La Plaza, take a phone call without losing your place: + When a call comes in while you’re in La Plaza, go ahead and answer it. You stay in the room with your microphone off and the room’s sound paused. When the call ends and you’re back in Vorail, your microphone goes back to how you had it. If the room connection dropped during the call, Vorail joins you again by itself. La Plaza keeps your screen on: + While you’re in La Plaza, your screen now stays on, so the phone won’t lock itself in the middle of a conversation and take you out of the room. To lock it, press the side button (on Android, the power button). That also takes you out of La Plaza, and you can join again any time. La Plaza: “Still there?” + If you haven’t spoken in La Plaza for 20 minutes, Vorail now asks “Still there?” and shows a 60-second countdown. Choose Stay to keep listening. If nobody answers, you leave the room, so a phone left on a table doesn’t sit in La Plaza all night. You can join again any time. Being muted counts as quiet. With VoiceOver or TalkBack on, the question is read aloud and focus goes straight to Stay. The one-hour limit per visit hasn’t changed.

La Plaza tells you more clearly when someone new joined the fun: + When you open More → La Plaza, the status switch at the top now explains in one line what it does. Turn it to Available and you’ll hear when someone comes into La Plaza, as long as Vorail is open. The same status also covers 1 Minute Checkin and anytime AMAs. VoiceOver reads this explanation with the switch, even if you have hints turned off. "1 Minute Checkin" clearer endings: + The “talk again?” question is now spoken. When your minute ends, the Guide AI reads the question and all five choices aloud. With VoiceOver or TalkBack, focus then lands on the first choice, ready to answer. + You’ll know when the other person didn’t answer. If you said yes and they never answered, you’re told so. You won’t be left waiting on a 5-minute talk that isn’t coming. + No more “Nobody else is here yet.” That message was sometimes spoken at the start of a call even when the other person was already there. It has been removed.

La Plaza — an open room: + La Plaza is a live audio room where any Vorail member can drop in and talk with whoever is there. Find it in the More tab and tap Join. Your microphone is on, and you can mute yourself at any time. You can also make La Plaza the screen Vorail opens to, in Settings ▸ Tabs. + Want to know when someone’s there? Set your status to Available. While Vorail is open, you’ll get an invite each time someone comes into La Plaza, with Join or Not now. Your status is Hidden unless you change it, so you won’t get these invites. Using a Bluetooth speaker? + In Settings, under “While recording”, choose “Headset for listening, device microphone.” Your audio stays on the speaker the whole time and the iPhone’s own microphone records you, so your audio no longer bounces between the iPhone and the speaker each time you record. + The recording report (Settings → Email a recording report) now also shows where your audio was going before, during and after each recording. If sound or VoiceOver goes somewhere unexpected, send one, and we can see exactly what happened.

Direct Touch area (Car Mode) refreshes empty feeds: + If you switch to an empty feed in Car Mode, Vorail AI now checks for new posts right away. That works for Questions, Answers, Inbox and Subscribed. If something new has arrived, you hear the feed summary and the first new item starts playing, so if the feed is empty you don’t need a three-finger swipe down just to see whether there’s anything new. 1 Minute Checkin (formerly “1 Minute with a Stranger”): + Respects your mute bin. You’ll never be connected with someone you’ve muted, or who has muted you. This covers spontaneous matches, open times and booked minutes. + A real countdown after the call. While you wait for the other person to answer “talk again?”, you’ll see how much time is left, for example “Waiting for Tom… 1:12 left”. + Your recent minutes. A new section on the 1 Minute screen lists your last ten calls: who, when, how long, and what you answered. Tap a name to open that person’s profile.

1-Minute Live Check-Ins: A small moment of human connection can change the way a day feels. Experience 1 Minute of live human contact by voice. Answer the prompt, or talk about whatever’s on your mind. Talk now connects you with another member who is Available, usually in under a minute. Schedule a minute sets a time anyone can take. When it arrives, the call simply connects. Afterward, each person privately chooses whether to talk again: right away for five minutes, at a time you pick, some other day, or never. Nobody is told what the other chose. Report or block is always one tap away. Your status (Available or Hidden) now covers both 1 Minute and anytime AMAs. Scheduled AMAs now open by themselves at their start time too, no Join button needed. One minute is available by selecting the "More" tab and then "1 Minute".

