Building Better Tools for Communities: Ushahidi’s Q1 2025 Update

At Ushahidi, we believe in the power of continuous improvement, because every update brings us closer to a platform that truly serves the needs of communities worldwide. In Q1 2025, we rolled out a series of important updates and fixes across the web and mobile platforms. These enhancements are designed to make the platform more intuitive, accessible, and impactful for users everywhere.

Below, we walk you through everything that's new, what’s improved, and how we’re addressing known issues as we work to elevate your experience across every interaction with the Ushahidi platform.

 

Language Support: Building a Truly Global Platform

A key focus this quarter has been language inclusivity. We’ve made major strides in ensuring more people can use Ushahidi in their preferred language:

• Arabic and Swahili Translations: Users can now access the platform in Arabic or Swahili, enabling broader participation in regions across Africa and the Middle East.
• Ukrainian Translation: We've added full platform support in Ukrainian, supporting local voices and efforts in Eastern Europe.
• Translations v1 (Post-Level Translations): For deployments working in multilingual communities, users can now add translations to individual posts—allowing narratives to be shared and understood across different languages and audiences.

By expanding language access, we’re helping organizations foster deeper engagement and inclusion at the grassroots level.

 

Improved Survey Experience: More Control and Clarity

Surveys are core to how data is collected on Ushahidi. In Q1, we launched several features to make survey creation and management more transparent and foolproof:

• Unsaved Changes Warning: Users are now alerted if they try to navigate away from a survey with unsaved changes, preventing accidental data loss.
• Survey Field Type Visibility: On the edit survey screen, each field now shows its type, helping users better understand and configure their data collection.
• Required Field Indicators: Radio buttons and checkbox fields now clearly indicate if they are mandatory, reducing confusion for respondents.
• Improved Placeholder Hints: A placeholder hint has been added to the "Other" field option in checkbox questions for greater clarity.
• Question Mark Icon in Survey Settings: We’ve added context-sensitive help via a question mark icon next to certain fields in survey creation, supporting newer users and teams onboarding quickly.

These improvements are all aimed at making it easier for users to build reliable, effective data collection tools without technical roadblocks.

 

Enhanced Search and Data Management

We’ve refined the way users interact with search, filters, and data routing:

• Localized Routing Headings: We’ve made routing headings translatable, so all users can navigate post-routing in their selected language.
• Saved Search Improvements: On the web, saved searches now only return posts when they meet the search criteria. On mobile, a bug preventing saved searches from applying correctly has been resolved.

Additionally, API enhancements allow more precise data returns:

• Categories and Posts API Optimization: Both the category list and posts now return only the relevant parameters requested, reducing data overload and improving performance.

 

Platform Performance and Bug Fixes

Your feedback helps us catch and resolve bugs swiftly. In Q1, we addressed several pain points:

• Discard Button Disappearing: Users can now reliably discard posts without the button vanishing.
• "Timeline of a Long Time Ago" Issue: We fixed the issue of posts incorrectly showing outdated timelines.
• Language Removal Glitch: Removing a language when creating/editing a survey now works as expected.
• Multimedia Upload Fixes: We resolved issues with image previews not displaying correctly on mobile, and required multimedia fields now function properly.
• Post Collection Issues: Users can now reliably add posts to collections, and posts show up correctly when a collection is selected.
• Guest Mode Mapping: All post data now appears as expected in map view even when browsing in guest mode.
• Onboarding Flow Bug: We fixed a bug that halted the onboarding guide’s progress when interacting with the filter modal.
• Post Author Visibility: Posts no longer default to showing anonymous authors in error.
• Base Language Issue: This has been resolved to ensure accurate language configuration during use.

 

Mobile: Optimized for Reporting on the Go

On-the-ground users rely heavily on mobile access. That’s why we focused heavily on optimizing the mobile apps this quarter:

• Multimedia Upload Enhancements: Users can now seamlessly upload photos, audio files, and documents via the iOS and Android apps—making it easier to capture rich, real-time content directly from the field.
• Saved Search Fixes: Saved searches now apply correctly on mobile apps, improving consistency between platforms.
• Image Previews on Mobile: A previous bug affecting image previews has been fully resolved, allowing users to preview attached visuals before submitting posts.

With these changes, mobile users can participate more effectively in projects, regardless of bandwidth or device constraints.

 

Better Bug Reporting for Better Products

We’ve made it easier for users to share issues or ideas directly with our team. The bug reporting link has been updated to a Typeform form—streamlining the process of submitting bugs and helping us resolve them more efficiently.

This change ensures we get the actionable context we need to reproduce and fix bugs—faster.

 

Known Issue: Caching

Some users may experience issues due to browser caching (e.g., seeing outdated versions of the interface). If you're encountering unexpected behavior, we recommend clearing your browser cache as a temporary fix. Our engineering team is actively working on a long-term solution.

 

Your Feedback Makes This Possible

Each of these updates is informed by the real-world feedback and needs of our users. If you’re using Ushahidi and have thoughts on what could be better, we want to hear from you.

We’ll be back with more updates in Q2. Until then, thank you for helping us build tools that shift power to the people.

— The Ushahidi Product Team