Version 2024.1018 March 2024The designer in your pocket has leveled up again: introducing image generation. Add an image block, select “Generate,” and use the magic of AI to create the perfect graphics to your site. Can’t find the right stock photo? Conjure up a unique image that reflects the vibe of your site. Looking for something more artistic? Generate consistent, sketch-like designs that give your site a hand-drawn feel. Need branding? Generate a logo for your brand—and use the background removal tool to create a transparent image you can use everywhere..
Version 2024.222 January 2024Image is everything, and this release brings major enhancements to how you can use images on your site.
Want to feature the same image across multiple pages? Simply tap “Recents” when editing an image block to access all images you've ever uploaded. Your entire image library, now just a tap away.
Want that image to stand out? You can now remove the background with one tap.
Have an updated logo you want to add from your iCloud library? Select “Files” as the image source and gain access to all of the images saved to the files app..
Version 2023.4713 November 2023Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Please mind our new appearance. We’re still the same app you use to build your corner of the internet, now with a new icon and fresh coat of digital paint.
Starting today, you’ll find Universe on your device via our new globe icon. The globe is a ubiquitous symbol for the World Wide Web. The internet that connects all of us and turns us into a network of thinkers. Creators. And dreamers.
When the real ones at Apple recognized Universe with an Apple Design Award this summer, we were overwhelmed by the interest and excitement from Creators around the world. And we were excited to see more people making the internet a more diverse, fun, and—yeah—weird place. To us, that’s what really connects with the possibilities the World Wide Web originally presented. And still presents today.
Our new primary color blue is, in fact, a rare color. Rarely found in nature. Often experienced through translucencies—the sky, the ocean. These primordial spaces inspire us to think deeply about how we came to exist and why it is that we express ourselves.
As rare as it is in nature, blue exists easily on screen. And we hope this neon + vibrational blue inspires you to tap into your dynamic creative energy every time you open the Universe app.
Tying it all together is the web aka net aka Grid within the globe. The fundamental tool used to build and manage all Universe sites.
We’re feeling refreshed. Inspired. Ready for the next new thing.
We’re betting you’ll be the one to build it.
See you on the ‘net..
Version 2023.3818 September 2023Looking for the perfect photo for your site? We've got you covered. As of today, you can use thousands of high-quality stock images at zero cost. Simply add an image block, choose Unsplash, and browse the gallery to discover stunning, free visuals to add to your sites.
This release includes support for iOS 17..
Version 2023.3110 July 2023Someone asked us to add a Threads icon to the link block. So we added a Threads icon to the link block..
Version 2023.2515 May 2023This release is…a digital juice cleanse. Bug fixes and improvements included..
Version 2023.2014 March 2023Sometimes the new punk rock hair style doesn’t work out. Or the paint you thought was green turns out to have a blue tint. Sometimes you just want to start over. Now, at least for your website you can. You can now restart your website with a new template anytime. We’ll automatically carry over your domain, your products, your orders, and your metadata. But you get a clean slate for the design of your site..
Version 2023.410 January 2023Housekeeping. App refresh. Little crumbs picked off by the vacuum.
This release includes accessibility improvements and bug fixes..
Version 3.64.109 November 2022Digital space waste. High fidelity cleanup..
Version 3.60.108 September 2022Who invented words? And terms? How do we come to terms? How do we arrive at them? I was sitting in a sun-soaked room one morning, eating breakfast, when my friend said “isn’t it crazy that breakfast was invented?” Freud’s nephew invented the modern breakfast as part of a PR campaign to get folks to consume more bacon. How do we come to terms? How do we arrive at them? I’ve always loved the names of groups in the animal world. We know the basic ones like ‘school of fish’ and ‘flock of sheep’ - but ‘gaggle of geese’? Flamboyance of flamingos! Murder of crows. Epic. What would we call a group of blocks on the Grid? A batch of blocks? A pack, a cluster, a flock? How do we come to terms? How do we arrive at them? Julia Berners gifted us those delicious collective nouns for animals back in 1486. And with this release, we’re inventing a new term for blocks that are grouped, connected, and magnetically moved around the Grid together, herdlike. We’re calling it Group Block, and it’s going to massively transform the way sites are built on Universe.
Group Block introduces a whole new dimension of composability to the Grid. Previously, there wasn’t a way to group content blocks together and move or resize them as a single unit. With Group Block, you can cluster blocks together and copy, paste, drag, and drop those groups freely across your pages. Duplicate complex and layered compositions across your site. Build menus or site headers and copy/paste them for site consistency and navigational ease. Create product capsules that showcase your designs with prices and descriptions batched together and copy/paste/edit to quickly- and uniformly- build out a collection. Pair a video with some text and layer, lock, drag, and drop. Simple as that. You can even nest Group Blocks inside of each other for precise alignment and scale. Build fractal landscapes and highly polished websites. Dive deeper into the Grid than ever. This is how we invent things. Together. We can’t wait to see where you take us.
v3.59.0 What’s New:
Create Group Blocks— composable blocks that allow for complex groupings of blocks that can be moved, copied, pasted, and resized as a single unit. Group Block lets you:
- Create a Group
- Resize a Group (cropping)
- Copy and Paste a Group
- Nest Group Blocks within Group Blocks.
