What's Changed
A plain-language summary of the biggest changes in version 1.
At a glance
- Latest release in this summary: 1.8.5 (April 2026).
- 1.7 and 1.8 made the first-run experience smooth.
- Earlier 1.x releases built the chapter, assembly and queue screens.
1.8.5 (April 2026)
- Clearing a chapter's text or title now saves properly.
- Very large chapters now save without failing, and saving is much faster.
- The text analyzer accepts much larger documents.
- Older Python versions start up correctly again.
- The install paths (Pinokio, wiki, README) were streamlined.
- Windows setup was hardened.
1.8.4 (March 2026)
- Queue progress bars move smoothly and stay in step with real chapter progress.
- Voice choices for a project or chapter now stay saved and show the real fallback voice.
- Voice and queue jobs have clearer labels.
- The Windows launcher is more forgiving and gives clearer messages for missing tools.
- First-run setup is easier to follow in the terminal.
1.8.0 to 1.8.3 (late March 2026)
- Block-by-block (chunk) rendering and playback line up, so repairing one block no longer redoes or plays the wrong one.
- Segments show visible numbers, and queue titles point to them.
- Editing one sentence keeps later audio that is still valid.
- Deleted chapters move to a project trash folder instead of vanishing.
- The queue can recover stuck jobs without a restart.
- Windows startup and first-run reliability improved, and the voice engine no longer rebuilds itself on every launch.
1.7.0 (March 2026)
- One-command startup with
run.sh(macOS and Linux) andrun.ps1(Windows). - Lightweight starter voices that do not need every original recording.
- Fixes for mixed-voice chapters.
1.1 to 1.6 (March 2026)
- Faster assembly: chapters are saved as M4A files, so later audiobook builds skip unchanged chapters.
- Status orbs with M4A and MP3 indicators and quick actions for each chapter.
- Assembly history as a simple timeline with length and file size.
- Queue upgrades: a total time estimate, reliable drag-to-reorder, and smoother progress bars.
- Safer file handling and clearer confirmation prompts before deleting an export.
The complete release notes are on the Audiobook Studio GitHub page.