Add CHANGELOG.md and integrate user-facing release notes with technical details into release.sh and /news page. Enhance /news with collapsible technical sections and improve localization.

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+# Changelog
+
+Release notes for Compass. `scripts/release.sh` reads the entry for the version being tagged straight out
+of this file and uses it as the GitHub release body (falls back to `gh release --generate-notes` if no
+entry matches). That release body is what the [/news](/news) page reads, via the GitHub Releases API — so
+an entry here only reaches users once its version is actually tagged and released.
+
+Each entry:
+
+- Starts with `## <version>` (must match `package.json`'s `version` exactly) and ends at the next `## `
+  heading or a `---` separator line — `scripts/release.sh` parses on that boundary.
+- Has two parts, in order:
+  1. A **user-facing summary** — plain language, no internals. Shown by default on `/news`.
+  2. A **technical details** section — implementation-level notes. Collapsed behind a "Show technical
+     details" toggle on `/news`.
+- Separates those two parts with an HTML comment, `<!--tech-->`, alone on its own line. That exact marker
+  is what `web/pages/news.tsx` splits on. An entry without the marker (e.g. old releases before this
+  convention) just renders as-is on `/news`, with no expandable section — keep that in mind while
+  backfilling.
+
+To edit an already-published release's notes to match this convention, use
+`gh release edit <tag> --notes-file <(sed ...)` or paste manually in the GitHub UI — `scripts/release.sh`
+only runs at tag-creation time, so it won't touch releases that already exist.
+
+---
+
+## 1.13.0 — 2026-07-27
+
+### New features
+
+- Voice messages: record, transcribe, and play back audio directly in profiles and chats
+- Added a media creator tool for building profile photos/videos in-app
+- Added a searchable FAQ page with categories and deep links to individual answers
+- Signal is now a supported way to share contact info (phone number or signal.me link)
+- Finnish added to the list of profile languages
+- Sexual orientation is now its own profile field, with expanded gender options
+- Added neurotype and other accessibility fields to profiles
+- "Get Notified" button on saved searches — get alerted as soon as a new match appears
+- Redesigned notifications: clearer settings and empty states explaining what triggers an alert
+
+### Improvements
+
+- Redesigned the About page with growth stats and clearer help cards
+- Redesigned the sidebar for better accessibility and visual hierarchy
+- Saved profiles are now called "bookmarks" instead of "stars" throughout the app
+- Added a lightbox for viewing a profile's pinned photos/videos
+- Nudge to keep your account (instead of deleting it) when matches are scarce
+- Customizable share icon and a targeted share sheet for sending profiles to friends
+- Hint to help you center your face when uploading a profile picture
+- Tidied up filter labels; moved "relationship style", "raised in", and "causes" into clearer sections
+- Refined numeric-range and diet filters to handle edge cases better
+- Added a world map and demographic breakdowns to the `/stats` page
+
+### Trust & safety
+
+- Added a spam guard that limits new conversations per day and auto-bans abusers
+- Banned and disabled profiles no longer appear in search results
+- Added limitations for accounts flagged as suspicious
+- Added the ability to report a message channel
+
+<!--tech-->
+
+### Backend & API
+
+- `compute-scores`: delete invalid compatibility-score rows instead of nulling them; exclude null scores
+  when ordering profiles, with test coverage
+- `searchUsers`: exclude banned users and disabled profiles at the query level when `excludeUnavailable` is
+  set, with unit tests
+- Hardened SQL across notification settings, private messages, and GeoDB API requests (input sanitization,
+  stricter limit validation)
+- `content_owner_id` made nullable on `reports`; removed the outdated "self update" policy on `profiles`
+- Added `getChannelsCount` API endpoint
+- Refactored profile column retrieval for better caching
+- API version bumped 1.40.0 → 1.50.0 across the range
+
+### Android
+
+- Declared microphone permissions and runtime permission handling for voice recording
+- Added a custom icon/color for FCM push notifications
+- Added `MEDIA_SOURCE_BASE_URL` to the CD build environment
+- Bumped `compileSdkVersion`/`targetSdkVersion` to 36; app version bumped through 1.31.1 (versionCode 133)
+
+### Testing
+
+- Restructured the Playwright E2E suite around a POM/Fixture app-class pattern
+- Added a multi-account context manager for tests that need several accounts interacting at once
+- Added coverage for messaging, profile hiding/bookmarking, filters, onboarding, compatibility questions,
+  and Google-account sign-in
+- Added DB seeding and account-cleanup helpers for test isolation
+
+### Performance
+
+- Reduced excessive re-renders in the rich-text editor; editor max-height is now computed dynamically
+- Added loading skeletons and avoided redundant refetches on the profiles grid
+
+### Tooling & docs
+
+- Added scripts for OG/social-preview card rendering, AI-generated showcase portraits, vote-tally capture,
+  and demo/tour video generation (Remotion)
+- Vote-tally images switched to PNG; dropped the narrow and WebP variants
+- Added `.env.local` override support to `run_local.sh`; added dev DB/Firebase reset commands
+- Added F-Droid publishing documentation and a React/TypeScript fundamentals guide; added `CLAUDE.md` to
+  several sub-packages
+
+---
+
+<!-- Backfill older releases above this line, following the same two-section pattern and marker described at the top of this file. -->

