Pal Itch now speaks Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Portuguese (Brazil). The app, its notifications and the little LCD screen follow your iPhone's language — Japanese lines light up in a dot-matrix font made for kana and kanji. Text across the app is now set in SF Pro, the iPhone's system font, easy to read in every language; our signature typeface stays on HONG and the app's name. Plus small fixes.

The Pager arrives in Pal Itch Pro. Type a line of up to 60 characters or tap a code — 143, 707, 07734 — and it lights up on a little LCD screen in your friend's notification: press and hold to open it. With Pro, write back right from the notification and put your status in your own words — friends see it on an LCD strip on Home. Anyone can answer a line or a code in one tap: On my way, Can't now or HONG BACK, from the notification or from its card in Recent, which now lives on the Friends tab. Every button answers at once: tap HONG and "Sent to" with your friend's name shows right under it; friend requests, accepts and removals change on screen straight away.

Your @username now shows up everywhere the moment you pick it — no relaunch needed. Settings explains what to check if gongs arrive without vibration in Silent Mode. And when a gong doesn't reach you, we can now find out why faster when you ask for help.

New accounts now pick their @username right after signing in, so friends can find and add you straight away. If you signed up without one, you'll be asked to choose it the next time you open the app.

The gong answers the moment you tap it. The Sound switch in Settings now silences notifications too. Your profile photo saves with a clear “Photo saved”, and friends’ photos no longer disappear.