Complete Overhaul

    New Features
    • Rebuilt the dubbing engine from the ground up for better audio sync and more voice options
    • Per-segment voice regeneration: re-generate a single subtitle's audio without redoing the entire dub
    • Speed detection indicator: segments that were sped up now display the tempo ratio
    • Added 3 new international voices (Itsuki, Zara, Brittney) — voice library expanded to 9
    • Dubbing costs reduced with a new TTS billing architecture
    • Interactive dubbing guide tours: dub prep (3 steps) and dub mode (4 steps)
    • Dub prep can now be started from any translated version
    • Terms of Service updated: added Prohibited Content policy and Account Termination clauses
    Fixes
    • Significantly improved dubbing audio timing accuracy — eliminated cumulative drift from multi-segment assembly
    • Fixed missing space between merged segments in preMerge for non-CJK languages
    • Fixed badge vertical alignment on video listing cards
    • Unified minutes display to 1 decimal place across nav bar and usage page
    • Paid dubbing translations no longer double-count against translation quota
  15. KOL Testimonials, Email Overhaul & Subscription Fixes

    New Features
    • New creator testimonials carousel on Landing Page: AP人生, Line姐, and founder
    • Email system overhaul: redesigned Welcome email + Upgrade/Downgrade/Cancel/Referral reward emails with tutorial cards and feedback buttons
    • Referral reward email: both subscriber and referrer now receive notifications
    • Minute pool descriptions now show plan name, referral code, and promo code sources
    • New blog #13: comprehensive subtitle tool comparison with table display
    Fixes
    • Fixed checkout page blank screen issue
    • Fixed subscription page showing incorrect plan names
    • Fixed cancel button hidden during pending downgrade
    • Fixed stale downgrade schedule remaining after upgrade
    • Minute pool descriptions now use multi-language plan names instead of English names
  16. Universal Subtitle Splitting & Dubbing Improvements

    New Features
    • Universal subtitle auto-splitting for all languages: unified silence detection + smart sentence breaking, no longer relying on space-based tokenization
    • New blog articles: complete AI subtitle tool tutorial and AI dubbing + YouTube multi-language audio guide
    • Blog content now dynamically displays the latest welcome bonus and free minutes
    Fixes
    • Fixed English subtitle split timestamp offset caused by space characters
    • Disabled AI dubbing voice cloning, switched to standard voice library for better accent accuracy
    • Unified all email template brand colors and forced light mode to prevent dark mode color shift
    • Increased AI dubbing API timeout to prevent long video dubbing interruptions and wasted credits
  17. Segment Splitting & Notification Enhancements

    New Features
    • New "Split Segment" feature in editor: split subtitles at cursor position with proportional time allocation
    • Real-time Telegram notifications for new user registrations (includes sign-up method and locale info)
    • Guide tour state migrated to cloud storage for cross-device sync
    • New blog post: YouTube URL upload tutorial
    Fixes
    • Fixed YouTube player seek polling issue
    • Fixed SEO prerender duplicate DOCTYPE and unnecessary styles
    • Fixed per-locale brand name display in page titles
    • Fixed browser favicon cache not updating
    • Fixed welcome email CTA button not visible in some email clients
  18. Interactive Guide & UX Improvements

    New Features
    • New interactive guided tour: automatic Spotlight walkthrough on first visit, covering homepage, upload page, and editor with 20+ steps
    • Reset the tour anytime from account settings to re-experience it
    • Admin LLM logs now display source and target language in separate columns
    Fixes
    • Fixed language preference not being saved during registration
    • Improved audio processing stability for online video dubbing
    • Enhanced retry reliability for online video processing
    • Fixed language field display in admin logs
  19. Multi-Language Website

