Welcome to the Release Notes FAQ! Whether you're a veteran to the Community or just joined us for the first time, take a minute to learn about Release Notes and how they can help you have the best experience possible with Instructure products.
What are Release Notes?
Instructure products function in an agile environment, meaning new features and updates are released into various environments as often as every week. The purpose of this space is to provide an overview of release notes functionality for all Instructure products. Release notes let you know exactly what to expect for a product release.
- Release notes are part of a product release process that indicate upcoming changes to the product's production environment.
- Release notes do not indicate features that are currently in development or could be in development. Such features may be noted and explored in the Roadmap and Idea Conversations.
Release Notes Products
We publish release notes for every Instructure product: Canvas releases and additional product releases (all non-Canvas products).
Release Notes Frequency
Canvas LMS
Canvas LMS releases feature previews every third Saturday of the month
Canvas LMS also deploys its code base to production every two weeks.
Note: Canvas Mobile release notes are only published for new and updated features (e.g. version 5.0, 5.1). Other version updates that only include bug fixes (e.g. version 5.1.1) have noted published in the app store.
Additional Products
All additional Instructure products release as needed and do not have a set schedule. Please subscribe to the release notes board for any products where you may be interested to receive updates. Learn how to subscribe to Community content.
Translated Release Notes
Canvas LMS release notes are translated into six languages:
These notes will be available in the community within a week of the English release notes being posted in the Community.
How do I know when the code in a release is available in the production environment?
Releases notes indicate availability in the production environment as indicated in the release notes date. Some products distribute release notes in advance, while other products distribute them the day of the production release.
Mobile releases are the only products indicated by version and are released in a phased rollout. The features indicated in release notes may not immediately be available to users at the time of the release notes availability.
- Android Canvas app version updates are released to all users over time.
- iOS Canvas app version updates are released to all users enrolled in automatic updates over time. iOS users can manually update the app at any time in the iTunes Store.
How can I get release notes updates?
The Community makes it easy to get updates for one, several, or all products. You can subscribe to specific release notes or an individual post. Learn how to subscribe to Community content.
How do I leave a comment about a release?
Since we're all about customer feedback, we welcome your comments and suggestions on every set of notes we post. Just make sure you are logged in to the community! Each release notes document may handle comments differently so look for the specific instructions in the post about feedback.
Comment Guidelines
Generally comment feedback falls into one of three categories: General feedback, feedback about broken functionality, or feedback for feature enhancements. General feedback is welcome in release notes, while broken functionality and feature enhancements should be directed to their proper channels as noted in Canvas Community Feedback Guidelines.
