Open Reading list from All Features to choose Save page or View reading list. Both actions now sit together in one menu with familiar icons and spacing. Your saved pages and pinned quick actions keep working as before.
Turn Word prediction on or off from its own labeled row. Below it, a Settings row has a cog on the left and an open-in-new-tab button on the right, taking you to your existing Word prediction settings.
Choose what happens to captured text in a window with consistent rows, spacing and dividers. The window fits its content, and Capture stays within reach when the options need to scroll. Voice and speed controls are no longer repeated here.
More PDF controls and messages now use your selected language instead of falling back to English. This includes annotation options, pasted content and messages that help you recover your work.
The Speed Reading card in Reading Mode could look narrower than the article below it. Both now follow the same reading width, keeping their left and right edges aligned when you change the width or resize the window.
Settings labels, links and controls now wrap more comfortably in narrow windows and with enlarged text. Feature menus avoid extra padding that squeezed their contents, and keyboard focus brings controls into view as you move through them.
Disabling a feature group now also restricts the options inside it, including pinned actions and tools already running on a page. Restrictions keep saved preferences intact, while options that your school still allows remain available.
A text annotation's resize control could extend past the PDF page and cause sideways scrolling on smaller screens. The control now moves inward near the edge while keeping a comfortable area to click or tap.
The magnifier's percentage label could show the wrong value for the selected zoom. It now displays the actual magnification so you can tell how much the page will be enlarged.
Fix
Security Updates for Formatted Text
Updated the components that clean and display formatted text to address reported security issues. Supported formatting stays available when you read or work with rich text.
Focus on one word with three round playback buttons in Reading Mode and PDF Reader. Move back or forward by sentence, adjust speed below the buttons and see the surrounding sentence when paused. Both readers remember the same speed, with a slim progress line and time remaining. Use Close at the top right to hide the card and pause.
While focus is in Speed Reading, use Space to play or pause, left and right to move between sentences, and up and down to change speed. Home returns to the beginning without playing; Read again is on the finished screen.
Search voices by name or language, listen to a sample, and adjust speed with a slider and minus or plus buttons. Voice, speed and highlighting choices save automatically and follow you across Helperbird reading tools.
Choose your language, Regular, Math, Chemistry or Physics mode, and spoken punctuation in Settings. Try your microphone here and choose whether toolbar dictation goes into the page. Your choices apply to the next recording.
The Voice typing window keeps Grammar, the microphone and Options beside your draft. Open Options for Copy, Listen, Print, Clear and Voice typing settings. The floating toolbar uses the same menu.
Use Text to speech settings beside the playback controls in the menu, PDF Reader, Reading Mode, NotePad and other reading tools. The link opens the right settings section or returns to its existing tab. Read sentence stays in Word prediction settings.
Voice typing settings shows whether microphone access is allowed, blocked or not yet requested, or whether no microphone was found. If a managed device blocks access, Helperbird points you to your IT team.
Fixed an issue where natural voices could appear to be playing in Firefox without any sound. Playback now uses a supported audio format, and you can start another read after speech finishes.
The Text to speech sample button now returns to Play when speech finishes in Chrome, instead of staying on Stop. You can listen to another sample straight away.
Old pitch and volume settings could make a voice sound unusual or silent. Helperbird now restores those retired settings to their defaults while keeping your voice and reading speed.
Helperbird now explains when voices are missing, sound cannot play or the browser blocks speech. When a voice fails before reading starts, it can try another installed voice in the same language without replacing your saved choice.
Number shortcuts work more reliably in text fields and embedded editors. While suggestions are showing, unused shortcut numbers no longer pass through to the page. Shortcut labels match your system, including Option on Mac and Ctrl+Alt on Firefox for Linux.
An older NotePad tab can no longer overwrite a newer saved version of the same note. Helperbird keeps the older tab’s draft so you can copy it before reloading.
Voice typing keeps its mode settings together when saving. Settings links prefer a tab in your current window, and the microphone control keeps keyboard focus while it starts.
Open PDFs in the Helperbird app, return to recent files, search pages and keep notes beside your document. Add highlights, drawings, rich text, pictures and equations, then export a copy. The app keeps a local copy so your original PDF stays unchanged.
The native PDF reader uses installed Apple voices, with word highlighting, pause, resume, speed and position controls. Search voices by name, language or region. On-device voice typing is available in the native text editor when your device, language and permissions support it.
Extract text from scanned pages, use Apple’s translation sheet and read the extracted or translated text aloud. Summaries, explanations and Writing Tools are available on supported devices with Apple Intelligence ready. These native reading tools do not require a Helperbird account.
In the browser PDF reader, a filled text box hides its formatting bar when you click away. Click back to show the controls briefly; they stay available while you use them. Move a box from its page bar or the compact corner handle, and resize it with the matching handle. The cream header also follows dark mode.
Smaller, consistent controls leave more space for your text. Open Options to choose Regular, Math, Chemistry or Physics mode, or to Copy, Listen, Print and Clear. The menu supports keyboard navigation and closes with Escape.
In Voice typing Options, turn Spoken punctuation on to use commands such as “period” for “.” in Regular mode. Turn it off when you want those words written out. The saved choice applies to your next recording, including voice typing in PDF Notepad.
Translate on Google Slides now explains how to use the Helperbird Workspace add-on or Screenshot Reader. Starting Screenshot Reader from this guide sends the captured slide text into Immersive Reader, where you can choose a translation in Reading Preferences.
Beta settings now share one clean card with shorter explanations. The word-highlighting example and color choices stay together, and presentation settings sit under More options. Voice typing directly into a page, including Google Docs, remains an optional beta feature.
A new user’s reading ruler could appear stuck because cursor following started off. Rulers now follow the cursor when no preference has been saved. If you have already chosen to keep your ruler fixed, Helperbird keeps that choice.
The Read Aloud dialog adapts to shorter browser popups and enlarged text. Its content scrolls when needed, keeping the Close button, voice choices and playback controls reachable.
On scanned PDF pages, the Screenshot Reader button now sits beside the explanation when there is room. The notice wraps on smaller screens without crowding its dismiss button.
The floating toolbar now updates its available actions when your Helperbird plan finishes loading, including when the result arrives after the toolbar has opened.
This release adds protection when opening or pasting formatted notes, tightens checks around reading sessions and fixes Word Prediction lookups for text containing punctuation.
Choose Classic, Sans serif or Monospace in Equation Editor's Text settings. Your choice stays with new input, copied equations and downloaded images, and returns when you reopen the equation. Special mathematical lettering keeps its meaning when you change the font.
Annotation options now lets you describe a pasted picture or mark it as decorative. Before an annotated download, Helperbird asks for any missing description without discarding your edits. Equations already carry an equation description, so you do not need to describe them again.
Dark mode now changes the displayed PDF pages and thumbnails as well as the reader controls. Switch back to light mode when you need the original colors, especially for pictures and diagrams. Your original file, printed pages and downloads keep their original colors.
Voice typing now closes the microphone after ten seconds without recognized speech in the toolbar, PDF Notepad and Equation Editor. Your dictated text stays in place, and you can start again when you are ready. This silence limit does not stop Read Aloud playback.
For now, annotation position and size fields and the Adjust shape panel are hidden to keep the PDF workspace simpler. Dragging and the existing keyboard adjustments remain available. Your text boxes, pictures and drawings stay in place, and image descriptions are still visible.
Screenshot Reader still starts with drag-to-select. You can also use arrow keys to reveal and move a selection, Shift plus arrow keys to resize it, and Enter to capture. Escape cancels the selection and returns focus so you can continue working on the page.
The last words you typed into a PDF text box could disappear after a quick reload or page change. Recent edits now stay with the right document, and annotated downloads include text you just entered even if you have not clicked away from the box.
Text, pictures and drawings could shift or use the wrong size in an annotated download. Corrections keep them aligned on cropped and rotated pages, preserve mixed text sizes, and improve symbols, non-Latin text and emoji. A failed annotation download now shows an error instead of silently leaving work out.
Annotated downloads now keep the PDF's existing reading information alongside added text, picture descriptions and equations. Text retains paragraph and list information where the source allows it. This does not repair the original PDF or guarantee that the whole document is accessible.
Saved PDF highlights now return after zooming, searching or changing pages, without appearing on a different document. New marks remember their document and page. Older marks that cannot be placed safely remain available in Notes instead of being guessed onto a page.
Highlight colors now keep stronger contrast with the words underneath, including on previously saved highlights. Screen readers use the highlighted words as the control's name, with help instructions kept separate, so your marked text is easier to read and identify.
Speech could go silent while the player still said it was playing. Helperbird now detects stalled playback and reports a failure instead of quietly skipping unread text. The checks cover standard and natural voices used in Reading Mode, PDF Reader and the Highlight Menu.
Closing a player or stopping one passage could interrupt the passage you started next. A late response from an earlier read can no longer stop, restart or advance your current read. Your current player keeps its own progress without skipping words.
Maths, Chemistry and Physics dictation no longer leave speech-added full stops in your expression. For example, 56. becomes 56, while 56.78. becomes 56.78. Decimal points and mathematical dots stay intact, and regular dictation keeps its usual punctuation.
Long equation dictations could lose their connection after the first extended session. You can now keep dictating while speech is being recognized, with the connection maintained throughout the session. Stopping still closes the microphone and keeps your equation in place.
A dictation failure could leave the microphone active or the controls looking as though recording continued. Helperbird now ends the affected session and shows an error. A school policy that turns voice typing off also stops recording, without letting an old session insert words later.
Saving or deleting notes in different tabs could bring back a deleted note or overwrite another tab's changes. Notes now update the shared collection together and refresh the affected views. If existing notes cannot be read or saved, your editor draft stays available for retry.
Words typed while a save or document change was still running could be left behind. Notepad now saves the outgoing draft before switching, including edits made while a new document is being created. If saving fails, the current draft remains open.
Adding a page while another tab removed one could overwrite the newer reading list. Those changes now finish together, and cards only disappear after a successful removal. A failed read or save leaves the displayed list available so you can retry.
Backups now include saved collections that needed to stay on your device. If notes, highlights or saved pages cannot be read or cleared during an import, Helperbird reports the failure instead of treating them as empty or claiming the restore finished. The import preview stays open for retry.
Changing between local and synced storage now applies consistently across open Helperbird views. A delayed change from another window no longer switches them back to the wrong choice. Reads and saves wait for the current setting so your work stays in the place you selected.
Delete all data now clears saved PDF recovery work as well as your settings and collections. A PDF that was already open cannot quietly restore that deleted recovery copy afterward. Opening a file again starts a new workspace for any changes you choose to make.
Words could run together in a Word download when adjacent text used different formatting. Spaces now survive between bold, italic, linked and ordinary text, including in headings and lists. Formatting remains in place without adding blank paragraphs between sections.
Changing tabs or navigating while a screenshot was being prepared could capture the wrong page. Screenshot Reader now checks that you are still on the page where you chose the region. If that page changes, the capture stops so you can select the region again.
Screenshot Reader's explanation card now follows your reader theme and uses the familiar reading controls. Listen, Copy and Close keep their existing actions, with clearer spacing and click areas so you can use the explanation comfortably alongside the page.
Suggestions could disappear while you paused in Google Docs or when focus briefly moved between fields. Predictions now stay available until your text or cursor position actually changes. A delayed response from another field no longer removes the suggestions for the field you are using.
Use Alt plus a number to choose a suggestion, or Control plus Alt and a number in Firefox, matching the keys shown on the bar. Number-pad keys also work in supported editors. Ordinary digits keep typing numbers, and arrow keys on the bar's move handle move it without choosing a word.
The Layout label could wrap into a vertical column of letters in narrow or enlarged views. Across and Stacked now appear in a clearly labelled dropdown, with room for the label and current choice. Your saved layout keeps working.
Long feature names and larger text could crowd switches, Pro diamonds and setting values in the popup or sidebar. Labels now wrap while controls keep their space. Language names, badges and older settings sections follow the same layout so you can read and reach each control.
New equation, PDF and accessibility controls now use your selected language instead of leaving English labels among translated tools. Button names, image-description choices and keyboard instructions follow the same language, making the controls easier to understand.
Equations, section links and table descriptions could lose their meaning when an article opened in Reading Mode. The reader now keeps more of the article's maths and accessibility information, so navigation and descriptions stay connected to the content you are reading.
Offline, permission and subscription notices now have a named area in the Helperbird popup. You can find that area through your screen reader's navigation, while the existing announcements and buttons keep working. The visible notice layout stays familiar.
A tool could report a failure while its action was still underway. Slower starts now have time to finish, and repeating the same action while it is working waits for that result instead of starting the same work again. A failed connection still gives you an error so you can try later.
Routine background activity could reset an open dialog or restart speech even though your settings had not changed. Your reader and popup now keep their current state during those checks. You can continue reading or editing without losing your place.
Your displayed access and trial date now follow your Helperbird plan when a billing account contains more than one purchase. School accounts keep their school access. If a check fails, Check subscription remains available so you can retry without waiting for the next scheduled check.
The Delete button's tooltip could be cut off by the drawing controls. It now appears clearly above the button, with the same button name and delete action. Canceling an unfinished drawing also releases its controls so you can return to the page.
Highlighter now starts off, including for Pro and trial accounts. Selecting text will only open its color palette after you turn Highlighter on. If you have already chosen an on or off setting, we keep that choice, and your saved highlights stay safe.
Your personal disabled-sites list now holds 20 websites instead of 10, on every plan, with a matching counter in Settings. School policy lists in Chrome, Edge and Firefox also hold 20; Safari's native school-policy list stays at 10. Existing entries are kept, and each domain still covers its subdomains.
When your account does not include a paid feature, Helperbird shows the Pro dialog at most once per local calendar day. Later attempts show a brief red reminder. The limit is shared across tabs and Helperbird views in the same browser, and importing a backup does not reset it.
Choose a Pro diamond to see the Pro dialog if you have not seen it that day. After that, a diamond opens pricing in a new tab. Diamonds work with the keyboard and have their own click area, so checking the price does not also activate the feature beside them.
New
Fewer Unused Files in the Extension
We removed unused images, fonts and files left over from earlier versions, along with old development tools. This reduces the files included in the extension package. The reading and writing tools you use today remain available.
Some Windows voices include their language or region in parentheses. Helperbird was hiding those names, which could leave the voice picker empty or disabled in Edge. Those standard voices now appear, and your saved voice remains selected when it is available.
An enterprise school account could sometimes see an upgrade banner in PDF Reader, NotePad or Dictionary because it was treated as having no individual subscription. Those readers now check the school account first, matching the main Helperbird popup.
Short notifications could appear behind an open Reading Mode dialog. They now appear inside the active reader, so you can see the feedback while you work. The messages still follow your chosen notification position and remain available to screen readers.
Open buttons, switches and Pro badges in All Features were sitting at different horizontal positions. They now share a centered control column, with room to click or use the keyboard. Scanning down the list no longer means chasing controls from side to side.
Choose a paid feature to see Unlock Helperbird Pro, with larger benefit text explaining all-feature access, a 3-day trial, the annual price and premium support together. Start my free trial opens checkout in a new tab. Existing subscribers can go straight to login or subscription-key entry, and closing the dialog returns you to your work.
Write, format, save and autosave in NotePad for free. Create, copy, open and delete documents, add equations, listen with standard voices and download Word, Markdown or plain text. Notes/Highlights and Reading List remain Pro, with diamonds beside their controls.
Choose Reading Mode’s theme, font, text size, spacing and page width independently of the website. Your choices save for next time, with separate resets for text and layout. Appearance changes keep your place and selection. The header matches your other readers, replacing the old fullscreen control.
Code blocks in Reading Mode keep their spacing and gain syntax colors, so examples are easier to follow alongside an article. Your reading preferences still apply to the surrounding text without flattening the code into ordinary paragraphs.
Find Speed reading in All features, search for it or pin it to Quick Actions. It opens Reading Mode with the speed reader ready; inside PDF Reader, it opens the PDF speed reader. Both open paused with Play and Stop visible, and Stop returns you to the beginning.
PDF Reader now has a responsive header, a separate Tools menu, Settings, and Zoom and search controls. Page navigation, thumbnails and fit controls stay within reach. The welcome screen explains opening a file and responds to drag and drop, while narrow screens stack the workspace.
Write and format in the PDF’s side NotePad for free, then choose Add Textbox to PDF to insert your work. Opening it expands the workspace; closing it restores your previous width unless you chose another. Formatting stays visible, and narrow windows place your notes below the PDF.
Use the PDF drawing tools without Helperbird Pro. Open a document, choose Draw, and add pen marks, shapes, lines or arrows. Turning drawing off leaves your marks visible, and your drawings are included when you download the annotated PDF.
