Product Updates: July/August 2025

This summer, we've significantly improved the audio/video experience for all participants with new troubleshooting tools and a self-service tech check, while giving client admins powerful new analytics capabilities and high-volume management features. Plus, we've expanded browser support, adding Safari to the already-supported Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Here are the details:

For session participants

We've made major improvements to the audio/video experience during sessions. Participants now have access to an enhanced set of AV features including a new menu for modifying audio and video settings mid-session, live audio level signals for each session participant, and a comprehensive set of troubleshooting tools if any AV issues arise.

To ensure a smooth experience from the start, we've introduced a self-service tech check available at https://app.sparkwise.co/techcheck. This tool allows participants to pre-test their system to ensure it's Sparkwise-ready by checking:

• Camera and microphone access
• Network connectivity to our videoconferencing servers
• Access to our realtime application servers
• Other essential system requirements

First-time session participants will find a link to this tech check in their onboarding email, and it's also accessible from the header menu on the app dashboard or via calendar invites and pre-session emails. If any tests don't pass, participants can submit a report directly to our tech team for follow-up support.

We've also added more scheduling flexibility - participants who can't make an upcoming session can now reschedule directly from the dashboard. (Rescheduling from session emails and calendar event invites are still supported.)

For client admins

Client admins now have access to significantly enhanced analytics and management capabilities. In the Full History section of Analytics, you'll now find:

• Session cohort names for better organization and tracking
• Several new columns of participation data, including:
  
  • time-on-task (minutes)
  • percentage completed (steps)
  • discussion participation metrics (speech)

As always, this data can be filtered by date, by person, or by module, and results can be exported to CSV, XLS, or JSON files.

For those managing larger programs, we've introduced bulk user upload via CSV, allowing client admins to add up to 10,000 new users at once. We see this as a major time-saver for enterprise deployments.

Additionally, client admins now have more granular control over participant access to certain features, including the ability to disable the solo access option for participants who are not matched to a group, ensuring your program structure remains intact.

For organizations with access to our Insights tools, we released a v2 of our AI-powered Admin Insights reports. Admins can request these from our Success team or directly through the Insights tab of the admin tool. The new insight report analyzes (1) key takeaways, (2) evidence of progress, and (3) applications beyond the session. It draws on the specific sessions and resources you selected, and allows for custom requests. If you prefer to perform data analysis without using Sparkwise AI, you can export resources as a JSON data file or as a formatted PDF and analyze using your own tools.

For everyone

We've recently expanded browser support! Apple's Safari has been added to our list of supported browsers for both participants and admins, starting with version 18.5. The full list of supported browsers now includes current versions of:

• Chrome
• Edge
• Firefox
• Safari

Looking forward

We're about to roll out a way for client admins to make Sparkwise sessions available for self-registration through their organization's LMS, LXP, or HRIS. Contact us if you'd like to learn more about this.

Web accessibility work is currently underway, with WCAG 2.2 Level AA as our compliance target.

Platform scalability work continues. As of today, we support up to 500 participants per live session, and we'll automatically assign participants as they arrive into small (~3-5 person) groups.  

That's the update for this month!

‍

Interested to see what we've released in past months? Highlights from our changelog can be found in our Product Release Notes.