Empty feeds now refresh on their own: + When your Inbox, Questions or Answers feed is empty, Vorail AI checks for new items each time you come back to it: when you switch tabs, back out of another screen, or return to the app. You no longer need to rely only on the three-finger swipe or refresh button. If something new has arrived, it appears and VoiceOver tells you how many items there are. Feeds that already have content aren’t reloaded, so your place and VoiceOver focus stay where you left them.

Add a link from Car Mode: + You can now attach a link when you create an ask-all in Car Mode. Copy the link before you start (a YouTube video, a podcast episode, an article), then record your ask-all as usual. When you’re done recording, swipe to “Paste a link”. Vorail says and shows which site the link goes to, so you know it landed. If you don’t add a link, recording a question works exactly the same as before. Clearer event creation and safer recordings: + Putting an event on a town square calendar is now clearer. If something is still missing, “Put it on the calendar” takes you to it and says what’s needed, such as recording what the event is or adding a title. Closing a recording before it’s posted now asks “Your recording hasn’t been posted” and offers to post it, keep editing or throw it away. A recording is never discarded by mistake, even with Large Text on.

Inbox: the three-finger swipe down now refreshes the Inbox with VoiceOver, even when focus is on the All / Private / Ask-alls switcher. In Car Mode, refreshing the Inbox is faster and no longer says “Couldn’t refresh” on a slow connection.

Try a game first Curious about the AMA games but not sure what you’d be getting into? The AMA tab now has a Try a game first section near the top. Open it and pick any of the five games: AMA, Would We Agree?, Riddle, Charades or Scrabble. Each sample is the real game screen, with a pretend room of Jane and Ann. Nothing in the sample is live and nobody else hears you. Step through it at your own pace with Next moment and Previous moment, and choose Hear that again to repeat what the guide just said. The buttons work just as they do in a real game, so you can try Talk, Pass or Someone got it and hear what happens. It works the same with VoiceOver. Each step puts focus on the “Moment 3 of 10” title, so you always know where you are and can learn the layout before your first real game. "Try a game first" is located in the "More" tab, then select "AMA". Play together in real time, experience human connection in a different way.

Voice commands now work wherever you live: + Voice commands no longer stop with an error when your iPhone’s region isn’t one Apple’s speech recognition supports, such as English in Hong Kong. Vorail AI now uses the closest English it can, so voice commands, title dictation and Lab transcription work everywhere. A related fix: turning on the 24-hour clock in Settings no longer stops voice commands from working.

Car Mode: no more silence after you record: + When you swipe to finish a recording in Car Mode, Vorail AI now says “Got it.” right away. If your recording takes a moment to process, it says “Processing.” and plays a soft waiting sound until your recording plays back. The same sound plays while your message is posting, so you always know the app is working. Fixed: crashes on iOS 17 + On iPads and iPhones running iOS 17, Vorail AI could close when opening someone’s profile or starting a new ask-all. Both are fixed. The update also fixes the same underlying problem everywhere else in the app it could have shown up, so iOS 17 users can use every screen again.

1. New in live audio, Charades, by ear: + Charades for two to ten people, played entirely by voice. Each round one person is the host, and only their phone shows the secret answer, with three optional hints. They describe it or make sounds without saying it, and everyone else guesses. An AI guide keeps the game moving until the answer is revealed. Then the host role moves to the next person. There’s no score and no timer, and nothing to see — just a good reason to get together and laugh. Works fully with VoiceOver. 2. Anytime AMA invitations you can’t miss: + When your anytime AMA partner becomes Available, Vorail AI now plays a short chime and shows an invitation you answer right away: Accept or Not now. VoiceOver reads it as soon as it appears, and Accept is one swipe away. Anything playing in the feed pauses so you can hear it. If your partner leaves before you answer, you’ll be told they’re no longer available. Invitations still never interrupt a recording; they wait until you’re back on the feed. 3: Live rooms: smoother and simpler: + Would We Agree? now follows one simple pattern: the host speaks, everyone answers, and everyone hears each other’s answers. The open discussion after each reveal is gone, so it’s always clear what’s happening. + You have more time to think. The host now waits through a longer pause before deciding you’ve finished, so a mid-sentence pause won’t cut you off. Answers can run up to 90 seconds, and background noise no longer holds things up. + If you speak to the host outside your turn, it tells you it heard you. And you won’t sit in silence: you’ll always hear either the host, the other participants, or a sound that says something is happening.