Create rectangles, ovals, lines and arrows with the keyboard, then move or resize them using the drawing controls. Focus indicators and spoken labels help you keep track of the selected shape. Freehand pen strokes still need a mouse, pen or touch input.
Open PDF text in Immersive Reader for free, up to 1,200 characters per launch. Select a short passage or use the current page; if it is too long, you get a message to select less or upgrade. Longer passages remain available with Helperbird Pro.
NotePad now shares the reader header, compact speech player, theme and width controls. Save your own font and spacing, reset text or layout separately, and open the notes library when you need it. Formatting controls remain reachable on smaller screens, with matching keyboard shortcuts.
Choose Full entry or Definitions only in Dictionary, then set your own font, spacing, width and theme. Copying and reading follow the chosen view. The compact speech player provides Play, Pause, Stop and speed controls, and your Dictionary appearance saves separately from other readers.
Equation Editor shares the readers’ header, settings rows, themes and footer. Save your preferred width and equation size, find keyboard shortcuts in Settings, and use a math keyboard that fits your theme. Appearance changes leave the equation and its downloads unchanged.
An empty library explains how to start with one New note action. Once you have content, labeled New note and Export buttons sit above search and filters. Large libraries show 24 items per page while search, selection and export still cover the whole collection.
Sticky notes have a simpler title, divider, writing area and color controls. Drag anywhere on the header apart from Close, or use the keyboard to move a note. Escape cancels a move, notes stay within the window, and longer content scrolls inside the note.
Highlighter now owns both highlighting and the visibility of saved highlights, with a toast when you switch it on or off. Its color palette appears below selected text and the reading toolbar sits above it when both are on. The duplicate Highlights switch in Colors is removed; saved highlights and pins are retained.
Choose Across or Stacked suggestions and keep that layout for next time. Compact controls cycle through light, dark and automatic themes. Suggestions wrap within narrower spaces, so the prediction window stays usable when you resize it or move it beside your writing.
Settings has aligned rows for General, Billing, Data and Beta features, with Support links grouped together. Importing or deleting data now shows Continue when a refresh is needed, giving you time to read the result. The reset confirmation also explains that enabled features turn off while saved content stays.
Removing a subscription key or an excluded website gives you an Undo action without a countdown. You can recover an accidental removal before leaving the section, while field errors and save messages explain changes that did not complete.
The Google Docs, Slides and Sheets prompt now uses a compact Helperbird owl. Hide it until tomorrow when you need more room; the choice follows your local date and updates across open windows. The popup also gives guidance for the Workspace app you are using.
Reader header buttons have subtle circular outlines, a grey fill when active and no underline. Pro diamonds sit below navigation buttons and after feature names in the PDF Tools menu. All Features uses smaller diamond circles with the full click area. Paid controls keep accessible Pro descriptions.
Deletion, reset and other action dialogs use a compact layout with modern Helperbird illustrations, clear titles and grouped buttons. Reading and writing tools keep their familiar working layouts. Close controls, spacing and focus behavior are more consistent across dialogs.
Feature pages and help guides show the revised readers, highlighter, word prediction, notes and settings. New guides cover reader appearance, speed reading and keyboard drawing. Help pages also have clearer section navigation and keyboard focus, with corrected links from Screenshot Reader and Safari permission prompts.
Open a PDF, search the current page and adjust its size without a subscription. Search no longer waits for an account check. Use the zoom slider, minus and plus, Fit width or Fit page; moving to another page runs your search there.
Translate the current PDF page with Helperbird Pro, then switch between Original PDF and Translation. Detectable headings, lists, emphasis and indentation carry into the reading view. Complex layouts can differ, and changing pages clears the old translation.
Paste onto the PDF page to create a text or image box. Supported text formatting and links carry over, and you can move or resize pasted pictures. Paste inside an existing text box to keep editing it. Your annotated PDF download includes the added content.
Build and preview an equation, then insert it into a PDF or NotePad. Reopen the equation from its box or from your note to edit it. The full-width math keyboard includes fractions, roots and symbols, with the input kept above it. NotePad equation tools are free; PDF equation tools remain Pro.
PDF downloads include equation images. NotePad Word downloads include each image and its description; plain text uses the description, and Markdown keeps the LaTeX. Equations remain editable in your saved Helperbird work. Downloaded PDF images are not editable equations.
Set the Reading guide’s width separately from the Dyslexia ruler, then choose how transparent it looks. The guide follows your mouse or touch position as you scroll. It stays within the window without creating extra scrolling space at the edges.
Color controls put seven rainbow presets and Custom in one row. In a narrow panel, scroll across the choices; keyboard focus brings the selected color into view. Your saved colors still work, including black and white through Custom.
Choose a language and press Translate. On a webpage, Helperbird uses your selected text when you have a selection, or the page otherwise. The extra input and separate page and text actions are gone. Close the dialog with its button or Escape.
Play, Pause, Stop, speed and reading progress now use one set of controls. The Theater toggle and seek controls are removed. Standard voices use your device’s speech system, while natural voices continue to use Microsoft. Choose the voice and pace that suit your reading.
Voice typing stops after 12 seconds without recognized speech in the floating toolbar, PDF Reader and Equation Editor. Speaking resets the timer. Your final phrase stays in your text when the session ends; press the microphone when you are ready to continue.
Place page prompts, such as Open PDF, at the bottom left, middle or right. A compact choice in Settings includes Preview, so you can see the position before returning to your page. Your choice saves automatically and applies to new prompts in open tabs.
The sticky-note shortcut says Add note, and the reading-list shortcut says Save page. Matching labels, tooltips and spoken names make the difference clear before you choose one. Your existing shortcuts keep their actions and saved positions.
An optional Embedded reading switch in Settings lets you try reading selected text inside supported embedded lessons. It starts off and remains a beta. Support depends on the lesson platform, so turn it on when you want to test it with your own course.
Natural voices could keep checking access after you stopped listening. Those background checks now stop on pause, stop, completion or an error. Starting again renews access when needed, and repeated Play clicks after a connection problem no longer create repeated requests.
Some scanned pages, image formats, gradients and PDF forms could appear blank or incomplete. PDF Reader now includes the matching rendering resources it needs, improving those documents without relying on a separate download when you open them.
Opening a PDF no longer waits for voices to get ready, and everyday controls avoid rereading the entire file. A document you open takes priority over an older recovery attempt. Fit and zoom changes also keep the page and its annotation layers together.
Header actions stay clickable before a PDF is open and explain that you need to open a document first. You get useful feedback instead of an unresponsive control, and tools avoid starting work against an empty reader.
Text and image annotation controls stay usable at small sizes, with minimum targets and bounds that keep them on the page. PDF summary loading is calmer and its action button fits the available space, helping you follow progress without a shifting layout.
Copy and Text to Speech previously lost their hover and click behavior before a result was available. They now explain that you need to look up a word and focus search. Copying an available entry and using standard speech remain free; Dictionary lookup keeps its existing Pro requirement.
Google Docs suggestions could stop following your typing after a space or an accepted word. They now use the text around your current cursor, including when you return to an earlier sentence. Suggestions pause while you select text or while the cursor position is unavailable.
Dragging Word Prediction could feel choppy as the suggestions refreshed. Its movement now keeps up with your pointer, while larger updates wait until you finish dragging. Canceling a drag also releases the window, so it does not stay stuck in a moving state.
A failed save keeps your NotePad draft and avoids duplicate notes when you retry. Unreadable saved notes are not overwritten. Note deletion asks for confirmation, and reading-list removals complete in order. Loading, search, color choices, export and print controls are more consistent.
Failed settings writes preserve your draft and restore the saved choice where needed. Import and delete dialogs remain available if the operation fails, so you can retry. Rapid changes save in order, and reset asks for confirmation before turning enabled features off.
Opening a page that cannot use a text feature no longer discards your saved font, size or spacing. Unsupported controls explain their availability consistently, including Pro and upgrade states, and your choices remain ready when you return to a supported page.
Double line spacing now increases the gap between paragraphs in NotePad and Reading Mode as well as between lines. Existing formatting in your notes is preserved, so changing reading preferences does not rewrite the text you authored.
Dictionary, NotePad and Equations now respond when reduced-motion preferences change while they are open. Equation Editor also uses the correct fallback dark theme. Speed reading opens paused, and Play is your explicit choice to begin automatic word changes.
You can move over tooltips to read them and dismiss them with Escape. Clear-search buttons, close controls and settings actions have more consistent targets, theme contrast, focus indicators and labels, including in narrow layouts and right-to-left views. Decorative images no longer add unnecessary spoken content.
Buttons now use their normal click behavior, allowing a touch scroll to cancel activation. This avoids accidental actions and double activation across the popup, readers and dialogs while preserving the separate gestures used for dragging and resizing.
Popup decorations stay behind controls and tooltips. Compact and enlarged layouts have clearer focus and active states, while searches that find nothing retain a usable way back. Reduced-motion choices also apply to animated decoration and completion effects.
Speed reading now follows the managed Reading Mode restriction from each entry point, including its shortcut and pinned action. Applying profiles and resetting Quick Actions also handle saved pins and Undo consistently, so removed or renamed controls do not leave unusable shortcuts.
Missing PDF action labels, notes result counts and sticky-note movement instructions are now translated across the supported interface languages. The reset explanation is translated too, so these controls and confirmations remain understandable when your interface is not in English.
The floating toolbar’s Play button matches its other actions again. Reading Mode’s header controls keep the same full-size targets and circles as the other readers. Dictionary also follows the PDF header’s hover and active styling, so the controls feel consistent as you move between tools.
Some Pro diamonds appeared beside reader actions in the installed build, widening toolbars and separating badges from their buttons. Navigation diamonds now sit centered on the lower edge of their buttons in NotePad, the PDF Reader and Equation Editor. Menu badges stay attached to their icons, with the same button sizes and keyboard behavior.
Image-only notes and pictures beside equations now transfer into PDF boxes and appear in downloads. If a picture cannot load or the whole note will not fit, Helperbird explains why and leaves both your note and PDF unchanged. It no longer inserts only part of the note.
Long PDF translations could join two list items where a passage was split for translation. Line breaks and indentation now remain at those joins, while words split in the middle reconnect without an extra space. Translation results stay tied to the page and language you requested.
Voice menus use included flag images so their language and region choices display on Windows as well as Mac. All voice-typing choices have matching flags. Your saved selection, keyboard navigation and typing to find a voice continue to work.
Highlight a word, sentence or passage in Google Docs, then choose Play on the floating toolbar. Moving to the toolbar no longer loses that selection. If Helperbird cannot read it, you get a request to select text instead of unexpected playback of the whole document.
Choosing a Google Docs suggestion from the middle of a word replaces the letters on both sides of your cursor. Nearby words, spaces and punctuation stay in place. Helperbird checks your cursor again before inserting the suggestion, so a moved selection does not receive an old result.
Moving to the floating toolbar keeps text selected on a webpage, in an input or in a text area. Spoken-word highlighting no longer replaces it with a different passage. Pressing Stop also cancels playback that is still getting ready.
Closing or collapsing the floating toolbar stops speech, dictation and tools still opening. Late responses no longer bring back a tool you closed. Launch errors get a message instead of disappearing. Your dictation draft and final phrase remain available when you reopen the toolbar on the same page.
Stopping dictation keeps the final phrase without repeating its preview. With direct input on, toolbar clicks keep your chosen writing field. If that field disappears or cannot accept the phrase, the toolbar retains the transcript so you can copy it.
Voice typing now includes the audio resources it needs, improving startup on pages that restrict audio loading. Quickly starting and stopping is handled more carefully, so a delayed microphone response cannot restart a session you have already ended.
Repeated clicks share one Immersive Reader launch, including in PDF Reader. Moving to another PDF page while text loads prevents the old passage from opening. If a launch fails, you can retry normally; a failed attempt no longer leaves the tool waiting.
Trial messages now use your account’s dates instead of assuming a seven-day trial. Expired trials no longer appear active, and dates follow your local time. You can tell when access ends without comparing conflicting messages in different parts of Helperbird.
A connection problem during a subscription check no longer reports success using an older result. Your existing account details stay visible while the error explains that the check failed. You can try again without losing the information already shown.
Billing controls no longer add an extra payment-methods address to a complete account link. They open the intended billing page, so you can reach your subscription or payment details from Settings without landing on a broken address.
An invalid search now stops speech and clears the previous result, so an old definition cannot look like the answer to your new search. Overlapping startup requests also share their work. Paid lookup uses the same Pro explanation as the rest of the app.
Choosing a paid Equation Editor action while your account loads no longer shows an upgrade prompt too soon. The action waits for the subscription check before deciding what you can use. Pro members can continue without being treated as free users during startup.
The Firefox popup now handles its browser’s startup response correctly. An empty tab list or a tab closing during startup no longer breaks the menu. You can open Helperbird and reach its controls while the browser’s tabs are changing.
If turning on a toolbar feature cannot save, its switch returns to the saved state and explains the failure. It no longer looks enabled when the change did not take effect. A late settings response also cannot reopen a tool you closed while its options were loading.
An annotated download keeps the document, drawings and notes you chose when you started it, even if you open another PDF while it prepares. Newer edits still count as unexported work. Downloading the original PDF also keeps the reminder to export your annotations before replacing the document.
If you change your PDF notes or open another document while grammar correction is running, an older response no longer replaces your newer writing. Corrections only apply to the notes that were checked, so you can carry on working while a request finishes.
Replacing or removing a subscription key during a check no longer leaves Settings showing the result for the previous key. Helperbird checks the current key before saving a result, and overlapping checks wait for a fresh answer instead of reporting an older cached plan as verified.
If the browser cannot save a feature reset, Helperbird now reports the failure and keeps the confirmation available to retry. It no longer says your features were turned off when a storage limit or write error left them enabled. Successful resets still preserve your saved content.
Trial and overdue notices keep their status visible, with consistent light and dark colors across the popup and readers. Account recognizes subscribers and Unlimited. Billing separates Pro from its overdue or paused status. Free users can open PDF Grammar’s upgrade explanation before writing a note. Access rules stay the same.
The Pro dialog now uses the correct text colors in dark mode. When a paid shortcut opens it over Reading Mode, it stays in front of the reader and can be closed normally. Closing it returns you to the control you were using, without leaving the reader blocked.
Open the side Notepad, type or format your notes, then choose Add Textbox to PDF below the editor. Writing and inserting notes no longer need Helperbird Pro or wait for a subscription check. Voice typing, grammar and equation editing remain Pro tools, with visible markers.
Quick Actions now says Add note for creating a sticky note and Save page for saving a webpage to your reading list. The labels describe each action more clearly, with matching tooltips and screen reader names. Your shortcuts still work the same way.
Pro features keep their diamond with a smaller, softer badge. Quick-action diamonds now sit at the top corner, leaving the action label clear. Feature-list diamonds use the same style and still open your upgrade options.
Choose Left, Middle or Right for prompts such as Open PDF, all along the bottom of the page. A compact control in Settings includes Preview so you can check the position. Your choice saves automatically and applies to new prompts in open tabs. Middle remains the default.
Open PDFs, search the current page and adjust your view without Helperbird Pro. Use the zoom slider, minus and plus buttons, Fit width or Fit page. Search no longer shows a Pro badge or waits for a subscription check.
Choose a language to translate the current PDF page with Helperbird Pro. Original PDF and Translation tabs let you compare the two and use your usual reading tools. Detectable headings, paragraphs, lists, emphasis and indentation carry over into a reading view; complex layouts may differ. Changing pages clears the translation.
Paste text, a link or an image with no field or dialog focused to create a box on the current PDF page. Text keeps supported formatting and links, while images can be moved, resized and included in your annotated download. Paste inside an existing text box to keep editing there.
Choose Insert equation under More options in the PDF Reader or in the Notepad toolbar. Build an equation, preview it and insert it as an image. Equation boxes have an Edit equation button in their attached bar; in Notepad, click the equation or focus it and press Enter to edit it.
The equation dialog opens a math keyboard across the width of your screen, with fractions, roots and symbols within reach. More options gives you additional controls. The editor stays above the keyboard so you can see your equation as you work.
Annotated PDF downloads include equation images. Notepad Word downloads include each equation image and its description, text downloads use the description, and Markdown keeps the LaTeX. Equations stay editable in your saved Helperbird work; the images in a downloaded PDF are not editable equations.
Adjust the Reading guide's width separately from the Dyslexia ruler, then choose an opacity that suits your page. Your guide stays with your mouse or touch position as you scroll, without adding extra scrolling space at the screen edges.
Color controls offer seven rainbow presets and a Custom choice in one row. Narrow panels let you scroll through the choices, and keyboard focus brings each one into view. Your saved colors, including black and white, remain available through Custom.
Choose a language and press Translate. On a webpage, your selection is used when you have one; otherwise, Helperbird uses the page. The extra text field and separate page and text actions are gone, and you can close the dialog with its close button or Escape.