    New Features
    • URL-based language switching across 4 languages (Traditional Chinese / English / Simplified Chinese / Japanese)
    • Japanese interface support added
    • Automatic browser language detection and redirect
    • 4-language email templates (verification and welcome emails)
    • Language-specific social sharing images
    • Currency notes added to pricing and checkout pages
    • Multi-language SEO tags for global search engine indexing
    • 72 pre-rendered static pages for faster loading
    • Added disclaimer, copyright confirmation and thumbnail copyright overlay for online video uploads
    • Desktop subtitle editor now supports fullscreen mode
    • About page enriched with brand story and team introduction
    • Added release notes page with timeline UI
    Fixes
    • Mobile pricing comparison table now supports horizontal scrolling
    • Checkout page terms display and styling unified
    • Improved stability and security for online video processing
    • Optimized online video processing server architecture
    • Added online video processing status monitoring to admin dashboard
  20. Promo & Referral System

    New Features
    • Promo code system (enter a code to receive free minutes)
    • Refer-a-friend rewards program (tiered rewards based on subscription plan)
    • Referral management page (track referral results and rewards)
    • Admin code management interface (create and edit promo and referral codes)
    • Homepage promo code showcase area
    • Referral plan comparison added to pricing page
    • Referral rewards section added to service page
    • Blog article about the referral rewards program
    Fixes
    • Premium user referral link display issue
  21. Online Video Upload & Video Editor Export

    New Features
    • Paste a video URL to transcribe directly (no download needed)
    • Online videos play directly in the editor
    • Online videos also support AI dubbing
    • Final Cut Pro subtitle export format (FCPXML) with custom resolution and frame rate
    • Server infrastructure upgrade (more computing power and memory)
    • Online video subtitle feature added to service and pricing pages
    • Pricing comparison table fully updated with all features
    • Video thumbnails cached locally for faster loading
    • Video preview encoding speed doubled
    • Full error message localization
    • All 5 admin pages now support multiple languages
    • Video list delete experience redesigned
    Fixes
    • Dual-track audio switching issue when dubbing online videos
    • Accidental edit panel trigger on mobile blank areas
    • Admin dashboard online users timezone display error
  22. AI Dubbing

    New Features
    • AI voice dubbing launched (automatically clones original voice, preserving tone and emotion)
    • Dubbing automatically aligned to original timeline
    • Multiple translation versions per language (e.g., multiple English versions for separate editing)
    • Dubbing audio files downloadable directly (MP3 format)
    • Editor supports one-click toggle between dubbed and original audio
    • Admin dashboard adds dubbing analytics and storage tracking
    • Pricing, service, terms, and privacy pages updated with dubbing content
    • Competitor feature comparison table
    • Dubbing feature blog article
    • Video loading progress indicator
    • Upload page hints consolidated into a unified tip area
    Fixes
    • Dubbing language parameter error
    • Failed translation jobs can now be manually deleted
    • Video list badge sizes unified
  23. Unified Navigation & Content Enhancements

    New Features
    • Unified navigation bar across all pages (consistent experience)
    • Translation quota system (per-video limits based on subscription plan)
    • Social media accounts created (YouTube / Instagram / Threads)
    • Navigation menu reorganized (different options before and after login)
    • FAQ moved to bottom of issue report page (easier self-service)
    • Social media links added to footer
    • Mobile subtitle tutorial blog article
    • Welcome email now includes tutorial video thumbnail and link
    • Pricing comparison table fixes with multilingual plan names
    • Upload page resolution recommendation hint added
    • Security hardened (rate limiting and privacy policy updates)
    Fixes
    • Page content and footer spacing issue
    • Pricing page alignment issue
    • Admin dark mode color adjustments
  24. SEO & Storage Optimization

    New Features
    • Search engine pre-rendering (static public pages for faster loading and indexing)
    • Product tutorial videos produced
    • Three-step pre-upload validation (file size, remaining minutes, storage estimate)
    • File size display with icons added to video list
    • Storage card moved to usage page (alongside minute balance)
    • Pricing page fully redesigned (including terms and privacy layout)
    • Social media blog article with embedded video
    • Article list now sorted by publish date
    • Video preview quality adjusted to 360p (significantly saves storage)
    • Thumbnail size optimized (saves bandwidth)
    • Audio temp files automatically cleaned after transcription
    Fixes
    • SEO language detection priority fix
    • Dark mode search highlight contrast insufficient
    • Mobile menu not closing after language switch
  25. Dark Mode & Multiple New Features

