Spot's own microphone button is gone. Use your keyboard's microphone instead, the same way you would anywhere else — and the app no longer asks for microphone access at all. Fixed: a beacon-import screen that closed itself, a scanner that could stop detecting cars after a dropped connection, and an account screen that did not refresh when you switched between shooting and managing your cars. Any photo in a car's album can now be set as that car's picture, and you can now choose whether your contact details reach a photographer.

Meet Spot. Tap him in the corner of most screens and ask anything about SpottID in your own words — how to find a car near you, how to send someone photos of theirs, how to add your own car, or where a particular setting lives. He answers out loud as well as on screen, in a voice that sounds the same on every phone, and there is a microphone if you would rather talk than type. Mute him any time from the speaker button in his header. He knows the whole app — every screen and every setting — and he will tell you straight when he does not know something rather than guessing. Also in this release: step-by-step How To guides with screenshots, in the Help section of your account. Nearby-car alerts now stay on the phone that actually detected the car, so a tablet at home can no longer tell your phone, miles away, that a car is nearby. And a sign-in fix for the missing name and photo on some accounts.

SpottID now shows you around. The first few times you use a screen it points out something you may not have found — searching for a car by plate or model, Hidden Zones to keep your car private near home, your car’s build sheet, and more. New members get more of these; if you have been here a while you will see very few. Each one appears once, and tapping it dismisses it for good. “Show app tips again” in your account brings them back. Photos you submit now record where they were taken, so your shots can appear on the map. Only you and the car’s owner can see it, it is never written into the image file, and you can turn it off any time in Settings. Your garage cards now show photos, views and likes instead of details you already knew, and you can like a car’s build story. Fixed: the SpottID watermark now stamps at exactly the same size and weight on every photo. Other fixes and improvements.

A new tab bar. Clearer icons, and the tab you pick lifts as you tap it. Photographers are now called SpottIRs throughout the app. Your Account list changes to match the view you are in, so you only see what applies to you. New privacy setting: choose whether your photos record where they were taken. If you never chose before, it is now off. Fixed: the About button on a car card no longer opens the wrong screen, and it is greyed out when the owner has not written any details.

Photos now open by growing into place, and load without the flicker. Clearer tabs: Garage, Shoot and My Photos, with one switch between shooting and managing. Tap a car's build sheet or story to read it full size. Text is easier to read everywhere, especially outdoors. Fixed: repeated "car nearby" alerts for the same car. Optional: save where a photo was taken, shared only with that car's owner.

Your garage now updates straight away. Change a car’s photo and the new picture appears on your garage card immediately — before, the garage could keep showing the old photo until you restarted the app. Set your car’s picture from any photo already in its album, including a shot someone else took of it. Just hold your finger on the photo and choose it. New: Find Your Friend. Look up other members by name, by car, or by full licence plate, and browse the cars they have chosen to share. Search now looks across every car, not just the first few. Other fixes and improvements.

Your feed no longer repeats the same cars over and over as you scroll. Cars in your feed now show their real name instead of “Unknown Vehicle”. Other fixes and improvements.

The back button now takes you back a screen instead of closing the app. The SpottID watermark is no longer cut off on unclaimed-car photos. The Claim this car page no longer shows a licence plate. You now get a notice when you're offline, so you know you're seeing saved data. Nearby car alerts are now saved to your notifications. The Scanner no longer lists the same car twice. Added beacon battery levels, Terms of Service, and a branded launch screen. Other fixes and improvements.

Faster, more reliable Hidden Zones. Address search when setting a zone is quicker and more accurate. Better photo matching. Finding photos other people have taken of your car is more reliable. Privacy improvements for clubs. A club's group chat link is now only shared with members. Setup reminders. If your beacon arrives and has not been set up, we will remind you - and tapping the reminder now takes you straight to setup. Plus stability and performance fixes throughout.

Blocking now works properly in club chats, and you can see and manage who you have blocked. Club admins can lift a ban. Reporting a photo now removes it for review right away. Nearby-car alerts name the car more reliably. Plus performance and stability fixes.

Fixed nearby car alerts that could quietly stop arriving if you hadn't opened the app for a day. Fixed a case where a beacon that had been released could still show its old car. Fixed several places where a missing record could show incomplete details. Other fixes and improvements.

Find your car by make and model — not just by license plate. Photographers can't always catch a plate, and a car filed without one used to be impossible to find. Now you can search "Porsche 911", or just "Lotus", and see the shots anyway. Pick the photographer whose work you like best, claim your car, and those photos move straight into your garage. Also fixed: scanning a SpottID code before you sign in now takes you to your car right after login, instead of dropping you on the home screen.

Find your car by license plate. Photographers are shooting cars at meets and shows all the time — and yours may already be in here. Enter your license plate to see the photos, browse the shots, and pick the photographer whose work you like best. Claim your car and those photos move straight into your garage. Also fixed: photographers now get properly credited whenever someone they brought in orders a beacon.

Fixes for notifications. Push notifications that didn't include a photo were failing to arrive. That's fixed, so alerts like a saved ride, a club request, or a nudge about your car's details now reach your phone. Your notification list also shows the full detail of each alert instead of just the headline, and links that had nowhere to go are gone. Also fixed: an alert about a nearby car could be mistaken for your own car and silently skipped.

Share a whole car, not just one photo. Sending an unclaimed car now attaches every shot of it in one go, along with a link that opens the car's claim page right in the app — or a full photo gallery on the web for anyone who doesn't have SpottID yet. Posting to Instagram? The app now copies a ready-made caption to your clipboard when you share, so you can paste it straight into your post.

Tag a club or event in your photos - search any club, and once its admins approve, your photo shows on the club or event page. Club admins can review pending photo tags full-screen and approve or decline with a swipe. Plus layout fixes and other improvements.

Clubs now has its own tab in the bottom navigation - get to your clubs in one tap. More consistent photo watermark sizing across portrait and landscape shots. Bug fixes and improvements.

• Search for and save any car right from Saved Rides — no scanning required. • Turning a beacon off now fully hides your car — it no longer shows up in scans or sends nearby-car alerts to anyone. • Plus performance improvements and bug fixes.

Subscription and account setup improvements, plus performance and stability fixes.

Privacy fix — Hidden Zones now work properly. • If you set a Hidden Zone, your cars now actually stay hidden from other SpottIRs inside it. On Android this was not working at all, and some beacons were missed on both platforms. • The Hidden Zones screen now tells you plainly when no zone is switched on, so you always know whether you are hidden. New — add photos from the cloud. • You can now add photos from Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive and other storage apps, as well as your photo library.

• New: Club Chat — message everyone in your car clubs in real time, with photos, replies, reactions, and @mentions. • Request to join a club with admin approval, plus new admin tools to manage and moderate members. • Get push notifications for new club messages and when someone mentions you. • Reliability improvements, including more dependable push notifications.

• Photographer booking: request a photo shoot right from a photographer's gallery and follow it through to completion. • Ratings & reviews: rate your shoot once it's done. • Car clubs: join clubs (with admin approval), see upcoming meets, and share event photos linked to members' cars. • New notifications for club join requests and approvals. • Improved member search, plus fixes and refinements.

You can now see your SpottID beacon's battery level right in your Garage. Plus performance improvements and bug fixes.

Bug fixes and performance improvements.

New in 4.1: Get notified when a SpottID photographer captures your car — and pull those shots straight into your garage. Your photographer gallery now shows your @handle (editable anytime). Apply to become a SpottID affiliate right in the app. Plus smoother photo sharing, approval, and watermark improvements.