Use Play, Pause, Stop, speed and reading progress without choosing a playback mode. The Theater toggle and seek controls have been removed. Standard voices keep using your device's speech system, and natural voices continue to use Microsoft.
Voice typing now stops after 12 seconds without recognized speech in the floating toolbar, PDF Reader and Equation Editor. Speaking resets the timer, and your final phrase is kept when the session ends. Press the microphone to start again.
Try reading selected text inside supported embedded lessons with the new Embedded reading switch in Settings, under Beta features. It is off by default. This is an early beta, and support varies by lesson platform; turn it on when you want to test it.
Image-only notes and pictures beside equations now transfer into PDF image boxes and appear in your annotated download. If an image cannot load or the complete note will not fit on the page, Helperbird explains what happened and keeps your note and PDF unchanged.
Longer page translations preserve line breaks and spacing where requests join, so separate list items stay separate. Text split inside a word also rejoins without an extra space.
Voice menus now use included flag images so they display on Windows as well as Mac. All 94 voice-typing language and region choices are covered. Your saved choices, keyboard navigation and typing to find a voice still work.
Highlight a word, sentence or passage in Google Docs, then press Play on the floating toolbar. Helperbird keeps your selection when you move to the toolbar. If that selection cannot be read, it asks you to select text instead of reading the whole document.
Word prediction now follows you when you click within a sentence or return to an earlier paragraph with the arrow keys. Suggestions use the words before your cursor, including after you add a space between existing words. They pause while text is selected or the cursor position is unavailable.
Choosing a suggestion from inside a word replaces both the letters before your cursor and that word's remaining letters. Surrounding words, spaces and punctuation stay in place. Helperbird checks your cursor again before inserting the suggestion.
Select text on a webpage, in an input or in a text area, then move to the floating toolbar to read it. Playback keeps the passage you chose, and word highlighting no longer substitutes a different selection. Stop also cancels a read that is still loading.
Closing or collapsing the floating toolbar now stops its read-aloud and voice-typing sessions, including work still starting. Your dictation draft and final phrase remain available when you reopen the toolbar on the same page.
Stopping dictation in the PDF Reader or Equation Editor preserves the final phrase without duplicating its preview. With direct input enabled, toolbar clicks no longer lose your chosen field. If that field disappears or cannot accept the phrase, the toolbar keeps the complete transcript for you to copy.
Voice typing now includes the audio code it needs with Helperbird, improving microphone startup on pages that restrict how audio code can load. Starting and stopping in quick succession is also handled more carefully.
Your chosen font, text size, spacing and alignment now apply inside Reading Mode, including changes made while it is open. Appearance updates keep your place and selection. Text scaling is applied once, while the toolbar keeps its normal spacing.
Clicking again while Immersive Reader is opening now reuses the same request instead of starting another session. You can open it again after closing it or after an error.
Schools and workplaces can deploy subscription keys, feature restrictions, excluded sites, toolbar defaults, and word highlighting through supported Apple MDM configurations. The new Apple build accepts the same Helperbird policy keys as Chrome and Edge. Installation and Safari permissions are still configured separately.
The policy builder now creates Safari Mac profiles and iPhone/iPad configuration files alongside Google Admin and Windows formats. Choose your devices, configure the settings, and download the matching file. Validation checks the configuration, not whether your subscription is active or the deployment has arrived.
PDF view tools now sit in a full-width bar you can show or hide from the header. Adjust the zoom slider, fit the width or page, and use Pro search to move between matches on the current page. Search follows you when you change pages; it does not search the whole PDF.
The PDF Reader keeps one device-local recovery session with your current file and editing state, so it can restore your work after reopening. It also asks before replacing unexported work or clearing a page. Download your changes before switching files: recovery is not a permanent library or a shared copy.
You can open PDFs, read with device voices, type text boxes, and download without Pro. Drawing, page search, dictation, grammar, and the advanced reading tools require Pro. Translate and Immersive Reader now require Pro inside the PDF Reader; their controls show that before you choose them.
The Dictionary now puts the search box first, with definitions, examples, similar words, and read-aloud buttons in a simpler layout. Loading and retry states match the rest of Helperbird. The separate recent-search list is gone; use Back and Forward to revisit lookups in the current tab.
We reviewed all eight profiles to make their changes more deliberate. Focus and sensory profiles keep still images, Low Vision uses increased contrast rather than inverted colors, and Motion Sensitivity adds no font or spacing overrides. Preview the settings, adjust them afterwards, or undo the last profile while Settings stays open.
The Notepad has a clearer writing area, a toolbar that stays within reach, visible word and character counts, and autosave alongside Save. Downloads offer Word, Markdown, or text. The old Google Docs option was a duplicate Word download, so use Word and upload it yourself when you need Google Docs.
Reading Mode has a refreshed article layout, a header that stays within reach, and read-aloud controls you can show or hide. Listen with playback speed and progress controls, open translation, or expand the view. Wide tables stay scrollable without stretching the article.
The Equation Editor now gives the input and rendered preview clearer spaces of their own. Start from an example equation, fraction, or integral, then edit it or use the math keyboard. Your existing read-aloud, LaTeX, MathML, and image export options are still there.
The floating toolbar's dictation panel has editable text, language and subject-mode options, and a separate grammar action. Closing and reopening it keeps the draft on the current page. With direct-to-page dictation enabled, you can still speak into supported fields; grammar correction only runs when you request it.
An administrator can turn the floating toolbar on by default without locking its switch. You can turn it off or back on, and your explicit choice survives later policy refreshes. An administrator can still block the entire toolbar using the disabled-features policy.
Settings and feature dialogs have more consistent spacing, color choices, and on/off indicators. Reset actions now distinguish turning off enabled features from deleting saved data, so you can choose the right action before changing your setup.
New
A Lighter Apple Launch Experience
The Mac, iPhone, and iPad welcome and launch screens have been cleaned up, with setup media loaded only when needed. The Apple app also packages its Safari resources once, avoiding duplicate bundled files while keeping the extension's required resources together.
Word prediction was losing useful sentence context when suggestions were reordered. It now keeps contextual ranking and handles more typo, accent, and punctuation cases correctly. Clearing learned words also clears learned combinations and preferences from selected suggestions.
Fix
Fewer Lost Edits When Switching Tasks
We fixed several cases where switching documents, closing a note, or changing storage modes could drop pending edits or overwrite existing content. Sticky notes also keep their original page address when a website changes routes. Keep backups of important work; these fixes do not make simultaneous edits in separate tabs conflict-free.
Fix
PDF Pages Stay Steadier While You Work
The reader now handles resizing and delayed document operations more carefully, so old loading or voice work cannot be applied to a different PDF. Text-box editing also allows normal keyboard typing while dictation is enabled, and pages without selectable text point you toward Screenshot Reader.
Fix
Closed Tools Stop Delivering Old Results
Closing a speech or Screenshot Reader tool now cancels more pending work before it can update a later session. Delayed modal requests are also checked before their results are shown. A request already sent to an online service cannot be recalled, but it should not reopen a tool you closed.
Fix
Page Tools Keep Their State
Changing unrelated settings no longer needlessly rebuilds several page effects. Rulers batch pointer updates, scrolling timers are cleaned up when tools stop, and media playback speed is reapplied when a video or audio element loads a new source.
Fix
Clearer Focus and Button Behavior
More dialogs now keep keyboard focus inside and return it to the control that opened them. Buttons, switches, and color controls have clearer accessible names. In Safari, the All Features control no longer forces its tooltip to stay open or adds an extra focus stop when the popup opens.
Fix
Subscription Keys Handle Stray Spaces
A pasted subscription key with spaces around it could fail validation, and an empty key could take the wrong save path. Keys are trimmed and stored values are checked before use, with clearer feedback when a key is invalid.
Screenshot Reader could run stacked equations together when sending the result into the reading view. They now keep separate lines, preserving the order of a worked example or a group of equations.
Your highlights and sticky notes used to live on a separate page from your writing. The Notepad now has two views: one for the document you are writing, one for everything you have captured on the web. Open a highlight and you can send it straight into the document you are working on.
The reading list had its own page and its own tab. It now opens as a panel inside the Notepad, so saved pages sit beside your notes instead of somewhere else. Old links and pinned shortcuts still work and land in the same place.
New
The Notepad Opens on a Short Guide
A new Notepad used to open on a random film quote, which looked friendly and explained nothing. It now opens on a short guide covering writing and formatting, keeping more than one document, pulling in your highlights, the reading list, and downloading your work. Delete it whenever you are ready.
New
Jump Straight to Any Settings Section
The settings page was one long scroll with no way to see what was on it. A menu now runs down the side listing every section, and it follows you as you scroll. On a phone it folds into a button at the top.
New
Clearer Names in Settings
A section called Settings actually held your export, import and reset controls, and one called Disable listed the sites Helperbird is switched off on. They are now Data and Disabled sites, and the app information sits under Settings where you would expect it.
New
A New On and Off Switch
The main switch never moved when you pressed it. Only the color changed, and if the setting failed to save there was no sign. It is a real switch now: the thumb slides, it says whether it is turning Helperbird on or off, and it goes back if the save does not stick.
New
Open Any PDF Free, and Read It Aloud
Opening a PDF in Helperbird's reader no longer needs a subscription, and neither do read aloud, translate or Immersive Reader inside it. The other tools in the reader stay part of Pro.
New
Cursor Size, Hide Images and Paragraph Borders Are Free
All three are small accessibility controls and the site already listed them as free. The extension disagreed and put a lock on them. The lock is gone.
New
Volume Can Now Mute a Page
The control was called Volume boost, but browsers cap playback at 100% so there was never any boost to give, and the slider stopped at 10% so a page could be made quiet but never silent. It is called Volume now, and it goes all the way down to mute.
New
A Smaller Download
Every font was being packed into the extension twice, the same bytes at two different addresses. That is 24 files and about 1.9 MB removed from every install and every update, on every browser.
Bug Fixes
Fix
The Reading Guide Disappeared Once You Changed Its Opacity
The bar was drawn fully see-through for anyone who had touched the Opacity slider, so the feature looked like it had stopped working. Worse, the Opacity control is hidden while the Reading guide is selected, so there was no obvious way to put it back. Every opacity setting now draws the bar you asked for.
Fix
The Ruler Height Slider Said Percent When It Meant Pixels
The slider showed a percentage while the ruler was actually sized in pixels, so the number never matched what you saw. It reads in pixels now.
Fix
The Zoom Slider Could Not Be Dragged
Pop-up messages sat directly over the bottom of the open panel, which is exactly where the zoom slider is, and swallowed the drag. The slider moves now, and Firefox no longer zooms twice over.
Fix
Helperbird Said You Were Offline When You Were Not
The offline banner trusted a browser flag that reports no connection routinely on VPNs and virtual network adapters, and stays wrong after a computer wakes from sleep. It now checks properly before telling you the connection is down, and clears itself when it comes back.
Fix
Text to Speech Blamed the Browser for a Stale Check
Read aloud would report that your browser could not speak, when the real cause was the same out of date offline flag. It no longer reports a fault that is not there.
Fix
33 Help Buttons Opened the Wrong Guide
Three Help buttons opened a page that did not exist, three opened the general help index, and sixteen opened the font guide no matter which control you pressed it from. Cursor size, High contrast, Saturation, letter spacing, line spacing, text alignment and the rest each open their own guide now.
Fix
Firefox Ignored Every Setting Your Administrator Deployed
On managed Firefox rollouts the subscription key, the admin controls and the disabled feature list were all dropped, so users sat on the free plan and administrators could not switch features off centrally. Nothing on screen explained it and the policy looked correct in the browser, which is the worst way for this to fail.
Fix
Sticky Note Text Was Unreadable on Two Colors
Two of the note colors were given white text that was too pale to read against them, when black text on the same color is comfortably clear. Every color in the palette now gets whichever text color you can actually read.
Fix
The Notepad's Writing Area Had No Name
A screen reader landing in the Notepad announced an editable box with no name, and the formatting buttons above it announced as just "button". The writing area and every toolbar button now say what they are.
Fix
The Reading List Remove Button Was Invisible on a Touch Screen
The button only appeared when a mouse hovered over the row, which never happens on a phone or tablet. It was still there and still took the tap, so aiming at a row could remove the page instead of opening it. It is visible at all times now, and big enough to hit.
Fix
Enter on Remove Also Opened a Page
Pressing Enter on a reading list Remove button deleted the page and then opened a different one in a new tab. It now does only what you asked.
Fix
The Open Document List Would Not Scroll on a Touch Screen
Dragging the list of saved documents did nothing, and lifting your finger opened whichever document you had started the drag on, replacing the one you were editing. The list scrolls normally now.
Fix
Plain Text Exports Contained Raw Code
Downloading a document as plain text wrote the editor's HTML into the file, tags and all. It now writes the text you can actually read, and skips images so a pasted screenshot cannot bloat the file. Word exports keep their lists as lists.
Fix
Exporting Your Content Left Out Highlights and Saved Pages
The export in Settings said it was saving your content but wrote only your notes. Your highlights and your reading list were quietly missing from the file. All of it is included now.
Fix
Saving Often Was Mistaken for Running Out of Space
Chrome words its "you are saving too quickly" message using the word quota, and Helperbird read that as "storage is full". That triggered a migration that moved your data off sync storage and deleted the synced copy. The two are told apart now.
Fix
Dialogs Did Not Hold or Return Keyboard Focus
Tab could wander out of an open dialog into the page behind it, and closing a dialog dropped you back at the top instead of on the button you opened it from. Both work as expected now.
Fix
Some Feature Switches Shared the Same Name
Three pairs of controls carried the same internal id and three contained spaces, so a screen reader could announce the wrong one or skip it. Every switch is distinct now.
Fix
Four Sets of Controls Had Labels That Did Not Tell Them Apart
Several controls announced the same words as a different control, or described the wrong cause, so a screen reader user could not tell which one they were on. Each now says what it does.
Fix
A Feature's Own Error Message Was Replaced by a Generic One
When a feature failed and explained why, the message was thrown away and replaced with "Refresh the page and try again". You now see the reason the feature actually gave.
Fix
Sticky Note Cards Lost Their Edit and Delete Buttons
In one view the buttons on each captured note were hidden, leaving no way to change or remove it from that screen. They are on every card again.
Fix
A Pinned Feature Could Not Be Unpinned
A feature pinned by an earlier version could not be removed from your pinned list. Unpinning works again.
Fix
Media Help Links Pointed at the Wrong Guides
The Help buttons in the media panel opened guides for other features. They open the right ones now.
Fix
The Auto Scroll Guide Link
The Help button for Auto scroll opened a page that no longer held the guide. It points at the right one now.
Fix
Two Messages Described the Wrong Thing in Every Language
Duplicating a document told you it had been copied to your clipboard, which is not what happened, in all 72 languages. The English had been corrected and the translations had not. Both now say what the action actually does.
Fix
The Notepad Now Says It Is a Pro Feature
The Notepad card gave no sign that creating documents and notes needs a subscription, so you would only find out when the button refused. It is marked in the list now, before you open it.
Fix
Two Security Advisories Closed
Two bundled libraries had published security advisories. Both are updated.
A typeface from the Braille Institute, drawn so the letters low vision readers most often mix up stay apart: capital I, lowercase l and the number 1, or b, d, p and q. Pick it in Font or Text settings like any other.
New
Andika Is Now in the Font List
SIL International's literacy typeface, made for people still learning to read. It uses a single storey a and g, and shapes b, d, p and q so they are not mirror images of one another. It sits in the same list as OpenDyslexic, Lexend and Atkinson.
New
Compare the Original and the Simplified Text
Simplify used to replace your text with the result, so there was no way to see what changed, and if the text came from the page rather than the box, no way to get it back. Simplified and Original tabs now sit above the result, so what you started with is always one tap away.
New
Find a Feature by the Name You Use
Search only knew our name for each feature, so "read aloud" found nothing, "night mode" missed Dark mode, "zoom" missed Magnifier and "read later" missed the Reading list. Every feature now answers to the other names people actually type, including all 22 font names and both spellings of color.
New
Feature Search Works in Your Own Language
Those alternative names are now hand written in all 68 languages Helperbird speaks, so you can search using your own words instead of English ones. English still works everywhere too, so typing "pdf" or "ocr" finds the right tool whichever language you are using.
New
Accessibility Profiles, Rebuilt
The eight profiles keep the names people recognize as a starting point, and each now says in plain words what it turns on. The list of what a profile includes is read from the settings it actually writes, so it cannot drift from what you get.
New
See What Is in a Backup Before You Restore It
Choosing a backup file used to apply it on the spot. Helperbird now shows you what is inside first, counting the settings, notes, highlights, sticky notes and saved pages it will restore, and tells you that your subscription key is not part of it.