Riddle — a mystery you solve together. There’s a new way to connect in the AMA tab (the live audio room). Riddle is a short spoken mystery for 2 to 10 people. The AI host tells a puzzling story, like “A shop’s car park is completely full, but there isn’t a single customer inside.” Together, you work out what happened. When you create a session, you can choose an easy, medium, or difficult mystery. Each round, everyone privately asks the host a question, suggests an explanation, or passes. The host then plays back each person’s turn in that person’s voice, followed by a short answer. It’s not a quiz or a race: there’s no scoring. The fun is hearing how others think. During any turn, you can say “hint”, “recap”, or “repeat the story”. To play, open the AMA tab, create a new live audio session, choose Riddle, and invite up to nine other people. Afterwards, Vorail asks whether you’d like to play again with the same people. Also improved: on iPhone and iPad, you now hear the host from the moment you join. While others are still answering, a soft pulse lets you know the game is waiting for them.

Message in a Bottle: type your message, and send it more easily: + Type or speak. You can now type a bottle or reply instead of recording it. The section is now called "Say it or type it". + The keyboard no longer hides Send. A Done button above the keyboard closes it and takes you straight to Send. With VoiceOver, focus lands on Send. You can also drag the screen down to close the keyboard. Fixed: Vorail AI crashing at launch on older iPads and iPhones: + Version 6.9 could close right after the loading indicator on devices running iOS 17. This update fixes it, so Vorail AI opens normally on iOS 17 again. It also fixes a related crash on iOS 17 when using Play all on subscribed questions.

Invitations to realtime audio land in your Inbox. When someone invites you to an AMA or a game of "Would We Agree?", the Guide AI now sends you a short voice message about it. You can accept or decline right from that message. In a disguised-voices AMA, the message never says who invited you. Invite someone to realtime audio straight from your Inbox. On any message, question or answer, open the ⋯ menu and choose "Invite … to an AMA or Would We Agree?". VoiceOver users will find the same option in the Actions rotor, right after Reply. It opens a new session with that person already invited. See who's coming. In the AMA tab, each session now shows who's invited under its title.

Would We Agree? — a new game in the AMA tab. When you set up a live audio room, choose AMA or Would We Agree?. Two or three of you face a hard decision inspired by a real moment in history, without knowing which one. Everyone answers privately, then the AI host plays back each answer in your own voice. From there, each of you owns your own version of the story: you all weigh in, but the owner decides. After each decision there's a short talk, guided by the host. At the end you compare your stories and find out what really happened. The host fills any pause with a soft ticking so you know it's working, and you can ask it anything along the way: "can you repeat that?", "who's next?", or just "pass".

What's new: Anytime AMA You no longer have to pick a date for an AMA. Choose "Anytime", invite people, and set how many need to be there. Whenever you and enough of them are available with Vorail open, everyone available is invited to start. The AMA begins as soon as enough people accept. Set your status to Available or Hidden from the More actions menu on Inbox, Questions, Answers or the AMA tab. Hidden is the default. Invitations to join an AMA only reach you when your status is set to available. Even if your status is available, invitations wait until you've finished recording. Car Mode reads the AMA aloud, and anyone who misses a session can join a later one.

AMA (Live Audio Room): choose how many questions. When you set up a new AMA, you can now choose how many questions the AI host asks, anywhere from one to ten. Ten is still the default; pick three for a quick round. Your own questions count toward the number. Everyone in the session hears and sees which question they're on, like "Question 2 of 3.". You can specify the questions, or let AI create them. You can specify a theme for your AMA live audio session, or leave it blank. Also fixed: the number pad no longer covers the phone number box when you invite a friend to your live audio room by phone.

Mark all as played, made more reliable: + "Mark all as played" now clears everything on your screen, every time. It also clears both the Questions and Answers feeds, whether you use it from a feed's More menu or from Settings. If "Hide played items" is off, Vorail now tells you so, rather than leaving you wondering why nothing disappeared. New: Diagnostic log: + If something doesn't work the way you expected, go to Settings ▸ Diagnostic log and tap "Email a diagnostic log." It sends us a record of what the app just did, so we can find the cause instead of guessing. It contains only times, counts and settings, never audio or what anyone said. You can read all of it before you press Send.