    New Features
    • Dark mode launched (6th theme, dark purple tone)
    • Emerald green theme replaces old purple theme
    • Service introduction page (full feature overview)
    • Issue report page (user feedback collection)
    • Pagination for all listings (video list, transactions, etc.)
    • Analytics tracking (page views and feature usage statistics)
    • Unique title and description for each page (improves search indexing)
    • Branded welcome email (sent automatically to new users)
    • 404 page (friendly message when lost)
    • Bilingual toggle button (view original and translated subtitles side by side)
    • Mobile subtitle area breathing space optimized
    • Social sharing image with larger logo and text
    • Step-by-step tutorial blog article with 11 screenshots
    • Homepage layout redesigned (cleaner layout)
    Fixes
    • Mobile share URL canonical tag update issue
    • Email logo white edge issue
  26. Subtitle Editor Major Overhaul

    New Features
    • Subtitle editor completely redesigned (theme colors, playback controls, mobile scroll optimization)
    • Subtitle editing now uses popup panels (compatible with all phones and tablets)
    • Adding a subtitle row automatically opens the edit panel
    • Edit panel shows surrounding context lines (easier to edit with context)
    • Timecodes merged into a single pill button (cleaner look)
    • Current playback line highlighted with border
    • Logo converted to vector format (crisp at any size)
    • SEO basics added (keywords, structured data, social sharing cards)
    Fixes
    • Video freeze when editing subtitles
    • Logo color error on login page
    • Login page gradient not following theme switch
  27. Pricing Revamp & Visual Upgrade

    New Features
    • Pricing page, homepage, and admin dashboard fully redesigned
    • Storage limit mechanism launched
    • New favicon icon set (supports all device sizes)
    • New social sharing preview image
    • Brand name full-width display
    • Support email card added to contact page
  28. Major Update

    Subscription Plans & Rebrand

    New Features
    • Four subscription plans launched (Free, Basic, Pro, Premium)
    • Monthly and annual billing options
    • Automatic credit for remaining days when upgrading
    • Seamless auto-switch when downgrading (no service interruption)
    • Full rebrand to "Hey Subtitle"
    • New domain heysubtitle.com purchased and migrated
    • Brand new homepage design
    • New logo design (French Bulldog icon)
    • Blog system launched (multiple tutorial and feature articles)
    • About Us page
    • VTT subtitle export format
    • Sitemap submitted to search engines (faster indexing)
    • Social sharing preview image
    • Auto scroll-to-top on page navigation
    • 10+ new languages for voice transcription (auto-detect source language on upload)
    • Free plan includes complimentary minutes
    • New users can upload immediately after registration
    Fixes
    • Subscription payment security fixes (4 items)
  29. Official Launch & Account Management

    New Features
    • Website officially deployed and open to the public
    • Domain hkautomatic.com purchased and server configured
    • Email verification system launched
    • Google account one-click login
    • Error and log management system (automatic recording and tracking)
    • Admin dashboard launched (system monitoring, error logs, user management)
    • User management features (upload permission control, user suspension and deletion)
    • Email verification code login (more secure login experience)
    • Account deletion feature (users can delete all their data)
    • Unused data auto-cleanup (saves storage space)
    Fixes
    • Pre-launch security comprehensive fix
    • Email verification code sending issue
  30. Design Refresh & Multi-Language

    New Features
    • Complete visual design refresh (modern new look)
    • Traditional Chinese, English, and Simplified Chinese interface
    • Full mobile adaptation (all features work on mobile)
    • Comprehensive security hardening
    • AI voice recognition upgraded to cloud version (faster and more stable)
  31. Subtitle Editor

    New Features
    • Subtitle editor with synchronized video preview
    • Real-time subtitle timeline sync (highlights current line as video plays)
    • AI smart translation feature
  32. Major Update

    Product Launch

    New Features
    • User registration and login system
    • Password recovery feature
    • Video upload feature
    • Video list management
    • AI speech-to-text (upload video to auto-generate subtitles)
    • AI smart proofreading (auto-correct typos and punctuation)
    • SRT subtitle file export
  33. Major Update

    First Prototype

    New Features
    • First working prototype completed
    • AI speech-to-text feature validated
    • AI smart proofreading feature validated
    • Basic subtitle editor prototype

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