New
True Color Is Now Called Blend Mode
The Color overlay switch has a clearer name and matches every other setting in the app, with the label on the left and the switch on the right. Blend mode on is the normal behavior, where the tint mixes with the page. Turn it off for the exact color you picked. Whichever you were using is unchanged.
New
The Account Page Says You Do Not Need an Account
The page read like a sign up wall. It now says plainly that Helperbird is free and every free feature works without signing in, and that an account is only for unlocking Pro. The sign in button names your Google or Microsoft account again, and the note about sync links to a guide.
New
Billing Explains Itself for Schools and Workplaces
If your Helperbird comes through a school or organization, the billing section now says they look after it, instead of showing a button you can never press. It also appears on Firefox and Safari, and the plan name is translated like every other.
New
Beta, Disable and Floating Toolbar Pages Rebuilt
These three settings pages were built before the rest of the app settled on one look. They now match it, so a switch, a heading and a list behave the same wherever you meet them.
New
Grammar Results Are Easier to Scan
When your writing comes back with nothing to fix, that is now a line of text rather than a full width green banner. The Changes and Corrected text tabs split the box evenly, and the number of corrections sits in the corner of the box it counts.
New
The iPhone, iPad and Mac App Has Been Redesigned
Opening the Helperbird app used to show a wall of text with no way to reach our help pages. It now walks you through switching Helperbird on in Safari in three clear steps, plays a short setup video without leaving the app, and shows you what to do once it is on. On a Mac, one button opens Safari's extension settings for you.
New
Helperbird Is Lighter on Every Page
Changing any setting used to make Helperbird rebuild its whole stylesheet and check every single element on the page, in every tab you had open. Busy pages could slow down the more you adjusted things. It now only does that work when something has actually changed, and the PDF reader downloads about 1.6 MB less than before.
New
British English
Helperbird's own wording mixed American and British spelling. There is now a British version, so if your browser is set to English (UK) you see color, customize and centre. American English keeps color, customize and center.
New
Australian English
English (Australia) used to fall back to the American wording. It now has its own version, so you see color, customize and centre rather than the American spelling.
New
Traditional Chinese for Taiwan and Hong Kong
Taiwan and Hong Kong were being shown Simplified Chinese. There is now a proper Traditional Chinese translation, written with Taiwan's software wording rather than a character by character conversion.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Simplify Now Uses the Reading Level You Picked
Simplify offers four reading levels, but every result came back written for a young child no matter which one you chose. The menu showed your pick and the text ignored it. Picking a secondary school or university level now genuinely changes how your text is rewritten.
Fix
Profiles No Longer Switch On Pro Features You Cannot Switch Off
Three profiles switched on Hide images for people on the free plan, and the switch that turns it back off is only shown to Pro users. Every image on every site disappeared with no obvious way back. Profiles now skip any Pro feature you would not be able to turn off yourself.
Fix
Profiles Apply the Values They Promise
Several profile settings sat outside the range their slider could reach, so a profile looked applied and then came undone the first time you adjusted it, and the cursor size never changed at all. The confirmation screen also listed spacing and line height it never actually set.
Fix
Line Height Scale Corrected
The six line height steps were not a scale. The largest was smaller than the second smallest, and the middle settings pushed lines eight times the height of the text apart. They now run evenly from single to double spacing, so each label means what it says. Your saved choice keeps working.
Fix
Paragraph Width No Longer Forces Sideways Scrolling
Setting a paragraph width made the page scroll sideways on phones and narrow windows whenever the width you picked was wider than the screen. It now shortens the line length without ever spilling past the space available.
Fix
Read Aloud Waits for You to Press Play
Pressing Listen in Grammar, Summarize or Simplify opened Text to speech and started talking straight away, which is jarring in a classroom or an office. The window now opens ready to go, with playback under your control.
Fix
Long Reads Finish, and Stop Really Stops
A long read could fall silent partway through and never say it had ended. With some voices, pressing Stop did not stop audio that was still being prepared, so it began playing after you had already stopped it. Both are fixed.
Fix
Saturation, Underline and Hide Images Shortcuts
The Saturation and Underline links shortcuts were wired to each other, so pressing either one switched both. The Hide images and GIFs shortcut never did anything at all. Each now has its own key combination and does only what it says.
Fix
Importing a Backup No Longer Deletes Your Notes
A backup made on a device with different storage settings could delete your notes, highlights and saved pages while telling you the import had succeeded. The file's storage setting is now ignored, so your existing content is safe.
Fix
Reading List and Notepad Follow Your Dark Mode Setting
Both opened in dark mode for everyone, including people who had never switched it on and people who had chosen light on purpose. They now follow the setting you actually chose.
Fix
Dictionary History Is Saved Again
Your dictionary history was stored in a form Helperbird could not read back, so the list was empty again every time you reopened it. History now stays put, and anything saved by an older version is recovered rather than thrown away.
Fix
The Microphone Stops When You Switch Tabs
After Helperbird had been idle a while, switching away from a tab could leave the microphone listening, because the message telling it to stop went to the wrong tab. It now finds the tab you left, so dictation ends when you expect it to.
Fix
Tooltips Appear Below Their Button
Every tooltip appeared above its button no matter where it was meant to go, which pushed the ones along the top row off the edge of the popup where you could not read them.
Fix
Keyboard Focus Stays Inside Helperbird Windows
Tabbing inside a Helperbird window could wander out onto the page behind it, and closing the window left you with no clear place to carry on. Focus now stays inside while the window is open, and returns to where you were when it closes.
Fix
European Portuguese Loads Again
The European Portuguese translation existed but could never load because of a naming mistake, so Portugal was shown the Brazilian wording instead. It now loads properly.
Fix
Highlights No Longer Multiply on a Page
Leaving a page open while you adjusted your settings quietly added a fresh copy of every highlight each time, so they stacked up and the page got heavier. Each highlight is now painted once, and the leftover styling Helperbird used to collect is cleared as it goes.
Fix
A Setting Changed Mid Refresh Is No Longer Lost
If you changed a setting while Helperbird was still applying the previous one, your change could be dropped without any sign. Changes that arrive during a refresh are now replayed once it finishes, so the last thing you picked is what you get.
Fix
Voice Typing Says When a Site Has Blocked It
Some websites tell the browser that nothing on the page may use the microphone. Voice typing would fail on those pages with no explanation, and the message you did get suggested changing a browser setting that cannot help. It now says plainly that the website does not allow voice typing.
Fix
Smaller Fixes
The Dyslexia ruler is back in the default Quick Actions. The Greyscale high contrast theme restores photos and video properly again. Managed settings at school or work apply promptly after Helperbird has been idle. And closing the profile window while it is still applying no longer reports a failure when it worked.
We went through Helperbird line by line after hearing from a few of you that it could crash or slow down. The popup no longer crashes when opening tools like Text to speech, typing with word prediction in Gmail, Notion or Slack stays fast no matter how long the tab has been open, and Reader Mode, Screenshot Reader and read-aloud now tidy up after themselves so Helperbird stays light on memory.
New
Color Overlay: True Color
The overlay normally blends with the page, which is why the same setting could look different from site to site, and darker on dark sites. The new True color switch in the Color overlay settings shows exactly the color you picked on every page. If a specialist recommended a specific overlay color, True color reproduces it faithfully.
New
Grammar Checker: Five Times the Room
The grammar checker now takes up to 5,000 characters, about two full pages, instead of 1,000. Your text also stays put if the check hits a network hiccup, so nothing you typed is ever lost, and the Changes view that shows exactly what was corrected got a visual polish.
New
Zoom Is Really Back
The Zoom toggle is working again. Turning it on now actually zooms the page. Because it had been snoozing for a while, we reset it to off for everyone, so nothing changes until you choose to turn it on.
New
Reduce Motion Respects Your Play Button
Reduce Motion now covers scroll-triggered animations, parallax backgrounds, animated SVGs and old-school marquees, and it will never pause a video you pressed play on yourself. It only quiets the ones a site starts by itself.
New
Your Backups Are Safe
Importing a .helperbird backup could previously fail partway and take existing notes and highlights with it. Imports are now non-destructive, so nothing is touched until the new data is safely written, and large backups with lots of notes and highlights import properly.
New
Highlights Play Nice Across Tabs
Highlighting in two tabs at once could quietly lose highlights made in the other tab. Every tab now merges its changes instead of overwriting, so a highlight made anywhere survives everywhere, including deletes from the Notes app.
New
No More False Timeouts on Big Captures
Screenshot Reader and Explain on a large textbook page could report a failure while the answer was still on its way. They now wait as long as the reading genuinely takes.
New
Firefox and Privacy Fixes
On Firefox, the toolbar button reliably opens the sidebar again after a browser restart. And when you switch tabs mid-dictation, the microphone in the tab you left now switches off dependably, even right after the browser wakes Helperbird up.
New
Hundreds of Missing Translations
All 69 languages caught up on every missing string: the grammar Changes view, voice typing into page fields, the new overlay setting and more. If you ever spotted a stray bit of English in your language, this round likely fixed it.
New
PDF Reader, New Engine
The PDF reader moved to the latest PDF engine under the hood, with sharper text selection styling and support going back to older Safari versions. Everything you use, from text boxes to drawing to read-aloud, works just as before, only on sturdier foundations.
Word prediction now runs on Helperbird's own engine, built right into the extension. Suggestions appear the moment you start typing instead of after a pause on every page, everything happens on your device with nothing sent away, and the rest of Helperbird wakes up faster too.
New
Suggestions That Fit Your Sentence
Predictions now read the words you have already written instead of simply offering the most common ones. Type "I want to" and you are offered be, do, get and make; type "I would like to m" and you get make and meet rather than my. Start in an empty box and Helperbird offers real sentence openers like I, The and We.
New
A Much Bigger English Vocabulary
English word prediction has grown from about 19,000 words to more than 46,000, including everyday words the old list simply did not have (minecraft, chromebook, iphone, netflix) plus irregular forms like went, children and taught. A few words that were quietly missing, such as "I'm", are back where they belong.
New
Spelling Help That Reads Like You Spell
Word prediction can now find the word you meant from the way it sounds, not just the letters you typed: fone finds phone, enuf finds enough, skool finds school, becuz finds because and nolij finds knowledge. Corrections are marked in the suggestion bar, and there is a Spelling corrections switch in settings if you would rather not see them.
New
Sound-Alike Words, Side by Side
Finish a word that is easy to mix up and Helperbird offers the words that sound the same right next to it: their/there/they're, your/you're, its/it's, to/too/two and dozens more. A spellchecker never flags these because they are spelled correctly, so now you can just pick the right one from the bar. English for now.
New
It Remembers the Words You Use
Word prediction now keeps what it learns from page to page and day to day, so names, hobbies and subject words you type start appearing as suggestions and stop being flagged as misspellings. A word has to be typed three separate times before it is learned, so one-off typos never stick, words you stop using fade away, and it all stays on your device, "Clear learned words" in settings wipes the lot.
New
Topic Word Banks for What You're Working On
Pick a Topic (Science, History, Geography, Space or Animals) and word prediction leans towards that subject's vocabulary, so the words you actually need are in the bar instead of buried, and they are never marked as spelling mistakes. It is in beta and English only for now.
New
A "This Page" Topic That Follows Your Reading
Choose "This page" as your Topic and Helperbird builds a word list from the article or assignment open in front of you, so its names and subject words are ready when you write about it. It is worked out entirely on your device, only for that page, and nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
New
Hear Each Sentence as You Finish It
Switch on "Read sentence" and Helperbird speaks each sentence back to you as soon as you end it with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark: on websites, in rich text boxes and in Google Docs. Hearing what you wrote is often the quickest way to catch the word that came out wrong.
New
Choose a Word With a Number Key 1️⃣
Every suggestion now carries a number, and holding Alt and pressing that number picks it straight away (Ctrl+Alt on Firefox), no arrowing along the bar first. The suggestion buttons are bigger as well, so they are easier to hit with a mouse, a finger or a switch.
New
A Suggestion Bar That Suits Your Eyes
The suggestion bar now comes in four sizes (Small, Regular, Large and Extra large) and the whole bar scales, not just the text, so the buttons grow with it. There is a dark version too, set to light, dark, or automatic so it follows your system.
New
Word Prediction Where You Actually Write
Word prediction now follows you into Word Online, Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, and into many more rich text boxes around the web that it used to miss. It deliberately stays out of code editors, and it will never suggest from, or learn from, password, card-number or security-code boxes.
New
Better Predictions in Five Languages
Spanish, French, German and Portuguese now get the same next-word know-how English has, so "quiero ir a" suggests casa and trabajar, and "je veux" suggests savoir. Portuguese joins the list of supported languages, and words with apostrophes finally complete properly, type l'éco and you get l'école.
New
Smoother Word Prediction in Google Docs
Suggestions in Google Docs now arrive about twice as fast, and the suggestion bar sits just under your cursor instead of waiting at the bottom of the window. Accented letters go in properly as well: école, ação and mañana used to arrive mangled, and now they don't.
New
Follow Along Word by Word
Helperbird can highlight each word as it reads aloud, so it is easy to keep your place, in Reading Mode and when you read a selection. Choose your own highlight color, and see it on a live preview before you commit. On by default in Beta features.
New
Try New Features Early With Beta Features
There is a Beta features section in Helperbird's settings where you can turn on what we are still testing. Four things live there now: highlighting each word as it is read aloud, making view-only Google Slides readable, extending that to full-screen presentations, and typing dictation straight into the page. Word highlighting and readable Slides are on already; presentation mode and dictation into the page are off until you switch them on. Beta features can change, and if your school or workplace manages Helperbird your administrator can decide which are available.
New
Dictate Straight Into the Box You're Writing In
Turn on "Type dictation into the page" in Beta features and voice typing puts your words straight into the box you were already typing in (including Google Docs) instead of into a separate panel you then have to copy from. Helperbird shows you which box it is typing into, and it never dictates into password, payment or security-code boxes.
New
One Capture for Words and Equations
Math Reader is no longer a separate feature, and there is no mode to switch on either, the Screenshot Reader now works out for itself what is inside the box you drag. A page that mixes ordinary writing with equations comes back in one go, in the right order, with the maths readable in Immersive Reader instead of arriving as jumbled symbols. If an equation cannot be shown as proper maths it is read out in plain words instead, and Helperbird tells you that is what happened, rather than leaving an error box in the reader.
New
Explain It Instead of Just Reading It
New Explain mode in the Screenshot Reader: drag a box around a confusing paragraph, chart, diagram, table or formula and get a plain-English explanation instead of a straight copy of the words. The explanation appears in a card right beside what you captured, with Listen and Copy buttons, or opens in Immersive Reader if that is how you prefer to read.
New
Google Slides You Can Actually Read
View-only Slides decks normally hide their text from Helperbird, and most class decks have downloading switched off. Now when you open one, Helperbird switches to a plain-text version of the same deck so your font, ruler, color overlay and read-aloud all work, and your browser's Back button returns you to the slides. Decks you can edit are never changed, and full-screen presentations are left alone unless you opt in.
New
Extract Text Is Now Screenshot Reader
Extract text (OCR) has been renamed Screenshot Reader, the name most people already use for capturing text from an image, a scan or a website. The new name appears in the popup, on the floating toolbar and in the PDF reader, and searching for "extract text" or "OCR" still takes you straight to it.
New
Your Capture Goes to One Place, Not Five
In the Screenshot Reader, where your capture ends up (Immersive Reader, Translate, Listen, Save as note or Copy to clipboard) is now a single choice instead of five switches that could all be on at once. Pick one and the others switch off, so a capture can never land in three places; switch them all off and it goes to your clipboard.
New
Translate, Rebuilt Around Two Clear Buttons
Translate no longer asks you to pick a "translation engine" before it will do anything. There is one language menu and two plainly named buttons (Translate page and Translate text) and the text box is always visible, already filled in with whatever you had highlighted. On a Pro account your translation now appears in the panel itself, with the language it detected, Play and Pause, Copy, and Start over, so pressing Listen starts speaking straight away instead of opening a second window that sat there silent.
New
Long Lists Are Now Simple Dropdowns
Dark Reader's themes, High Contrast's color styles and word prediction's language and topic pickers used to be long scrolling columns of buttons. Each is now a single dropdown: one tap on a touchscreen, type a letter to jump to what you want on a keyboard, and one clear control for screen readers instead of dozens of separate buttons.
New
Every Setting Has Its Own Icon
Dark Reader, the reading ruler, Word prediction and the Screenshot Reader now show a small icon beside each setting (Height, Width, Color, Transparency, Language, Read sentence and the rest) so you can spot the one you want at a glance instead of reading down a list of words.
New
Your Own Colors Stay Where You Left Them
Pick a custom color anywhere Helperbird offers swatches and it now stays on the palette as one more color you can come back to, even after you try a preset, with its own edit button when you want to change it. Only the color you are actually using shows a tick, and colors saved in older formats open correctly instead of jumping to black.