AMA — a live conversation between Vorail members, with an AI host. Pick two to five people you'd like to know better, say what the session should be about, and an AI host runs ten questions around the group. Invitation only; nobody else can see or join. Choose real voices, or disguised voices. When it ends, each person privately says whether they'd like to talk again, or, in a disguised session, to know who someone was. Nothing happens unless both of you say yes, and then only the two of you find out. Find it under More ▸ AMA, or say "open AMA".

Cleaner recordings with VoiceOver: + If you swipe away from the Record button while recording, Vorail AI now pauses for you, so VoiceOver's announcement never ends up in your message. Double tap Stop to finish, or swipe back and double tap to keep recording. "Suggest a title" and "Suggest follow-up" now run on a newer AI model: + Titles read more like the question you actually asked, and follow-up ideas are clearer and more varied. Each one is labeled "Goes deeper" or "Different angle." They also arrive faster, usually in about five seconds. Suggest follow-ups, now on All answers: +The sparkles button from the Questions feed now also appears on the question at the top of the All answers screen. Tap it to get AI-suggested follow-up questions for that conversation, then record the one you like. VoiceOver users will find it in the question's actions as "Suggest a follow-up question."

Mention anyone in your answer: + When you @mention people in an answer, you're no longer limited to the people on the thread. A search box in the mention picker finds any member by name, and the people you choose get your answer in their Inbox. In a Local Town Square, the search finds only that square's members, so the square stays private. The picker works with VoiceOver, and there's now a Done button at the top right too, so you never have to swipe past a long list of results.

Mention people in your answers: + After you record an answer, you can now mention people on that thread. Swipe past the Post answer button, or look just below it, to find "Mention people." Pick anyone who asked or answered, choose Done, and post as usual. If you don't open the picker, answering works the same as before. Everyone listening to the thread sees or hears the names next to your answer, like "@Kimo @Lone Star Lass," and VoiceOver reads "Mentions Kimo and Lone Star Lass." Each person you mention gets your answer in their Inbox, with a "Hear the whole thread" option. Mentions work on public ask-alls and in Local Town Square threads.

Cleaner recordings for VoiceOver users: + When you double tap Record to add an answer or reply to a message, VoiceOver no longer repeats "Record and pause" after the tap. That repeat used to get captured at the start of your recording. The spoken "Recording" confirmation is gone too; now it's just the beep, then you talk. Recording a new ask-all keeps its 3-2-1 countdown, unless there is a clear preference for the new way adding an answer or replying to a message works. Starting a reply or answer is a little quicker than before. Share from Car Mode: + Sharing a question or answer now works in Car Mode too. When the clip you're on can be shared, the action menu offers "Share this question" or "Share this answer" — swipe down to it, double tap, and the share sheet opens with the clip's link, ready for Messages, Mail, AirDrop or Copy. It's there on every Car Mode feed, including the Inbox and while listening to all answers to a question. As everywhere else in the app, a clip can only be shared if its author allows it.

No more untitled ask-alls: + Forget to add a title to your ask-all? Vorail AI will now catch it before it goes out. Tap Post without a title and you'll be asked whether you really want to post a "naked ask-all," since ask-alls with titles get noticeably more attention. Choose Add a title to jump straight into the title field, or Post without a title to send it as it is. Signed in with Apple? + Vorail now always knows it's you. If iCloud is turned off or not responding on your iPhone, Vorail AI now opens your own account using your Sign in with Apple sign-in. Before, it could ask you to register again. Every town square now has its own invite code. + Any member can open ⋯ → Invite someone, read the code aloud, or share it with a friend. New town squares get one automatically. If a square has an event coming up, you can also invite someone straight to that event from the same screen, and the invitation includes the code they'll need to join. Adding an event is always within reach. + On smaller phones or with larger text, the + button in a Local town square could disappear, leaving no way to add an event. Now each Local feed has an "Add" row at the top of the list: "New event" on Calendar and "Ask this town square" on Questions and Answers. The same action is also the first item in the ⋯ menu.