Version 3.55.305 July 2022Pricing’s tough. I used to run an online shop selling raincoats. As you can imagine, raincoats are pretty seasonal items. Winter and spring - excellent times to be in business. But summer hits and sales drop off. So I tested discounts in the warmer months. Raked in some cash. But then you start to wonder...did I go too low? Will people be forever anchored to this lower price point? Maybe I should lay off the high heat. Looking back, there’s really no need to overthink it. Prices fluctuate. Temperatures rise and fall. Nothing’s permanent. That’s what this release is all about. Now when you create a discount code, you can edit it whenever you’d like. Products not flying off the digital shelves? Bump up the discount without having to send out fresh codes. Think you went too low? Pare back the discount a bit. It’s all good. It’s all an experiment. Nothing’s permanent. And in that spirit, we'll have more updates to Discounts coming soon..
Version 3.53.105 April 2022We have another Polish Week update in store for you this week. Polish Week is our chance to come together as an engineering team to tackle and ship some of our most requested features. This week, we focused on accessibility. VoiceOver and our Grid-based layout paired beautifully to support us in building a set of tools that allows for guided access in designing a website on your phone. VoiceOver guides the navigation of our Drag and Drop functionality, announcing discrete placements across the GRID. You can also use VoiceOver to layer blocks on top of each other for more complex arrangements and designs. It’s a step closer in our mission of allowing everyone to build the internet and we’re really proud to share this work with you. Enjoy!
V3.53.1 What’s New:
- Accessibility improvements to navigating on the Grid
- Code cleanup to set the stage for future work
- Fixed a few Shopping Cart bugs on the Web.
Version 3.52.014 February 20221/5/22
I am on a train called the Sunset Limited.
In a small room. Sequestered.
I think of home town runaways and high speed getaways and freighters heading west. I am coursing east, bound for New Orleans, away from the sunset. It's hard to crane my neck back enough to see the colors melt into the desert's edge.
1/8/22
We're releasing our Color Picker in a few weeks and I google "color of the universe" out of curiosity. Apparently someone's decided on the color of the universe (cosmic latte), and given it a hex code (#FFF8E7). You can google it or take my word for it. Cosmic latte is the millennial pink of the far reaching galaxy.
1/10/22
I get a package in the mail. No return address. No note from the sender. Nothing.
Inside are two beautiful Japanese color guide books. This makes sense. I'm helping name the preset colors and gradients. I ask around the office. We don't have an office. I ask around on Slack. Everyone denies sending these books. But I know it was someone here. I become suspicious of my coworkers.
1/16/22
I'm sitting across from some people at a dinner party and they start talking about seeing people only as colors. I nod and listen, but I am not on enough acid for this conversation, so I leave.
1/18/22
I like to think that people with synesthesia are just a fractured glitch in the simulation. Like, they have their body firmly planted on the ground, but one arm's out the window in a wormhole– a disembodied hand walking around out there, living some tasty technicolor dream.
1/20/22
We ask why the sky is blue and forget the answer. Everything is reflected, refracted, shape-shifted, and summarily redacted.
1/26/22
I play with our Color Picker for the first time: This is a tantalizing chromatic feast. Changing the background color on your site is now as intoxicating as wandering the halls of a James Turrell exhibit. Create custom colors and gradients and save them. Choose the angle where the light informs the gradient. Drenched, just dripping in color. Phantasmagoric realms of self-expression. This is a serious art tool. Every color, instantly placed on your site to preview and play around with. I'm floored. You know that feeling when you're jealous of someone for getting to experience something with fresh eyes that you wish you could experience again for the first time with fresh eyes? That's how I feel right now.
We're releasing our new Color Picker today, folks. Enjoy it - It's a hell of a ride..
Version 3.51.422 December 2021There’s something about this time of year. The night creeps up on us earlier, we throw on extra layers. I should be cozy and go with it, but there’s this unreconciled want that’s hard to shake off. I want the days to be longer. I want the nights to be warmer. I want this sweater to not itch the back of my neck.
It all evens out soon enough, as we steep into winter’s descent. But for now, I’m restless. I miss the late afternoon sun. I want to bleach my hair and recapture my youth. I’m sitting on a couch next to our CEO, Joe, and we’re talking about buzzing our heads and dyeing our hair. There’s an alternate version of ourselves in the not-so-distant future, with shocks of fluorescent green sprouting from our heads. “So do we do it?” “No, really - what color?” We start looking at examples on instagram. But this is a leap before you look situation. It’s not something you stew over. It’s just something you do. Because we need a change. Because we are alive. We shapeshift. We change our kit of parts. We emerge. We transfigure. We transform.