New
Helperbird Feels Lighter and Faster
The part of Helperbird that runs quietly behind your tabs now loads a fraction of what it used to (around 4MB down to under 300KB) so it wakes up faster every time you use a feature. Busy pages like Gmail no longer stutter when a setting is saved, selecting text stays quick on very long pages, and Google Docs no longer gets heavier the longer you leave it open. Popup search is instant again too, which was most noticeable on school Chromebooks.
New
A Shorter, Simpler Feature List
Schools and workplaces told us Helperbird's feature list had grown overwhelming, so four features have been retired: Speed Reading, Text stroke, Print and Paragraph columns. Print only ever opened your browser's own print box, and Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac) still does exactly the same thing. Your settings for everything else are untouched.
New
Two Switches Where There Used to Be Four
Hide images and Hide GIFs are now one "Hide images & GIFs" toggle, and Show link descriptions and Show image descriptions are now one "Show descriptions" toggle. If you had either of the old switches turned on, the new combined one turns on for you, there is nothing to set up again.
New
Keyboard Access, Restored
Arrow keys for turning pages in the PDF reader, and Escape for leaving Reading Mode, used to quietly stop working the moment any setting changed, even a change you made in another tab. The word prediction bar was ignoring its own Alt+Arrow, Alt+Enter and Escape keys too, so if you use a keyboard rather than a mouse you could not pick a suggestion at all. Both work properly again, accepting a word no longer throws your cursor out of the box you were typing in, and the suggestion bar follows along as you scroll.
New
Dark Reader Has Its Own Shortcut Again
Dark Reader's keyboard shortcut used to switch on the reading ruler instead, because both features were listening for the same key. Dark Reader has its own key now: Alt+Shift+W on Windows and Chromebook, Option+W on a Mac. The reading ruler keeps D, so nothing changes if that is the one you use. The Immersive Reader shortcut also opens the reader once now, instead of stacking up extra copies.
New
PDF Reader Fixes
A password-protected or damaged file used to report success, open nothing and wipe the document you already had open (Helperbird now checks the new file first, tells you honestly when it cannot open it, and leaves your current document alone. Reopening a PDF takes you back to the page you were on) and opening a different one no longer drops you at the previous file's page, annotations and drawings stay locked to the right spot when you resize the window or open the notepad, and long books stay smooth while being read aloud. Dictation no longer gives out after about twenty minutes, and translating a PDF into Hebrew or Filipino finally works.
New
Dictation Into Google Docs Now Works Properly
With "Type dictation into the page" switched on, speaking into a Google Doc could do nothing at all (the words went nowhere and the microphone button never lit up to show it was listening. Helperbird now connects to the document before it starts, holds on to anything you say while the page is still loading rather than losing it, and tells you plainly if it cannot connect instead of leaving you talking to a microphone that is not recording. The toolbar button also lights up while it listens and goes out when it stops) including when it stops itself after 30 seconds of silence, which used to leave the button lit over a session that had already ended.
New
Read Aloud and Voice Typing Tell You the Truth
Read aloud used to show "Playing" and then sit in silence when the browser had blocked audio; it now says what happened so you can allow sound and try again. Voice typing reports problems in plain language instead of a technical error code, and the microphone button no longer stays lit after recording has stopped.
New
A Popup That Stays Put
The Display and Media panels now scroll, so the settings that used to sit below the bottom edge are reachable again. Open panels, color pickers and slider positions also stop resetting themselves when something saves in the background, such as a license check or a change synced from another device.
New
Printing Works With Your Reading Settings On
With the color overlay, reading ruler, Line Focus, Dark Reader or High Contrast switched on, printing a page could come out blank, solid-colored or inverted. Helperbird now prints the page's own colors and leaves everything you have set up on screen exactly as it is, you no longer have to turn features off just to print.
New
Managed Licenses Apply Properly at School and Work
When your school or workplace sets Helperbird up for everyone, the license could go unrecognised and quietly drop you back to the free version. Your organization's license is now found reliably, so the features you are entitled to are there from the start. An administrator turning off link emphasis was also switching off link tooltips instead; each setting now does what its name says.
New
Fits Smaller Screens and Chromebooks
Helperbird's dialogs (Listen, Voice typing, Translate, Summarize, Simplify, Grammar check, Screenshot Reader and Shortcuts) now size themselves to your browser window instead of a fixed height, so the controls at the bottom are no longer cut off on a Chromebook or a short screen. The Listen text box also fills the space it is given, instead of leaving an empty gap under the player.
New
Everything New Speaks Your Language
Every new label in this release (Explain mode, Read sentence, Spelling corrections, the topic list and the merged toggles) is translated across every language Helperbird supports. Everything the word prediction bar announces to a screen reader is now spoken in your language rather than English, and Voice Typing problems come through as a plain message instead of a technical English error code.
New
Little Things You'll Notice
The highlight menu now appears on PDF pages, so selecting text in a PDF gives you the same actions as anywhere else. The help buttons on Word prediction, Voice typing and Auto scroll opened the wrong article, each now opens its own. And the arrow that shows or hides the full feature list points the way it moves: down to open, up to close.
The color overlay has moved out of Dyslexia Support and into its own home in the features list, with its own color swatches and opacity slider. Your overlay tint is now completely independent from your reading ruler, so you can style each one exactly how you like.
New
A Whole New Way to Add Text to PDFs
Text boxes in the PDF reader got a big upgrade: what you type is exactly what you see, with a floating toolbar attached to the box, a proper corner resize handle, and rich text (bold, italic, underline, colors, sizes and lists) that survives when you export. New boxes now land in the reading area of the page, and Escape finishes editing.
New
New Tools Menu in the PDF Reader
Immersive Reader, Translate, Summarize and Extract Text now live together in one tidy Tools menu at the top of the PDF reader. Translate grabs the page or your highlighted text and opens it in Immersive Reader with translation already switched on.
New
Text to Speech Reads It All
Long articles are no longer cut off part-way through a read-aloud, Helperbird now reads the whole thing, smoothly refreshing behind the scenes on longer sessions. We also fixed voices not loading on some PDF pages and read-aloud ending abruptly in Reader Mode.
New
A Calmer, More Consistent Design
Every settings panel (Dark Reader, Color Overlay, Dyslexia Support, Word Prediction and more) now shares one clean layout: a clear Settings section, tidier headers and spacing, sliders with visible values and plus/minus buttons, refreshed color swatches, and proper icons for Dark Reader themes and text alignment.
New
A Sleeker Highlight Menu
The menu that appears when you select text has been redesigned as a rounded pill with circular buttons: matching the floating toolbar, taking up less of the page, and feeling much more at home on any website.
New
Your Notes and Highlights Are Safer
We fixed rare cases where larger notes, documents and reading-list items could silently fail to save or overwrite each other. Sticky notes now appear right where you're looking (even on long, scrolled pages) and bringing a note to the front actually brings it to the front.
New
A Snappier Popup
Search in the popup now opens instantly instead of showing a fake loading screen, word prediction is lighter on your browser, and the green Active checks in the features list now always reflect what's really on.
New
Even Better with Keyboards and Screen Readers
A huge accessibility pass across the popup and PDF reader: dialogs announce their names properly, focus stays where you'd expect, highlights can be activated from the keyboard, sliders and toolbar buttons have real labels, and toggles announce their on/off state.
New
Sharper Translations
We translated dozens of missing interface strings across all of our languages, rebuilt the Serbian translation, and fixed notifications that could show up blank, so messages like "Helperbird paused" now actually say so, in your language.
New
Little Things You'll Notice
Zoom no longer shrinks the page on its first toggle, video playback speed returns to normal when you turn the feature off, Line Focus no longer blocks clicking, and Helperbird Pro reconnects quickly after a network blip instead of waiting hours.
We've completely re-done Helperbird's interface translations across every language we support, fixing grammar, spelling and wording so the whole app reads naturally, whether you use it in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese or any of our 40+ languages. With big thanks to the user who let us know the Portuguese translations needed work.
New
A Real Editor for Your Notes
Helperbird Notes now opens each note in a full editor, so you can write, edit and tidy a note in a focused space and save it back to your dashboard with a click, no more cramped editing in a tiny box.
New
Cleaner PDF Export from Notes
Exporting your notes to PDF now groups everything neatly by website with a tidier, more readable layout that's nicer to print or share, and it handles blocked pop-ups gracefully, so your export always comes through.
New
Reading Tools Now Guide You on Google Docs, Sheets & Slides
Some reading tools work differently inside Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, where the page lives on Google's own canvas rather than the open web. Instead of just showing those tools as unavailable there, Helperbird now points you to the free Helperbird Google Workspace add-on that gives you the same controls right inside your document.
New
Find the Floating Toolbar More Easily
Haven't spotted the floating toolbar yet? A friendly hand-drawn hint now points it out in the popup, so it's easy to discover and try: one tap puts Read Aloud, Dictionary, Translate, the Reading Ruler and more on any page, without opening the popup. The hint tidies itself away once you turn the toolbar on.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Long Titles No Longer Cut Off in Reading Mode
Fixed a bug where long article titles in Reading Mode were cropped instead of wrapping onto another line, so you'd lose the end of the headline. Titles now wrap fully, and the reading-time badge sits neatly underneath. Thanks to the reader who spotted this on a BBC article.
Fix
Smoother and More Reliable
A round of under-the-hood fixes for a steadier experience: your features apply reliably as you move between pages, Pro features unlock correctly, your excluded-sites list is always respected, and tools you switch on from the toolbar while Helperbird is paused now behave exactly as expected.
The Helperbird add-on for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides has a new Make it Readable tool. Open it from the toolbar and use two simple sliders to set your text size (anywhere from 8 up to 36pt) and your line spacing, from single all the way up to triple. Your changes apply either to just the text you've selected or to everything at once. Larger text and more generous spacing cut the visual crowding that makes reading hard if you have dyslexia or low vision, and because Helperbird adjusts the formatting in the document itself, it stays that way when you share, present, or print.
Helperbird now has a floating toolbar, a small pill that sits on top of any web page and puts your most-used tools one tap away, without opening the popup. Read Aloud, Dictionary, Translate, Immersive Reader, Word Prediction, Voice Typing, the Reading Ruler, Reading Mode, and Extract Text (OCR) are all right there, plus a button to open the full side panel. It's built in an isolated layer so it never clashes with a page's own fonts or styling, and it's fully keyboard and screen-reader accessible.
New
Put the Toolbar Where You Want It
Drag the toolbar anywhere on screen and it remembers where you left it. You can reposition it with the keyboard too, focus the grip handle and use the arrow keys, holding Shift for fine one-pixel nudges. Collapse it down to just the owl when you want it out of the way, expand it when you need it, and turn the whole thing on or off from the new toolbar button in the popup header.
New
Use Your Tools Even While Paused
Even with Helperbird paused, you can switch a tool on straight from the toolbar and it runs right there on the page. It stays local to that page and clears itself when you refresh or navigate away, so it never changes your saved settings or affects your other tabs. Toggle tools like Word Prediction and the Reading Ruler clearly show when they're active, and Voice Typing opens a tidy dictation popover on the page.
New
Works in Lockdown & Kiosk Mode
Because the floating toolbar lives on the web page rather than in the browser's chrome, it keeps working in lockdown and kiosk mode: locked-down exam browsers, kiosks, and locked quizzes where the toolbar is hidden and the usual popup can't open. So students keep one-tap access to their tools right on the page, exactly when the other ways in are gone. Administrators can force it on for every page through managed policy, and any admin-locked setting now shows a 'Managed by your admin' label instead of just looking greyed-out.
New
Word Prediction, Redesigned & Draggable
Word prediction has a fresh look that matches the new floating toolbar, a clean horizontal pill of word suggestions. And like the toolbar, you can grab it by the grip and drag it anywhere on the page; it remembers where you put it, so it stays out of the way of whatever you're writing.
New
Clearer, More Consistent Icons
Every feature icon across the popup and the Quick Actions menu has been redrawn into a single, unified icon set with cleaner shapes and better contrast, so each tool is easier to recognize at a glance, a real help for low-vision users. Feature icons now sit in soft, color-coded badges that make the whole popup quicker to scan.
New
Easier Quick Actions Customising
The Quick Actions customize screen (where you choose which tools show up in your quick menu) is much easier to use. Every feature now appears with its real color-coded icon and a clean, readable name, so you can scan the list and pick your favourites at a glance, with a bold green check marking the ones you've already added.
New
Redesigned Notifications
Helperbird's on-screen notifications have a fresh look that matches the new floating toolbar: a deep, rounded pill with the Helperbird owl on the left and rich jewel-tone colors for success, info, warning, and error messages. They're easier to read and consistent whether they pop up on a web page or inside Helperbird's own apps, and notifications you can click now have a subtle hover effect so you know they'll do something.
New
Bolder Quick Action Buttons
The round Quick Action buttons now have a thicker outline, so they stand out more clearly and are easier to aim at, a small touch that helps if you have low vision or find precise clicking difficult.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Website Exclusion List Now Works Reliably
Fixed a bug where sites on your exclusion list were still being changed by Helperbird, so a page you meant to leave alone could still get Dark Reader, fonts, and other tweaks, sometimes making it hard to read. Excluded domains are now saved and matched correctly (full URLs and 'www.' are handled), and any existing lists repair themselves automatically the next time you open the settings. With huge thanks to the user who sent in a wonderfully detailed report.
Fix
Coming Soon Font Fixed
The Coming Soon handwriting font from the last update wasn't working correctly. That's now fixed, it applies properly everywhere the Font feature reaches: web pages, Reading Mode, the PDF reader, Notes, the Reading List, and the Editor. iPad supported.
Coming Soon is a friendly, casual handwriting-style font that makes any page read like neat hand-lettering instead of a printed screen. It joins OpenDyslexic, Lexend Deca, Comic Sans, and our other accessibility-friendly fonts in the Font picker, pick it from the Font feature menu and it applies wherever Helperbird's Font feature reaches: every web page, Reading Mode, the PDF reader, Notes, Reading List, the Editor, and the Equation Editor. Designed by Open Window and licensed under Apache 2.0, so it's free for anyone to use anywhere. iPad supported.
Read aloud can now highlight each word on the page as it's spoken (karaoke style) in Reading Mode, on selected text (the selection toolbar or the right-click menu), and in the PDF reader, auto-scrolling to keep the current word in view. Turn it on under Settings → Beta features and pick your highlight color. Works with local browser voices.
New
Chemistry Mode for Voice Typing
Voice typing has a new Chemistry mode (speak chemistry and Helperbird writes the formula. Say "H two O" and get H₂O, "sulfuric acid" → H₂SO₄, "sulfate" → SO₄²⁻, "calcium hydroxide" → Ca(OH)₂. It even balances spoken equations: "two H two plus O two yields two H two O" becomes 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O, correctly keeping the coefficient full-size while subscripting the atom counts. Chemistry mode knows all 118 elements, common compounds, acids and bases, polyatomic ions, isotopes ("carbon fourteen" → ¹⁴C), hydrates, organic groups, reaction arrows, and state symbols. Turn it on from the voice typing options menu) a badge shows when it's active.
New
Physics Mode for Voice Typing
A new Physics mode converts spoken physics into notation (units, vectors, constants, and all the maths. Say "ten newtons" → 10 N, "nine point eight metres per second squared" → 9.8 m/s², "vector F" → F⃗, "vector v cross vector B" → v⃗ × B⃗. Because physics is maths plus units, everything Math mode does works here too) Greek letters, exponents, fractions, and constants like the speed of light. Pick it from the voice typing options menu; an badge shows when it's on.
New
Pick Your Voice Mode: Regular, Math, Chemistry, Physics
The voice typing options menu now offers four mutually-exclusive modes: Regular (plain text), Math, Chemistry, and Physics. Choose one and it stays set, with a badge on the mic button so you always know how your dictation will be interpreted. The setting follows you across the popup, the PDF reader, and the Equation Editor.
New
Features Now Sorted A–Z
Both the popup's main features list and the Quick Actions picker now sort every feature alphabetically by name. No more hunting down the line to find Translate or Word Prediction: Grammar, Highlight Menu, Immersive Reader, Notes, PDF Reader, Reading Mode, Simplify, Summarize, Translate appear in the order you'd actually look for them. Sorting is locale-aware, so French, Spanish, and Japanese users see correct alphabetical ordering in their own language. Emoji prefixes on each feature name are ignored when sorting, so 'Grammar' sorts under G rather than under whatever glyph happens to precede it.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Better Square Roots in Math Voice Typing √
Math mode now understands spoken square roots even when you drop the word "of", "square root seventy two" becomes √72, not literal text. It also handles "sqrt" (which speech recognition sometimes produces) and "the square root of", plus the same improvements for cube roots.
