v0.3.0

New here? Install MaiPai Home · Already running it? How to update · The attached files are the optional MaiPai Desktop app (unsigned: Mac right-click Open; Windows "More info" then "Run anyway").

[0.3.0] - 2026-08-26

Added

• MaiPai now ships its own "Hey MaiPai" wake word, so a brand-new install
  answers to its name from the very first boot, even with no internet. Any
  other wake phrase, including a companion's own name, is still trained on
  your hub when you choose it.
• Reference shows which offline archives are installed and lets you remove
  one you no longer want.

Changed

• Apps are now grouped into five plain-English categories (Watch & Listen,
  Read, Create, Around the House, Everyday) instead of ten. Chat and Companions
  move out of the category list entirely and become their own top-level spots,
  since the companion is the point of the product rather than one app among
  fifty. Old category links still work.
• One-shot tools (unit converter, speed test, reverse lookup, and similar) no
  longer take up room in the category lists. Nothing was removed: they are all
  still there by name in search and the app launcher, and can still be
  favourited.
• A new account now starts with five favourites, one from each category, rather
  than a longer list picked for it. Existing favourites are untouched.
• Home has a new "Explore" row: five tiles, one per category, so someone opening
  MaiPai for the first time can see what it does without knowing any app names.
• Help moved next to Settings in your account menu, on both the desktop sidebar
  and the phone. The user guide used to sit in the app grid between the real
  apps, which is an odd place for a manual. Admins get a Dev docs link there too.
• Chat and Companions now sit at the top of the side menu as permanent spots,
  above your favourites. If you had either one pinned, it is no longer listed
  twice.
• The side menu tucks itself away while you are reading a book or watching a
  channel, and comes back when you leave. Open it again any time with the arrow
  or Cmd/Ctrl+backslash; that only lasts for the page you are on, and your
  normal setting is left alone.
• Your Home cards start out in the same order as your favourites, so arranging
  one arranges the other. This stops as soon as you rearrange Home yourself.
• Tabs inside apps (optional). Settings → Appearance → Menus has a new
  switch. With it on, the big apps swap their long side menu for a short row of
  tabs across the top, at most five: Music, Videos, Podcasts, Movies, Shows, the
  App Store, and Companions. It is off until you turn it on, it is per person,
  and switching back is instant. Nothing was taken away; anything that lost its
  own row is either gathered into a tab or listed under "More" at the bottom of
  that app's own home screen.
  Bookmarks, Notes and Books keep their side menus, because those hold your
  collections, notebooks and shelves rather than a list of places to go.
• Videos has a new Browse screen listing the places videos come from, replacing
  the row-per-source list in its side menu.
• Music's four ways of making something (Generate, Remix, Studio, Karaoke) now
  share one Create screen instead of four separate menu rows.
• Chat and Companions now lead your favourites on the phone as well, matching
  the side menu on a computer.
• Reference has a permanent spot in the side menu.

Fixed

• YouTube videos, music, and hover previews stopped playing after YouTube
  changed what its servers require, twice in one day. The app now keeps up
  with those requirements, and it checks that a video will actually play
  before offering a preview, so a card either previews for real or quietly
  keeps its thumbnail.
• Hover previews start much sooner. The preview now appears the moment its
  first frame arrives instead of waiting through extra checks.
• Channel logos are back on the front-page video cards. Many cards showed a
  colored letter circle even though the channel has a logo and the video's
  own page displayed it fine.
• Seeking in Private stream now works at every quality, not just 1080p and
  above.
• Offline archives (Wikipedia and the other reference libraries) work again
  end to end. Opening a page, searching inside an archive, and the archive's
  own name all had bugs that could show an error, crash the search, or print
  raw markup in results, and a stray grey column has been cleaned off the
  reading page.
• The Medical page has its own name, icon and colour again instead of
  borrowing Reference's.
• The Admin panel no longer reads as "Up to date" when the update check could
  not actually get an answer.
• A large download that finished without saying so no longer freezes setup;
  the watchdog now covers component downloads too.
• Cmd/Ctrl+backslash now actually shows and hides the side menu. It has been
  listed in the user guide for a while without being connected to anything.
• New accounts now start with all nine default favourites. Two of them
  (Bookmarks and Videos) referenced app names that had been renamed, so they
  were silently dropped and every new account began with seven. Saved
  favourites that still hold the old name are repaired on startup.
• The Admin panel's quick-jump shortcut moved to Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K. It was
  sharing Cmd/Ctrl+K with the app-wide search, so one keypress inside Admin
  opened both at once.