common/messages/de.json

@@ -642,10 +642,12 @@
   "nav.social": "Sozial",
   "nav.vote": "Abstimmung",
   "news.failed": "Abrufen der Versionen fehlgeschlagen.",
+  "news.hide_technical_details": "Technische Details ausblenden",
   "news.no_release_notes": "_Keine Versionshinweise vorhanden._",
   "news.note": "Hinweis: Leider ist diese Seite nur auf Englisch verfügbar.",
   "news.seo.description": "Die neuesten Updates und Funktionen ansehen",
   "news.seo.description_general": "Alle Neuigkeiten und Code-Updates für Compass",
+  "news.show_technical_details": "Technische Details anzeigen",
   "news.title": "Neuigkeiten",
   "news.view_on_github": "Auf GitHub ansehen",
   "notifications.comment.commented": "kommentierte ",

common/messages/fr.json

@@ -642,10 +642,12 @@
   "nav.social": "Social",
   "nav.vote": "Vote",
   "news.failed": "Échec de la récupération des versions.",
+  "news.hide_technical_details": "Masquer les détails techniques",
   "news.no_release_notes": "_Aucune note de version fournie._",
   "news.note": "Note : Malheureusement, cette page n'est disponible qu'en anglais.",
   "news.seo.description": "Voir les dernières mises à jour et fonctionnalités",
   "news.seo.description_general": "Toutes les actualités et mises à jour du code pour Compass",
+  "news.show_technical_details": "Afficher les détails techniques",
   "news.title": "Quoi de neuf",
   "news.view_on_github": "Voir sur GitHub",
   "notifications.comment.commented": "a commenté ",

package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "compass",
-  "version": "1.12.0",
+  "version": "1.13.0",
   "private": true,
   "workspaces": [
     "common",

scripts/release.sh

@@ -15,11 +15,37 @@ if [ -z "$tagged" ]; then
   git push origin "$tag"
   echo "Tagged release $tag"
 
-  gh release create "$tag" \
-      --repo="$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
-      --title="$tag" \
-      --generate-notes
-  echo "Created release"
+  # Pull this version's entry out of CHANGELOG.md (see the file header for the format: a user-facing
+  # summary, a `<!--tech-->` marker, then technical details). An entry ends at the next `## ` heading or a
+  # `---` separator line. Falls back to --generate-notes when the version has no hand-written entry yet, so
+  # releases without a changelog entry still get created.
+  notes_file=$(mktemp)
+  awk -v tag="$tag" '
+    /^## / {
+      if (found) exit
+      if ($0 ~ ("^## " tag "([^0-9.]|$)")) { found=1; next }
+      next
+    }
+    found {
+      if ($0 == "---") exit
+      print
+    }
+  ' CHANGELOG.md | sed -e '/./,$!d' > "$notes_file"
+
+  if [ -s "$notes_file" ]; then
+    gh release create "$tag" \
+        --repo="$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
+        --title="$tag" \
+        --notes-file "$notes_file"
+    echo "Created release from CHANGELOG.md entry"
+  else
+    gh release create "$tag" \
+        --repo="$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" \
+        --title="$tag" \
+        --generate-notes
+    echo "Created release (no CHANGELOG.md entry found for $tag, used --generate-notes)"
+  fi
+  rm -f "$notes_file"
 
 # Release to ...
 

web/pages/news.tsx

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
+import {ChevronDownIcon, ChevronUpIcon} from '@heroicons/react/24/solid'
 import {githubRepoSlug} from 'common/constants'
 import {useEffect, useState} from 'react'
 import {Col} from 'web/components/layout/col'
+import {Row} from 'web/components/layout/row'
 import {CustomLink} from 'web/components/links'
 import {CustomMarkdown} from 'web/components/markdown'
 import {EnglishOnlyWarning} from 'web/components/news/english-only-warning'
@@ -11,6 +13,22 @@ import {useT} from 'web/lib/locale'
 import {getPageData} from 'web/lib/util/page-data'
 import {isNativeMobile} from 'web/lib/util/webview'
 