Fix
Quick Actions Menu Scrolls Properly on Safari
Fixed a Safari bug where the Quick Actions add/remove menu would glitch when scrolling past the first dozen or so features: the list snapped back, items further down wouldn't load, and only the visible ones were clickable. The menu had two competing scroll areas; it now uses a single, properly-bounded scroll container, so the whole feature list scrolls smoothly and every feature is reachable and toggleable. Thanks to the user who sent in a wonderfully detailed report.
Helperbird now has a dedicated Equation Editor (a full-page app for writing math without fighting a tiny popup. Type LaTeX shortcuts (\frac, \sqrt, \int), pick symbols from the on-screen math keyboard, or just dictate the equation out loud and let Helperbird convert your speech into proper math notation. Perfect for students, teachers, and anyone who needs to write math but isn't comfortable with LaTeX. Opens in its own browser tab so you have plenty of room to think) the cramped little equation box in the popup is gone.
New
Dictate Equations Out Loud
Click the mic button in the editor and say what you want, "x squared plus y squared equals z squared" becomes x² + y² = z² right in front of you. Math Mode is always on in the equation editor, so Greek letters, fractions, integrals, exponents, square roots, and common math vocabulary all just work. A live "Hearing…" preview shows you what's being heard as you speak, with the mathified version updating in real time so you can see the conversion happen. The mic auto-stops after 45 seconds of silence so a forgotten session won't sit there listening.
New
Read Equations Aloud With Immersive Reader
Click Read Aloud and Helperbird sends your equation to Microsoft's Immersive Reader, which reads it back in proper math language, "x squared" rather than "x caret two". The same reader used for math captured from images, so equations sound consistent whether you typed them, dictated them, or scanned them from a textbook. Great for proof-reading, accessibility, and anyone learning to recognize spoken math.
New
Copy Or Download Your Equation Anywhere
Three Copy options: LaTeX (paste into Overleaf, Notion, Google Docs), MathML (paste into accessible web pages and screen-reader-aware editors), or Image (paste into Slack, Word, email, anywhere). Plus a dedicated Download button saves your equation as a PNG file you can attach, drag into other apps, or keep on disk. The image is rendered with proper math fonts so it looks crisp wherever you paste it, not like a screenshot of the editor.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Dictionary Button Reliably Opens a New Tab
The dictionary button in the popup used to do nothing on Chrome's internal pages (chrome:// URLs, the new tab page, the Chrome Web Store), it was waiting for an active web page to read your selection from, and silently bailing when there wasn't one. Now it always opens the dictionary in a new tab, pre-filling your selection when you have one and opening blank when you don't. Also fixed an MV3-related bug where the new tab could fail to open at all because the popup was closing before the browser processed the request.
Fix
Cleaner Text to Speech Modal
The textarea in the Listen modal had too much padding around the placeholder text, making it look like the text was floating in the middle of a big empty frame. The padding is now in line with the rest of the app's inputs, text sits comfortably near the top-left where you'd expect.
Coming Soon
Soon
More Math Vocabulary for Voice
We're continuing to expand Math Mode with extra spoken-math phrases, common shortcuts like "sqrt 72" or "square root 72" (without the "of") will be recognized in upcoming releases. Tell us what you've tried to dictate that didn't come out right and we'll add it.
Soon
Equation Editor in the PDF Reader
Coming soon: insert equations directly into PDFs from the same editor. Click an annotation, choose Equation, write or dictate it, and Helperbird drops the rendered math straight into the PDF as a textbox you can move and resize.
Managed Subscriptions Activate Reliably on Chromebooks
Fixed an issue where students on school-managed Chromebooks could see Helperbird Free even though their district had pushed a subscription key through Chrome's enterprise policy. The license check on a fresh install was running before the managed key had finished syncing, so the first validation hit the server with no key and cached the user as Free until the next routine check hours later. The check now waits for managed settings to load before validating, so enterprise subscriptions unlock immediately on install. The same fix applies when a district enables admin control after the extension is already installed.
Fix
Check Subscription Button Now Performs a Live Check
The 'Check Subscription' button in the popup used to only show whatever subscription state was last cached (it never actually contacted our servers to refresh. That meant if anything had cached a stale 'Free' state (network hiccup during a routine check, an enterprise subscription that hadn't synced yet, a recent renewal), clicking the button would just confirm the stale state over and over. The button now performs a real server check on each click, so a single click can resolve any stuck status) no reset or reinstall required.
Extract Text (OCR) used to silently return blank or partial results on certain setups (Retina Macs in scaled "More Space" modes, Windows at 125%/150% display scaling, Chromebooks paired with external monitors, and any tab with a custom browser zoom. The crop now measures the actual screenshot instead of guessing from your display ratio, so the highlighted region gets captured cleanly on every device. The selection overlay is also fully cleared before the screenshot is taken) no more dark shade leaking into the image on slower tabs, and underlying capture errors like Chrome's rate limit or restricted pages now log a clear reason instead of a generic failure.
Fix
Maths Reader Preserves Multi-Line Layout
When the Maths Reader extracted math from an image that spanned multiple lines (a system of equations, step-by-step working, or aligned equations) the result could collapse onto a single line in Immersive Reader. Helperbird now preserves the original layout from the image: stacked equations stay stacked, aligned working stays aligned, and step-by-step solutions read line-by-line the way you wrote them.
Turn on Math Mode in voice typing and speak equations the way you read them (Helperbird converts your speech into proper math notation. Say "x squared plus three y" and get x² + 3y. Say "alpha equals pi r squared" and get α = πr². Math Mode covers a huge vocabulary across math, physics, and chemistry, including Greek letters, fractions, integrals, derivatives, exponents, and chemical formulas. Just open the voice typing options menu and toggle it on) a small π badge shows when it's active so you always know your dictation is being mathified. Works in the popup and in the PDF reader.
New
A Better Dictionary
The dictionary lookup page got a major refresh. Tap the speaker button next to any word (or any example sentence) to hear it read aloud in your chosen TTS voice. Perfect for ESL learners, dyslexic readers, and anyone unsure how to pronounce a tricky word. Pronunciation guides (the /ˈbætmən/ format) now appear under the headword when available, and there's a new Opposite words section alongside Similar words. The page remembers your recent lookups so you can revisit them with a single tap, and each search now updates the URL (meaning browser back, forward, and reload all just work. Press / from anywhere on the page to jump straight to the search box, and look up phrases like "ice cream") the old single-word-only restriction has been lifted. The Wikipedia link in the corner finally takes you somewhere useful too.
New
More Natural Voices for Text to Speech
Pro users get a fresh batch of Azure Neural voices for popular regional languages: Spanish (Mexico), Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and French (both Metropolitan and Canadian). Pick voices like Dalia, Jorge, Francisca, Antônio, Xiaoxiao, Yunxi, Nanami, Keita, Sun-Hi, InJoon, Swara, Madhur, Henri, Sylvie, or Antoine for warmer, more natural-sounding playback in your preferred language and region.
New
Highlights & Notes Without Storage Limits
If you save a lot of highlights or sticky notes, you may have noticed Chrome's sync storage filling up and silently dropping data. Helperbird now splits large saves into chunks behind the scenes, so you can keep as many highlights and notes as you need. If sync ever does fill up, your data automatically falls back to local storage and stays accessible. Existing highlights and notes upgrade automatically on first load, nothing for you to do.
New
Cleaner Voice Typing Menu
The voice typing options menu has been tidied up. Math Mode sits at the top of the dropdown with a clear on/off check, and Listen, Copy, Clear, and Print are grouped below, only active once you've dictated something. The mic button in the PDF reader now shows the Math Mode indicator too, so the same setting follows you between the popup and PDFs.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Reliable Notes Backup & Restore
Fixed an issue where exporting just your annotations could produce an empty file, and importing older Helperbird backups could be silently ignored. Backup and restore now work cleanly across versions, your data is portable again.
Fix
Smoother UI on Big Saves
When writing large amounts of highlights or notes, the popup used to refresh several times in a row. Helperbird now consolidates those into a single update, so the interface stays steady while your changes are saved.
Fix
Missing Translation Labels Fixed
Added 22 missing translation keys for screen reader labels and UI text across the extension, including floating button settings, feature toggles (magnifier, alt text, image titles, word spotlight, hide images, hide GIFs, text stroke, cursor size, highlight links), volume controls, voice group labels, reading level selector, and settings page headings. These labels were showing as blank for assistive technology users.
Fix
Subscription Data Parsing Fixed
Fixed an issue where the update banner could fail to read your subscription details, showing a parsing error in the console. The update page now correctly reads encrypted subscription data introduced in an earlier release.
Coming Soon
Soon
Even More Math Vocabulary
We're expanding Math Mode with extra notation and shortcuts for engineering, statistics, and advanced calculus. If there's specific math you'd like to dictate, let us know.
A new floating button can now appear on every page, giving you quick access to open Helperbird's side panel with a single click. Perfect for kiosk mode, locked mode Chromebooks, or any setup where the browser toolbar is hidden. Admins can enable it through managed JSON policy, and users can toggle it on or off in settings. The button defaults to the bottom-left corner but can be moved to the right via settings or admin policy. You can also drag it temporarily out of the way, it snaps back on the next page load.
New
Better Word Prediction
The word prediction bar now renders with proper background colors and styling on all websites. Fixed an issue where page styles could leak into the prediction bar, and the bar is now properly centered at the bottom of the screen. Predictions continue to learn from your writing and persist across sessions.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Text to Speech Modal Fixed
Fixed an issue where the text to speech modal was not appearing when triggered. The modal now opens reliably every time.
Fix
Word Prediction Bar Styling Fixed
The word prediction bar was missing its background color on some websites due to a theme configuration issue. This has been resolved, the bar now always appears with a clean white background and proper borders regardless of the website you're on.
Fix
Side Panel Close Button Working
The floating button now properly closes the Helperbird side panel on the second click. Previously, clicking again only changed the button's visual state without actually closing the panel.
Fix
CSS Isolation for Injected UI
The floating button and other injected elements are now fully isolated from page styles. Websites can no longer accidentally override fonts, colors, margins, or sizes on Helperbird's on-page UI.
Coming Soon
Soon
Drawing Tools for Websites
We're working on bringing the same drawing tools from the PDF reader to regular web pages. Stay tuned.
The font override engine has been completely rewritten. Instead of walking through every element on the page, Helperbird now applies fonts using lightweight CSS classes on the body. Pages feel noticeably snappier, especially on content-heavy sites like Google Docs and news articles. Icon fonts like Font Awesome, Material Icons, Bootstrap Icons, and others are now fully protected, even deeply nested icons won't break into squares anymore.
New
Text to Speech Engine Switching
Text to Speech now has a proper engine manager under the hood. Free users get browser voices, Pro users can switch to Azure Neural voices. If Azure fails or you go offline, Helperbird automatically falls back to browser voices and restores your preferred engine when you're back online. Voice selection is now a single dropdown showing all available voices with clear Pro labeling.
New
PDF Editor Improvements
Text boxes in the PDF editor now auto-grow as you type, support more font sizes, and preserve list formatting when saving. Drawing tools got a full accessibility pass, the canvas has proper ARIA roles, screen reader announcements for shape selection, and keyboard support for deleting and moving shapes. Text export layout has also been tightened up so downloaded PDFs look closer to what you see on screen.
New
Keyboard Controls Across the Board
Every modal in the app now has proper focus trapping, so Tab and Shift+Tab cycle through controls without escaping into the background. The color picker supports arrow key navigation. Escape closes modals everywhere, including the accessibility profiles confirm dialog. Redundant Enter/Space handlers have been cleaned up across dozens of components.
New
Smarter Word Prediction
Word prediction got a big upgrade. Predictions now persist across sessions using storage, so it remembers what you type. It learns from context as you write, has domain-aware fallback word lists, and works inside rich text editors and PDF text boxes. Duplicate suggestions are filtered out and results are sorted by how often they actually appear in real text.
New
Banner Now Lives at the Top
The status banner has been moved to the top of the popup and now uses a priority system. It detects offline status in real time, shows helpful tips on Google Slides, and handles subscription states like trial, past-due, and paused with clear messaging and direct links to fix things.
New
Fresh Logo
Helperbird is rocking a fresh new logo across the popup, reading list, dictionary, and all browser manifests. Same bird, cooler look.
New
Cleaner Architecture Under the Hood
Replaced prop drilling with Vue's provide/inject pattern across 39 components, cutting roughly 1,400 lines of repetitive wiring. The background service worker has been split into focused modules for tab management, messaging, managed storage, and lifecycle events. None of this changes what you see, but it means fewer bugs and faster updates going forward.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Firefox Messaging and Screenshots Fixed
Fixed a bug where actions in Firefox would fail silently because message objects couldn't be passed between scripts. This was caused by Vue's Proxy wrappers not surviving cross-process serialization. Screenshots and screen captures are working reliably on Firefox again too.
Fix
Voice Typing More Reliable on Safari
Fixed Safari-specific issues with voice typing. Microphone permissions are now pre-warmed before SDK initialization to avoid Safari's known delay, and sessions automatically refresh every 9 minutes to work around a platform limitation. The mic also correctly stops after 45 seconds of silence instead of staying open indefinitely.
Fix
Extract Text and Screenshot Reader Hardened
Added safety checks to the OCR engine so it handles missing or incomplete responses gracefully instead of silently failing. You'll get a clear message if something goes wrong rather than a blank result.
Fix
Modal Memory Leaks Plugged
Fixed several places where event listeners and hotkey bindings weren't being cleaned up when modals closed. Focus trap handlers, message listeners, and keyboard shortcuts are now properly removed on unmount across grammar, simplify, summarize, and text to speech modals.
Fix
Security Hardening
SVG filters are now created via DOM API instead of innerHTML to prevent XSS vectors. HTML content is sanitized with DOMPurify before DOM parsing. CSS color inputs have stricter validation with tighter regexes and numeric bounds. Large payloads over 10MB are rejected in background API handlers.
Fix
Background Script Stability
Prevented duplicate runtime, alarm, and context menu listeners from stacking up in the background service worker. Tab switching now uses a serialized queue to prevent race conditions when rapidly switching tabs.
Fix
Translations Refreshed
Updated localization strings across 40+ languages. New strings for voice typing silence timeout, drawing tools, and accessibility profiles are all fully translatable. No hardcoded English strings.
Fix
Drawing Tools for Websites
We're working on bringing the same drawing tools from the PDF reader to regular web pages. Stay tuned.
Coming Soon
Soon
Smarter Voice Caching
We're working on caching synthesized audio so re-reading the same text doesn't hit the server again. This will make text to speech faster on repeated reads and keep things running efficiently behind the scenes.
You can now draw directly on PDF pages. Freehand pen, rectangles, ovals, lines, and arrows are all included. Pick your color, adjust the stroke width, and your drawings stay visible even when you close the toolbar. Everything gets saved when you download the annotated PDF.
New
Move and Delete Individual Drawings
Made a mistake? Use the new Select tool to click any drawing, drag it to a new spot, or delete it with one tap. You can also use keyboard arrows to nudge shapes around and Delete to remove them.
New
Font Size Picker for PDF Text Boxes
Text boxes on PDFs now have a font size option. Choose from Small, Normal, Medium, Large, or X-Large right in the toolbar. Your chosen size carries over when you download the annotated PDF.
New
PDF Resizes with Your Window
The PDF viewer now automatically adjusts when you resize your browser window or toggle the split view. No more fixed-size pages that don't fit your screen.
New
Immersive Reader Remembers Your Settings
Fixed an issue where the Immersive Reader in the PDF tool wasn't loading your saved preferences like font size, text spacing, and color themes. Your settings now carry over correctly, just like they do on regular websites.
New
Accessibility Profiles
New one-click profiles in Settings that apply recommended settings for different needs. Choose from Dyslexia, ADHD & Focus, Low Vision, Section 508, Reading Comfort, and Motor Accessibility. Each profile shows exactly what it changes before you apply it.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Cleaner Text Box Toolbar
The toolbar inside PDF text boxes has been redesigned. Formatting options are more compact, the size picker is sleeker, and the color palette uses round swatches with a modern dropdown. Takes up less space and looks much better.
Fix
Drawing Tools Fully Accessible
Every drawing tool button, color swatch, and action now has proper labels for screen readers. You can cycle through shapes with Tab, move them with arrow keys, and delete with the Delete key. All tooltips use DaisyUI and are fully translatable.
Fix
Better Touch Support Across PDF Tools
Touch targets for color swatches, the resize handle on text boxes, and the shape delete button have all been increased for easier use on tablets and touch screens.
Fix
Rewritten Extract Text & Screenshot Reader
The Extract Text tool and Screenshot Reader have been rewritten and improved. Text extraction is more accurate and the overall experience is smoother and more reliable.
Fix
Improved Text to Speech Voices
Text to Speech voices have been improved across the board. Voices sound more natural and the selection is better tuned for different languages.
