Groups.io: Changelog
October 30, 2026
Messages & Topics
- CHANGE: The Filter on the Topics and Messages pages opened a row of separate dropdowns, and excluding a hashtag meant clicking its checkbox a second time, which nothing on the page explained. Filter now opens a single panel with the date, no-replies and hashtag options together and one Apply button. Each hashtag has its own Include and Exclude buttons, and groups with many hashtags get a box to find one by name. Closing the panel without pressing Apply leaves the filters as they were.
- CHANGE: After filtering, the search results page didn't show which filters were applied, and changing them meant starting over. The results page now lists each active filter beside the Filter button, each with an × to remove it, plus "Clear all". The Filter panel there opens with the current filters already selected, so they can be adjusted in place.
- CHANGE: Removing the last filter on the search results page left an empty search page. It now goes back to the Topics or Messages page where the filtering started.
- BUGFIX: On the search results page, turning Collapse Topics or Exclude Signatures on or off, or changing the date range, dropped any hashtag filters. They're now kept.
Hashtags
- NEW: Owners can make a hashtag a status, such as #pending, #sold or #solved, with the new Status setting on the hashtag's edit page. The Hashtags page shows a Status badge on these hashtags, with a lock icon when the status locks topics. A status can't be combined with settings that would affect later replies in the topic (No Email, Moderated, Replies Unmoderated, Special, Use by Mods Only, Reply Only to Sender, or a Topic Duration other than Forever); the edit page says which setting to change first.
- BUGFIX: On the Hashtags page and an event's RSVP list, the List View tooltip appeared to the side of its icon and covered the Gallery View icon. It now appears above the icon, like the Gallery View tooltip. https://beta.groups.io/g/main/message/41491
- API NEW:
/newhashtagand/updatehashtagaccept a newmarkableparameter that makes the hashtag a status, and returned hashtags include amarkablefield. A request that combinesmarkablewith a conflicting setting returnsbad_requestwith the extra textmarkable conflicts with <setting>.
Email & Delivery
- NEW: In groups with status hashtags, someone who starts a topic gets a short private "Your topic is posted" email with a link for each status and one to clear it. Each link opens a page that asks for confirmation before anything changes, so no login is needed and email security scanners can't change a status by accident. Members on No Email delivery don't get this email.
- CHANGE: When we send a message from an address on the group's domain instead of the poster's own (which we do for Gmail, Outlook, iCloud and other providers, and when the poster's domain requires it), the sender's name read "Name via groups.io", or the group's custom domain. Private replies sent from the website capitalized it oddly, as in "Name via Groups.Io". The name now says which group the message came from, such as "Jane Smith via photography", using the group's name exactly as it appears in its email address. Messages from a subgroup show the subgroup's name.
- CHANGE: Outlook showed these messages as "photography@groups.io on behalf of Jane Smith via groups.io", which was long and repeated the group. Since the sender's name now already names the group, Outlook shows just "Jane Smith via photography". Messages sent from the poster's own address still show "on behalf of" in Outlook, so it's clear they came through the group.
- CHANGE: A reply sent by email to a topic locked by a status was refused with "This topic has been locked by the moderators", even though the person who started the topic had locked it. It's now refused with, for example, "This topic's status is #sold, so it's closed to replies."
Members
- CHANGE: The color choices in the Members page Filter disappeared entirely when no member had a color, with nothing to say why, and when they did appear they showed every color and stretched the Filter across the window. The Filter now always has a Member Colors section. It offers only the colors members actually have, with smaller color squares that wrap onto rows, and when nobody has a color it says so and explains how to assign one. https://beta.groups.io/g/main/message/41492
- CHANGE: The Members page Filter no longer has the Reverify Initiated and Reverify Successful options. Members in either state still show the RI and RS badges in the member list.
- CHANGE: The Members page Filter repeated "Email Delivery:", "Moderation Status:" and "Message Selection:" in front of every option, which made the list long and wide. The options are now grouped under those headings.
- CHANGE: Choosing a tier in the Members page Filter applied the filter immediately, along with any other options that had been ticked but not yet applied. The tier is now applied with everything else when Apply is pressed, and closing the Filter without applying puts it back.
- CHANGE: The color squares used to pick member, label and filter colors couldn't be reached with the keyboard and didn't tell screen readers their color or whether they were selected. They can now be reached with Tab, moved between with the arrow keys and chosen with Enter or Space, and each one announces its color name and whether it's selected.
- CHANGE: The Bouncing badge was the same light blue as the Mod, Owner and other informational badges, so bouncing members were easy to miss. It's now orange, which sets it apart from the other badges and from the red Bounced badge. https://beta.groups.io/g/main/message/41490
- BUGFIX: Clicking a color in the Members page Filter also changed the color chosen in the Set Color and new label windows. Each color picker now only changes its own selection.
- BUGFIX: The Location label and View map link on a member's profile were never translated. They now appear in the member's language once translations are updated.
Moderation
- NEW: Setting or clearing a topic's status is recorded in the group's Activity log, noting whether it locked or reopened the topic and whether it came from an email link.