And that’s as true for hair color in this liminal season of autumn-- as it is for designing your site. This week, we release our new Theme Engine into the world. Effortlessly- yet judiciously- swap thematic elements on your site and see them persist across all your pages. Choose from 50+ Themes or create your own. Themes are going to help you make quick design decisions to create beautiful sites that can change and evolve with you - all with a swipe.
So dye your hair. Tear down the wallpaper. Change your site as much as you like. Throw up a fresh coat of paint. It’s time to tap into that static undercurrent brimming and bristling. Then burst. Try your best. Then do your worst.
What’s New:
- Select a site theme, or create your own, and apply the same style across all the different elements ( button color, fonts, page background, etc.) and pages of your site.
- Themes introduces Text Styles, so text can be classified as a title, subtitle, caption, etc.
- 50+ all new Themes (and growing)
- Themes introduces new Templates
- VoiceOver Rotor Controls for Accessibility.
Version 3.50.006 October 2021What is space, really? Too much space and we float off, lost in the expanse. Too little and we feel closed in. We retreat. There’s always the push and the pull. We flee the cramped confines of our city apartments to breathe some fresh country air, only to miss the coziness of a crowded room. We need compromise. A layer of control to balance out and land somewhere in between. Maybe a bigger yard. Or a weekend away. Maybe we just need to rearrange the furniture and clear the clutter. In poetry, space gives us pause –– permission to take a breath. Because what’s left unsaid is just as important as what’s written. And with this release, that’s what we’re introducing –– the ability to add space and specificity around your blocks. We’re calling it Block Padding, which is a term we borrowed from CSS. There’s something nice about using the same language for the GRID as CSS. We’re working to achieve the same thing –– precise alignment for form and flow and rhythm to your site. Now when you add a block, you can adjust the spacing around it. Use Padding to fine-tune layouts. Draw the eye in. Let your mind pour out onto the page. We can’t wait to see what you create.
What's New:
Introducing Block Padding. Block Padding allows you to compose and add spacing around buttons, text blocks, and image blocks..
Version 3.46.104 August 2021We’re not releasing any new features this time, but we did a hotfix for a bug that a verrrry small number of users caught sight of in the app. We could have ignored it. Definitely didn’t need to write about it. It was a very small bug. More like a flea, really. Or, to stretch the metaphor out into the infinite-- imagine a piece of dust catching a narrow sliver of light. As you reach out your hand to try and grab it, the spec slinks away. Some weightless, directionless force is pulling it away from you. You are the eye that catches the dust in the light. And we are the static cling that pulls it out of sight.
What we fixed:
- Hotfix for errors when publishing sites.
- Visual bug which resulted in extra vertical spacing within grid editor controls on any iPhone with a home button (i.e. SE, 8, or earlier)..
Version 3.43.703 June 2021I was walking down Venice Beach Boardwalk over the weekend and there was a crowd of people around a booth that said “Bitcoin Advice $5”. I assume the advice was quite simply “buy Bitcoin,” but I don’t know. Didn’t have any cash on hand. I missed out. The boardwalk is always flush with people selling products in inventive ways - guitar lessons, jewelry, tarot card readings- and now investment advice. It’s a real world metaphor for Universe sites. In that spirit, you now have the ability to connect your audience to your products and services seamlessly through your link in bio. You can accept donations, ask people to buy you a cup of coffee to fuel your work, sell jewelry, or offer investment advice. Completely customizable and totally up to you. We also added some payment block suggestions to our Link in Bio templates so you can have fresh ideas on how to use Universe as a tool for making money. And if you decide to sell bitcoin advice for $5, let us know! We wouldn’t want to miss out this time. Enjoy..
Version 3.41.630 March 2021Introducing Shopping Cart!
This new feature lets you easily manage orders with more than one product while offering your customers with multiple items a seamless checkout experience..
Version 3.39.202 February 2021Meet the Download Block. Whether you make videos, zines, mixes, or anything in between, you can now sell (or give away) whatever you make as a digital file.
To get started, just add the Download Block to your site, upload your PDF, MP3, MOV, or any other file type, and name your price. Then you can start selling right away—with no shipping or overhead required..
Version 3.37.224 November 2020This one's BIG. Today we're launching Universe for Mac, a magical new Universe app for creating websites, online stores, and so much more with your computer. We've completely overhauled the Universe experience to work perfectly with a mouse and keyboard, bringing all the power and ease-of-use of our grid editor to your desktop. Download it today for free on the Mac App Store today!
As an added bonus, we've also updated the iPad app to support many of the changes we made for Universe for Mac :)
Enjoy!.