Fix
Voice Typing Silence Timeout Fixed
Fixed an issue where the voice typing mic would stay open indefinitely even after 45 seconds of silence. Background noise was resetting the silence timer. The mic now correctly stops when no actual speech is detected.
Fix
All New Strings Translatable
Every label added for the drawing tools, color names, and canvas descriptions is fully translatable. No hardcoded English strings.
Fix
Faster Summarize, Simplify & Grammar Tools
Summarize, simplify, grammar check, flash cards, and other smart features are now up to 70% faster. Same quality, way less waiting.
Coming Soon
Soon
Drawing Tools for Websites
We're working on bringing the same drawing tools from the PDF reader to regular web pages. Stay tuned.
The Notes app has been completely rebuilt as a standalone page. You can now search through all your notes by keyword, notes display in a cleaner card layout, and the new export flow lets you save notes as PDF or text. The tabs have been redesigned and the empty states are more helpful.
New
Refreshed Reading List
The Reading List has been refreshed with a new search bar to quickly find saved pages. Items are now clickable cards, and the overall layout is cleaner and more modern.
New
Add Text Boxes to PDFs
A new Add Textbox button in the PDF toolbar lets you add text boxes directly onto any PDF page. Text boxes can be moved and resized, and they stack neatly when you add more than one. You can also insert text from the Notepad into the PDF.
New
Redesigned PDF Toolbar
The PDF Reader toolbar has been reorganized with circle buttons for Text-to-Speech, Add Textbox, Download, Notepad, and Open PDF. The Helperbird logo now uses a fun new design, and the layout is cleaner on all screen sizes.
New
Word Prediction Bar Position Setting
You can now choose where the word prediction bar appears on screen. Pick Bottom (default) to show it along the bottom, or Left Side to display it as a vertical bar on the left of the screen.
New
Smarter Word Prediction Engine
Word prediction is now smarter at catching misspellings. It uses keyboard-aware corrections (knowing which keys are next to each other), phonetic matching (so 'fone' suggests 'phone'), and pattern-based fixes for common errors like swapped letters, double letters, and ie/ei mix-ups.
New
Redesigned Voice Typing
Voice Typing has a fresh new look. The text area now stretches to fill the full panel, includes helpful placeholder text, and uses a simpler native text input instead of the old rich text editor.
New
Redesigned Simplify, Grammar, and Summarize Panels
All three tool panels now share a consistent modern design: full-height text areas, helpful placeholder text, a smooth single-block loading animation, and circle action buttons for Listen, Start Over, and Copy.
New
Report an Issue Button
A new Report an Issue button in Settings lets you copy your current configuration and send it to our support team for faster troubleshooting.
New
Smarter Account Banners
The Account page now shows helpful messages only when needed. Login prompts disappear once you are signed in, and the sync reminder only shows if your browser sync is not enabled.
New
Major Accessibility Improvements
Skip-to-content links on all pages, proper aria labels on all buttons and icons, Escape key closes all modals, screen reader announcements for loading states, and better keyboard navigation throughout the app.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Removed Edit Page Feature
The Edit Page feature has been retired to simplify the app. It was rarely used and could cause confusion with other editing tools.
Fix
All Text Now Translatable
Every piece of text across Voice Typing, Simplify, Grammar, Summarize, Settings, and Account panels is now fully translatable. No more hardcoded English strings anywhere.
Fix
Voice Typing Placeholder Fix
The placeholder text in Voice Typing now correctly disappears when you start typing or dictating.
Fix
PDF Text Annotation Improvements
Text boxes on PDFs now have better resize handles with proper accessibility support, and new text boxes stack neatly instead of overlapping.
Fix
Fixed Autofocus Accessibility Issue
Removed autofocus from search inputs in the Notes app and Reading List to improve accessibility for screen reader users.
Fix
Better Decorative Icon Handling
All decorative icons across the app now properly hide from screen readers, reducing noise for users who rely on assistive technology.
Coming Soon
Soon
More UI Improvements
We are continuing to refresh every part of Helperbird with the same clean, modern design. Stay tuned for more updates.
You can now choose websites where Helperbird won't run. Go to Settings and add domains to your exclusion list. Helperbird will automatically pause on those sites.
New
Admin-Managed Website Exclusions
IT admins can now push a list of excluded websites through Chrome managed policy. These show as locked entries that users can't remove.
New
New Toolbar Badge for Excluded Sites
When you're on an excluded website, the Helperbird icon shows a blue badge so you know it's disabled on that page.
New
Report an Issue Button
A new 'Report an Issue' button in Settings makes it easy to copy your current configuration and send it to our support team for faster troubleshooting.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Dark Mode No Longer Hides Images
Fixed an issue where dark mode could turn images into black squares on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Images now display correctly.
Fix
No More 'Stopped' Toast on Tab Switch
Switching to an excluded website no longer shows a 'Stopped' notification every time.
Fix
Toolbar Badge Updates When Switching Tabs
The Helperbird toolbar badge now updates immediately when you switch between tabs, so it always shows the correct status.
Fix
Dark Mode Brightness Safety Check
Fixed a rare issue where setting brightness to zero in dark mode could cause display problems.
Coming Soon
Soon
More Admin Controls
We're expanding admin management options for IT teams. Stay tuned for more ways to configure Helperbird across your organization.
Massively expanded our word prediction dictionaries across English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, nearly double the bigram entries for better, more natural suggestions.
New
Extract Text: Copy to Clipboard Toggle
A new toggle in the Extract Text options lets you control whether extracted text is automatically copied to your clipboard. It's on by default, but you can turn it off if you prefer.
New
Extract Text: Processing Feedback
You'll now see a notification as soon as text extraction starts, so you know Helperbird is working on it, no more wondering if anything is happening.
New
Refreshed Word Prediction Bar
The word prediction bar has a cleaner look with updated styling, better button spacing, pill-shaped word groups, and a theme-aware background that matches the rest of Helperbird.
New
Overhauled TTS Engine
A brand-new tiered text-to-speech system with Azure Neural voices, better fallback handling, and a new event-driven architecture for smoother playback.
New
Cleaner Settings UI
A big UX pass across all settings modals: cleaner layouts, better consistency, and a more polished feel throughout the extension.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Highlights Stay Their Color
Fixed a bug where changing your highlight color would repaint all existing highlights the new color. Each highlight now keeps the color it was created with.
Fix
Notes Show the Right Highlight Color
Highlights in the Notes page now display in their actual color instead of always showing as blue.
Fix
Click a Highlight to Open Notes
Clicking on any highlight now opens the Notes page, making it easy to review all your saved highlights and annotations.
Fix
TTS 'Not Initialized' Errors Gone
Fixed background errors where the text-to-speech engine would throw 'not initialized' or 'no voice found' warnings. All TTS methods now gracefully handle uninitialized states.
Fix
No More Stale Text Selection After Highlighting
After highlighting text, the selection is now automatically cleared so you don't see leftover selected text on the page.
Fix
Highlight Toolbar Cleans Up Properly
Event listeners are now properly removed when you toggle the highlighter off, preventing duplicate handlers from stacking up.
Fix
Faster, Safer Highlighting
Rapid highlighting no longer risks losing data, saves are now queued to prevent one overwriting another.
Fix
Tab Switching No Longer Bleeds Audio
Fixed a race condition where voice typing audio could carry over between tabs during rapid switching.
Fix
Special Characters in Search & Translate Work
Text with characters like & or # no longer breaks Google Search, Translate, or Dictionary links from the highlight menu.
Fix
Notes Deletion Is Reliable
Deleting notes now properly waits for the save to complete before refreshing, so rapid deletes no longer cause notes to reappear.
Fix
Highlight Color Validation
Highlight colors are now validated to ensure only valid hex values are used, preventing potential issues from corrupted data.
Fix
Message Passing Cleanup
Fixed orphaned message callbacks in the background and content scripts that could cause silent failures and memory leaks.
Coming Soon
Soon
More Word Prediction Languages
We're working on expanding word prediction support to even more languages. Let us know which ones you'd love to see!
Admins can now turn features on or off for everyone, specific groups, or individual users. This makes it much easier to keep things simple and consistent across teams or schools. Check our help guides if you want to set it up.
New
Smarter Word Prediction
Word Prediction now fixes misspellings automatically and does a better job suggesting the next word, helping you write faster with fewer interruptions.
New
Owlie is now alive
Owlie, the Helperbird owl, now has animations and different poses throughout the app. They add a bit of personality and fun, what’s your favorite pose so far?
New
Instant admin updates
When an admin sets or updates a remote subscription key, Helperbird now updates straight away. No refresh needed, changes apply instantly.
New
Bug fixes and speed improvements
We fixed a bunch of bugs and improved performance across the app. Everything should feel faster, smoother, and more reliable.
You can now choose how many words Helperbird suggests, anywhere from 2 to 9. More control, cleaner typing vibes.
New
Calmer, More Polished UI Colors
We refreshed the whole color system to be softer, more balanced, and way less overwhelming. Feature icons now use a more intentional palette, so everything feels cleaner and easier on the eyes.
New
Cleaner, Modern Visual Layout
The interface has been fully redesigned to reduce noise. Icons are spaced better, grouped more logically, and the overall layout feels more modern and organized.
New
Collapsible Features List
You can now collapse the features list to keep the page focused. No more giant wall of icons staring you down: just open what you need, when you need it.
New
Easier Feature Discovery
Tools are now grouped more clearly and laid out in a way that actually makes sense. It’s way easier to spot the tool you're looking for without scrolling through a crowded grid.
New
Quick Actions Button Moved Up Top
The ‘Customize Quick Actions’ button now lives at the very top of the page, making it way faster to personalize your setup.
New
Friendlier Wording Throughout the App
We updated a bunch of labels and text to sound more natural and human. Less technical jargon, more “real person” energy.
New
Smoother, Faster App Experience
We cleaned up a ton behind the scenes to make Helperbird feel snappier and more responsive. The whole thing just feels smoother.
New
Upgraded Math Tools
Math Reader got a fresh upgrade to make equation reading faster, clearer, and more accurate.
New
Improved Full-Page Text Extraction
Extract Text is now strong enough to handle full-page extraction, making long documents way easier to work with.
New
Settings Modal Updates
Dark Mode and Keyboard Shortcuts now live inside the settings modal for a cleaner, less cluttered interface.
Sketch ideas, highlight text, or leave yourself notes right on your PDFs. No more switching between apps - just open, annotate, and you're done!
New
Export Your Notes in New Formats
Your notes, your way. Export everything as markdown or choose from our new format options. Perfect for keeping things organized across all your favorite apps.
Account page buttons are now larger and styled with backgrounds that adapt to your browser.
New
Browser Logos
We’ve added crisp new SVG logos for Chrome and Edge to make the UI feel more personalized.
New
Gentler Error Logging
Word prediction errors now show as warnings instead of errors, reducing unnecessary noise.
New
Firefox & Safari Updates
Bumped Firefox manifest versions and made sure Safari banners always show the instructions button.
New
Sticky Notes Fix
Removed old Firefox-only conditions so sticky notes now load properly everywhere.
New
Safari Voice Typing Fixes
Added special Safari workarounds for microphone permissions and session timeouts in Azure voice typing. Sessions refresh automatically and errors are handled more smoothly.
New
Modal Sizing
Tweaked modal box sizing in the voice typing options menu for a cleaner look.
New
Conditional Options Rendering
The options section now stays hidden in the compact quick-actions view, keeping the UI uncluttered.
New
Admin Controls
Added managed storage so admins can control keys and settings. Account alerts also hide when managed by an admin.
New
Efficient Syncing
Managed settings now only update when values actually change, cutting down on unnecessary writes.
New
Word Prediction Overhaul
Refactored word prediction for faster performance, better accessibility, and smarter personalization. Includes context tracking, faster UI updates, and improved Google Docs integration.
New
Ruler Default
The ruler tool’s follow feature is now off by default, giving you more control.
New
Immersive Reader on PDFs
Immersive Reader settings now fully work with PDFs.
New
Language Defaults
Irish is now the default selected language.
New
UI Consistency Tweaks
Standardized capitalization, refreshed backgrounds, adjusted grid layouts, and fine-tuned modal spacing for a smoother UI.
New
Improved Word Prediction Learning
Predictions now use up to 5 words of context, learn from your choices, and adapt to sentence patterns. Google Docs space key events are also detected more reliably.
New
Performance Boost
Helperbird now uses less memory, runs lighter, and feels faster overall.
New
New Voice Options
We’ve added new natural Azure voices and offline voices, and removed the low-quality ones.
New
PDF Detection Alerts
When we detect a PDF, you’ll now get a prompt asking if you’d like to open it in Helperbird.
New
Redesigned PDF Reader
The PDF reader has a new floating action button (FAB) for quick OCR and tools, plus a streamlined design.
New
Offline Button
There’s now a dedicated button to access offline features more quickly.
New
PDF Loading Fixes
Improved the PDF loading sequence to prevent duplicate handling, reduce memory issues, and ensure smoother initialization.
Coming August 22nd. IT administrators can now remotely configure subscription keys across Chrome and Edge. Once set, users automatically gain access to Helperbird Pro without individual logins or setup.
Completely rebuilt voice typing now works across Firefox, Edge, Chrome, and Safari. Powered by Microsoft Azure, it supports over 20 languages for better accessibility.
New
Cleaner UI with Modal Windows
All settings sections now open in focused modal windows instead of long panels, keeping your workspace clean and helping you stay focused.
New
Notes on Firefox
The Notes feature is now fully supported on Firefox, bringing all your note-taking capabilities to every browser.
New
Unified Dyslexia Tools
Overlay colors and ruler overlays are now merged into one streamlined tool, making dyslexia support simpler and more effective.
New
Google Workspace Redesign
Google Docs and Google Slides add-ons have been completely redesigned for a cleaner, more intuitive experience.
New
Firefox Side Panel
Firefox users now enjoy a dedicated side panel instead of a popup, providing better screen real estate and workflow.
New
Audio File Transcription
Hidden feature: You can now transcribe audio files directly through the voice typing tool.
New
Safari Scrolling Fix
Fixed scrolling issues in Safari where certain sections weren't properly scrollable.
New
Smart Permission Prompts
Instead of showing errors, Helperbird now intelligently prompts you to grant necessary permissions when needed.
New
Performance Improvements
Fixed memory leaks for better performance and smoother operation across all browsers.
New
Quick Settings Access
Click the free/unlimited badge to jump directly to the settings page for quick login access.
Coming Soon
Soon
IT Admin Remote Config
Coming soon: IT administrators will be able to remotely configure subscription keys for large organizations.
Soon
Natural Voice Options
More natural-sounding voices are on the way for an even better text-to-speech experience.
You can now switch between light and dark mode in Helperbird! Find the toggle under the Accessibility section to customize your experience.
New
Smoother Quick Actions
We’ve given the Quick Actions area a refresh! Buttons are now smaller, fully circular, and neatly arranged with five per row for a cleaner look.
New
Updated On/Off Toggle
The Helperbird toggle got a small redesign! It’s slightly smaller and now clearly shows when it's on () or off ().
New
Faster, Sleeker Search
Search has been redesigned across Helperbird with less padding and a speed boost. It’s not flashy, but it makes a big difference!
New
Reading Mode Upgrade
We've updated Reading Mode to the latest Readability version by Mozilla, making it smoother and more accurate.
New
Onboarding is Back!
The onboarding experience is back when you first install Helperbird! You can skip it or bring it back anytime from the Settings page.
New
A More Organized Helperbird
We’ve started reorganizing features to make Helperbird easier to use. For example, Paragraphs and Colors are now under Reading Options.
New
Immersive Reader on PDFs Fixed
Your Immersive Reader settings now save properly on PDFs, no more resets!
New
Better Text-to-Speech Voices
Some of the voices weren’t great, so we did an audit and removed the lower-quality ones. Now, the experience is much better!
New
Smarter, Faster Word Prediction
Word Prediction now suggests both the next word and the current one as you type. It’s lighter, quicker, and smarter, learning from mistakes along the way!
New
Media Options Fixed on iOS
Media options were missing on iOS, but we’ve fixed that! Everything should now work as expected.
In side the 'Extract Text' section, turn on the beta option to see the next generation of OCR. It's faster, more accurate, and supports more languages.
New
Immersive Reader is Faster
We've made the Immersive Reader even faster, so you can enjoy a smoother reading experience.
We've introduced a new Notes section where you can seamlessly switch between Extracted Sections, Highlights, Notes, and Categories. It's all about keeping everything neat and easy to find.
New
Sticky Notes Got a Makeover
Sticky notes are now taller, wider, and more customizable. Pick new colors easily from the bottom of the note, and enjoy their fresh look!
New
A Smarter Reading List
Finding what you need in the Reading List just got easier, thanks to a brand-new design that focuses on better search and organization.