+// Release notes are written with a user-facing summary followed by a technical section, separated by this
+// marker on its own line (see CHANGELOG.md). Only the summary renders by default; the technical section is
+// tucked behind a toggle. Releases predating this convention have no marker, so they render as-is.
+const TECHNICAL_SECTION_MARKER = '<!--tech-->'
+
+function splitReleaseNotes(body: string): {summary: string; technical: string | null} {
+  const markerIndex = body.indexOf(TECHNICAL_SECTION_MARKER)
+  if (markerIndex === -1) {
+    return {summary: body, technical: null}
+  }
+  return {
+    summary: body.slice(0, markerIndex).trim(),
+    technical: body.slice(markerIndex + TECHNICAL_SECTION_MARKER.length).trim(),
+  }
+}
+
 async function fetchReleases() {
   const releases = await fetch(`https://api.github.com/repos/${githubRepoSlug}/releases`)
     .then((r) => r.json())
@@ -109,32 +127,7 @@ export default function WhatsNew(props: {releases?: Release[]}) {
         <Col className="max-w-3xl mx-auto py-8 px-4 custom-link gap-6">
           <EnglishOnlyWarning />
           {releases.map((release: Release) => (
-            <div
-              key={release.id}
-              className="bg-canvas-50 border border-canvas-200 rounded-xl p-6 transition-all hover:border-primary-300 hover:shadow-sm"
-            >
-              <div className="flex justify-between items-start mb-4">
-                <h2 className="font-heading text-2xl font-medium text-ink-900 leading-tight">
-                  {release.name || release.tag_name}
-                </h2>
-                <span className="text-sm text-ink-300 font-mono whitespace-nowrap ml-4">
-                  {new Date(release.published_at).toISOString().split('T')[0]}
-                </span>
-              </div>
-              <div className="mb-5 prose prose-neutral dark:prose-invert text-ink-900">
-                <CustomMarkdown>
-                  {formatPullLinks(
-                    release.body || t('news.no_release_notes', '_No release notes provided._'),
-                  )}
-                </CustomMarkdown>
-              </div>
-              <CustomLink
-                href={release.html_url}
-                className="inline-flex items-center gap-2 text-primary-600 hover:text-primary-700 text-sm font-medium transition-colors"
-              >
-                {t('news.view_on_github', 'View on GitHub')}
-              </CustomLink>
-            </div>
+            <ReleaseCard key={release.id} release={release} />
           ))}
         </Col>
       )}
@@ -142,6 +135,62 @@ export default function WhatsNew(props: {releases?: Release[]}) {
   )
 }
 
+function ReleaseCard(props: {release: Release}) {
+  const {release} = props
+  const t = useT()
+  const [showTechnical, setShowTechnical] = useState(false)
+
+  const {summary, technical} = splitReleaseNotes(
+    formatPullLinks(release.body || t('news.no_release_notes', '_No release notes provided._')),
+  )
+
+  return (
+    <div className="bg-canvas-50 border border-canvas-200 rounded-xl p-6 transition-all hover:border-primary-300 hover:shadow-sm">
+      <div className="flex justify-between items-start mb-4">
+        <h2 className="font-heading text-2xl font-medium text-ink-900 leading-tight">
+          {release.name || release.tag_name}
+        </h2>
+        <span className="text-sm text-ink-300 font-mono whitespace-nowrap ml-4">
+          {new Date(release.published_at).toISOString().split('T')[0]}
+        </span>
+      </div>
+      <div className="mb-5 prose prose-neutral dark:prose-invert text-ink-900">
+        <CustomMarkdown>{summary}</CustomMarkdown>
+      </div>
+      {technical && (
+        <div className="mb-5">
+          <button
+            onClick={() => setShowTechnical(!showTechnical)}
+            className="text-primary-500 hover:text-primary-700 z-10 select-none text-sm"
+          >
+            <Row className="items-center gap-0.5">
+              {showTechnical ? (
+                <ChevronUpIcon className="h-4 w-4" />
+              ) : (
+                <ChevronDownIcon className="h-4 w-4" />
+              )}
+              {showTechnical
+                ? t('news.hide_technical_details', 'Hide technical details')
+                : t('news.show_technical_details', 'Show technical details')}
+            </Row>
+          </button>
+          {showTechnical && (
+            <div className="mt-3 prose prose-neutral dark:prose-invert text-ink-900">
+              <CustomMarkdown>{technical}</CustomMarkdown>
+            </div>
+          )}
+        </div>
+      )}
+      <CustomLink
+        href={release.html_url}
+        className="inline-flex items-center gap-2 text-primary-600 hover:text-primary-700 text-sm font-medium transition-colors"
+      >
+        {t('news.view_on_github', 'View on GitHub')}
+      </CustomLink>
+    </div>
+  )
+}
+
 function formatPullLinks(text = '') {
   return text
     .replace('CompassMeet', 'CompassConnections')