New
Fixed: Enter Key Bug
The Enter key will now behave properly on buttons, so no more accidental double clicks!
New
Smoother Fonts Everywhere
We've added a CSS font swap for a cleaner, more polished experience across the board.
New
Better Modals on iOS
iOS modals now have a minimum height to make sure they display perfectly, every time.
New
Modals Redesigned
Our modals have a fresh look, plus a new accessible Close button so everyone can use them effortlessly.
New
Voice Typing Goes Next Level
Voice typing now lets you print spoken text directly, super handy for getting your thoughts on paper quickly!
New
Helperbird Editor: Export to Word
You can now export your work from the Helperbird Editor directly to Microsoft Word formats.
New
PDF Reader Updates
The summarize feature is now presented in a sleek modal. Plus, there’s a new Reading Mode for PDFs that lets you fully customize the text for a better reading experience.
New
New Highlight Color: Red
We’ve added a bold new highlight color to the menu, perfect for grabbing attention.
New
Accessibility Improvements for Highlighters
Our highlighter colors have been tweaked to ensure they’re accessible to everyone.
New
Reading Mode Upgraded
Reading Mode has been fine-tuned to handle text even better, so you can enjoy a smoother reading experience.
The PDF Reader is now fully functional on iPad and iPhone. This was caused by a bug in Safari, but everything is working perfectly now!
New
Word Prediction Fixes
We've fixed a bug where Word Prediction wouldn't remove the word you typed before inserting suggestions. Additionally, incorrect alt tags are now corrected.
New
Paragraph Feature is Now Free
The Paragraph feature is now free for everyone! You can add borders, background colors, adjust width, and set columns for paragraphs with ease.
New
Dyslexia Ruler, Line Ruler, and Reading Guide Are Free
Great news! The Dyslexia Ruler, Line Ruler, and Reading Guide features are now free for all users.
New
Redesigned Notifications
Notifications and toasters have a fresh, rounded redesign for a cleaner, more modern look.
New
Cleaner Action Buttons
Behind the scenes, we've tidied up action buttons to make them look and feel smoother.
New
Maths Reader is Out of Beta
The Maths Reader is officially out of beta! Stay tuned as we add more features to this tool soon.
New
Emoji Bug Fix
Fixed an embarrassing bug where flag emojis weren’t loading on Windows and Safari. That’s all sorted now!
New
Feature List Reordered
We've reordered some features in the list for better usability and easier navigation.
New
New Layout for Key Features
Selecting high contrast, font picking, and translations now have a new layout for a better user experience.
New
Redesigned Quick Actions
Adding features to the Quick Actions menu has been redesigned for a smoother experience.
New
Improved Loading Time
Helperbird now loads even faster with slight optimizations under the hood.
You can now open PDFs directly in the PDF reader on Safari, and you'll get a notification to let you know it worked.
New
Google Docs Support is Here!
You can now select text in Google Docs, which means all the great features like immersive reader, text to speech, speed reading, and reading mode work there too. It's a game changer!
New
Word Prediction Got Smarter
Word prediction is now fixed and even better on Google Docs, automatically adding a space after selecting a word.
New
Summarize Tool Update
The Summarize feature now has a listen-back button, making it easier for those who prefer to hear the content.
New
Voice Typing Improvements
Voice typing now supports copying, clearing, and listening to your text. Plus, the entire voice typing system has been completely rewritten for smoother use.
New
Smarter Dictionary
The Dictionary app is now smarter and supports 20 different languages, working better than ever.
New
Reading Mode Just Got Smarter
Reading Mode now checks if the page can use it, and it works with PDFs as well!
New
Better Select Inputs
We’ve added more padding to select inputs to make things more comfortable and easier to use.
New
Touch Support for Rulers and Guides
Dyslexia rulers, Focus Rulers, and Reading Guides now have full touch support. They even work smoothly on iPads!
New
Quick Actions Made Easier
Clicking the ruler button in Quick Actions now turns it on or off, simple as that!
New
One Less Notification
We’ve removed the extra notification that popped up when opening Reading Mode. Less clutter!
New
'Not Supported' Badges
Now, if a feature isn’t supported on a page, you’ll see a badge letting you know.
You can now open PDFs directly in the PDF reader on Safari, and you'll get a notification to let you know it worked.
New
Google Docs Support is Here!
You can now select text in Google Docs, which means all the great features like immersive reader, text to speech, speed reading, and reading mode work there too. It's a game changer!
New
Word Prediction Got Smarter
Word prediction is even better now, and it automatically adds a space after you select a word. Nice little touch, right?
New
Reading Mode Just Got Smarter
Reading Mode now checks if the page can use it, and it works with PDFs as well!
New
Better Select Inputs
We’ve added more padding to select inputs to make things more comfortable and easier to use.
New
Touch Support for Rulers and Guides
Dyslexia rulers, Focus Rulers, and Reading Guides now have full touch support. They even work smoothly on iPads!
New
Voice Typing Improvements
You can now have Voice Typing read your text back to you, and there’s a handy new copy button to grab your text quickly.
New
Quick Actions Made Easier
Clicking the ruler button in Quick Actions now turns it on or off, simple as that!
New
One Less Notification
We’ve removed the extra notification that popped up when opening Reading Mode. Less clutter!
New
'Not Supported' Badges
Now, if a feature isn’t supported on a page, you’ll see a badge letting you know.
New
Summarize Tool Update
The Summarize tool now has a button to read the text out loud. Super useful for anyone who prefers to listen!
Encountered a glitch with 'Stop Playing' on right-click? We've ironed out the creases. Your audio controls are now seamless.
New
Immersive Reader Customization: Your Read, Your Rules
Tailor your reading experience with customizable Immersive Reader settings. Choose your preferred voice, speed, and text size for a reading experience that's uniquely yours.
New
OCR Tool: Now with Translation Support
The OCR tool just got smarter! With translation support, accessing and understanding content in multiple languages is a breeze.
New
Highlighter on PDFs: Bug Squashed
Frustrated with the highlighter not working on PDFs? Worry no more. We've zapped this bug for smooth, uninterrupted learning.
New
Summarizing Tool: Auto-Reset on New Pages
Our summarizing tool now automatically resets with each new page you visit, ensuring a fresh start for every read.
New
Login & Account Redesign: Sleek and Secure
Experience our new login and account pages, redesigned for a sleeker look and a more secure sign-in process.
Bug Fixes
Fix
UI Clutter Cleanup: Enhanced Navigation
We've cleaned up the UI, fixing cluttered features and buttons for a smoother navigation experience across Helperbird.
Coming Soon
Soon
Bug Report Feature: Your Feedback Matters
Stay tuned! A dedicated bug report feature is on its way, making it easier for you to share feedback and help us improve.
Increased Limit for Free Users in Immersive Reader
Big news for our free users! The Immersive Reader's character limit has been bumped up to a generous 2400. More reading, more learning!
New
Spanish Support Now in Text/Screenshot Reader
Our text/screenshot reader is going global! Embrace the diversity with our new Spanish and Arabic language support.
New
Arabic Support Now in Text/Screenshot Reader
Our text/screenshot reader is going global! Embrace the diversity with our new Spanish and Arabic language support.
New
Alt Text, Your Way
Personalize your web experience with our new alt text options. Image descriptions and link alt texts are now separate, giving you the choice to see what matters most to you.
New
Introducing a Sleeker, More Focused Reading Mode
Dive into a cleaner and more intuitive Reading Mode. We've streamlined the look for a distraction-free reading experience that you'll love.
New
Math Learning with Our Maths Reader Beta
Introducing the Maths Reader Beta! Snap a math problem and watch it come to life in the Immersive Reader. Perfect for learning or quick help with homework. Your feedback can shape its future!
New
Text/Screenshot Reader Now with Translations
Your translation tasks just got easier! Our enhanced text/screenshot tool now comes with a built-in translator. Instantly translate text for a seamless multilingual experience.
New
Immersive Reader in Text/Screenshot Tool
We've integrated the Immersive Reader directly into our text/screenshot tool. Now, opening and reading your screenshots is more straightforward and efficient than ever!
New
New, Streamlined Search Bar
Looking for something? Find it in a flash with our sleek new search bar. A smoother, more intuitive Helperbird is just a search away.
New
Dark Mode Arrives
It's here! Dark Mode arrives in Helperbird, bringing with it a stylish and eye-friendly interface. Perfect for those late-night study sessions or early morning browsing.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Highlight menu bug
We've squashed a pesky bug! Now, the highlight menu won't interfere with your Immersive Reader experience, making your reading smoother than ever.
Coming Soon
Soon
Revamping our Website
Get ready to be wowed! A brand new Helperbird website is on its way, promising a cleaner and more user-friendly interface. Stay tuned for an online experience like never before!
We've added support for PowerPoint online, enhancing your productivity.
New
Dyslexia Features in Their Own Cards
Dyslexia features now have dedicated cards for improved accessibility.
New
UI Tweaks for a Cleaner Look
We've made UI tweaks to provide a cleaner and more intuitive experience.
New
Summarize Mode Integrated
The Summarize mode is now seamlessly integrated into the app for your convenience.
New
Paragraph Features in Their Own Card
Paragraph-related features now have their dedicated card for easy access.
New
Enhanced Volume Booster
Our volume booster is now available and works with both videos and audio.
New
Automatic PDF Opening in Google Classroom
Google Classroom now allows automatic opening of PDFs for a smoother workflow.
New
Touch Support for Sliders
Sliders across the app now fully support touch interactions.
New
Shortcuts are free again
Shortcuts were made paid while we fixed a bug. They are now free again.
New
Improved Accessibility for Sliders
Sliders now have better text and translations, enhancing their accessibility.
New
Bug Fix: Text-to-Speech Player
We've fixed a bug where the Text-to-Speech player would occasionally not stop or work on iOS and Chrome.
New
Enhanced PII Removal for Immersive Reader
We've improved our PII (Personally Identifiable Information) removal function. We now remove sensitive information locally, adding an extra layer of protection for Immersive Reader users.
Coming Soon
Soon
Coming Soon: Google Docs and Slides Add-on
Stay tuned for our upcoming release where the Google Docs and Slides addon will be bundled and available for use.
Soon
Coming Soon: Helperbird for Android
We're excited to announce that Helperbird will soon be available for Android users, expanding our reach to a wider audience.
Soon
Coming Soon: Helperbird for Firefox on Android
Get ready for the Helperbird experience on Firefox for Android. Coming soon to enhance your browsing on mobile devices.
Users can now remove all default quick actions and set their own features, adding another layer of personalization to the Helperbird experience.
New
Improved Voice Typing
We've upgraded the voice typing feature. It now supports multiple languages and comes with an improved user interface.
New
Enhanced Quick Actions Flexibility
Users can now add all apps to the quick actions and remove all default apps, providing more control and customization options.
New
Optimized Dimensions for iOS Devices
A default height and width have been set for optimal usage on iPad and iPhone devices.
New
Word Prediction
Word prediction now leverages web components for improved performance.
New
Citation Support
Dragging notes into the editor now automatically adds a link to the original file, making referencing easier.
New
Note Titles
Users can now add titles to their notes for better organization.
New
Text to Speech Enhancement
Text to Speech is now faster, providing an even smoother user experience.
New
New App Icons
We've introduced new icons for several apps, adding a fresh look and feel to the platform.
New
Web Search
Users can now quickly search the web directly from Helperbird.
New
Comprehensive Editor Statistics
The editor now includes a word count feature, which provides details such as word count, character count, reading time, speech time, writing time, average word length, average sentence length, paragraph count, and more.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Firefox Compatibility
We've updated Helperbird to be compatible with the latest versions of Firefox, addressing previous compatibility issues.
Coming Soon
Soon
Upcoming Features
In our next release, look forward to support for Enterprise Analytics, eBook compatibility, a comprehensive accessibility audit to further enhance user experience and inclusivity, and a redesigned Google Docs add-on.
The new update provides a drag and drop format to offer more convenience and enhance the user experience. Users can now easily drag and drop elements, making navigation within the platform more intuitive.
New
Open PDF Toggle
The newly introduced toggle feature now allows users to open PDFs directly in the PDF reader, simplifying document handling and increasing user efficiency.
New
Ruler Settings
A newly introduced feature allows users to change the color of the ruler based on their selected settings, adding a personalized touch to their Helperbird experience.
New
Reading Mode Enhancements
We've solved an overflow issue on titles in Reading mode, offering a smoother, distraction-free reading experience for users.
New
PDF Reader Update
A fix has been implemented to handle file overflows in the PDF reader, ensuring a seamless document viewing experience.
New
Color Preservations in Shadow DOM
We've addressed an issue where colors were being lost in the Shadow DOM, ensuring consistent and accurate color representation across all components.
New
Speed Reading Feature
The color initiation issue in the Speed Reading feature has been resolved. Furthermore, the entire Speed Reading feature has been rebuilt to enhance functionality and provide a smoother user experience.
New
UI Improvements
A design update has removed the grey bar around the toolbar to provide a cleaner, more streamlined interface. Additionally, the footer positioning has been optimized for better layout balance.
New
Accessibility Audit
We've performed an accessibility audit to ensure the platform is user-friendly and compliant with accessibility standards, making Helperbird more inclusive for all users.
New
Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Word Prediction Updates
The TTS feature now has improved voice update responsiveness. We've addressed an issue with color highlighting on change. Moreover, the Word Prediction feature has been refined for better performance. We've resolved the issue where the word prediction was adding a word three times in Google Docs.
New
iPad Compatibility
The issue where the dictionary feature was not functioning on iPad has been addressed and resolved. Now all iOS users can leverage the full functionality of Helperbird.
New
Z-Index Updates
We've addressed z-index issues on sliders and badges, ensuring a more smooth and consistent user interface.
New
Sticky Notes Customization
Users can now customize sticky notes, adding another layer of personalization to their Helperbird experience.
New
Configuration Settings
All color choices have now been moved to a centralized configuration setting, enabling easier and more intuitive color customization.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Fixed a variety of bugs including a major one that prevented the customization of sticky notes. A bug related to the speed reading feature overflow has been resolved, allowing users to read at high speed without any visual overflow issues.
Fix
Resolved a glitch where text-to-speech wasn't automatically updating voices, ensuring users always have access to the most current and natural-sounding voices.
Fix
Addressed a bug that affected dictionary function on iPads, ensuring consistent functionality across devices.
Fix
Fixed z-index issues on sliders and badges, resulting in a smoother, more visually consistent user experience.
Fix
Rectified a bug where text-to-speech color highlighting didn't function upon change, enhancing readability and user interaction.
Fix
Fixed an issue with the word prediction feature in Google Docs where it added a word three times, ensuring accurate and efficient predictive text.
In this update, users are now able to preview fonts before selecting them. This feature helps to ensure the chosen font is to the user's liking and suitability.
New
Quick Actions Translation
We've made improvements to the Quick Actions area. Users can now conveniently perform translations without any issues, making multilingual accessibility more efficient.
New
Added More Color Options
We've expanded the color options available across all features. With over 15 colors to choose from, users can now personalize their Helperbird experience to suit their preferences.
New
Replaced Selects With Buttons
To provide a more user-friendly and intuitive interface, all select options have been replaced with buttons.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Fixed Translation in Quick Actions
The issue with translation through the quick actions area has been addressed and resolved, making the tool more reliable and easy to use.
Fix
Minor Fixes and Improvements
This version includes a range of small fixes and improvements that enhance the overall user experience and functionality of Helperbird.
The bottom navigation has been divided into Writing, Reading, and Accessibility categories for easier access to specific features.
New
Enhanced Math Support
Helperbird now includes Maths Solving Support and Immersive Reader Support for Maths, providing assistance and an immersive reading experience for mathematical content.
New
Expanded File Format Support
Helperbird now supports Epub files, allowing users to access and read electronic books in that format. Additionally, offline support is now available, enabling users to utilize Helperbird even without an internet connection.
New
Enhanced PDF Tools
The PDF reader in Helperbird now offers new tools such as next page and back options, improving the overall reading experience for PDF documents.
New
Improved User Interface
Helperbird has undergone UI improvements to provide a smoother and more user-friendly experience, making it easier for new users to get accustomed to the tool.
New
Faster Search
Helperbird now includes a fast search feature, enabling users to quickly find specific functionalities or settings within the tool.
New
Optimized Resource Usage
Helperbird has been optimized to reduce its resource consumption, resulting in improved performance and a more efficient user experience.
Bug Fixes
Fix
Over 30 Major Fixes and Improvements
Version 104.0.1 includes a significant number of bug fixes and overall enhancements, addressing reported issues and refining the functionality of Helperbird.
Fix
UI Fixes
The user interface has undergone fixes and improvements to enhance its usability and visual appeal.
Fix
New Notification Bell
A new notification bell feature has been added to Helperbird, providing users with easy access to important notifications and updates.
