Platform Updates
Changelog
Follow along as Loclie grows. New features, improvements, and updates for Australia's regional community platform.
February 2026
Manage portal mobile experience, AI engine upgrade, and a redesigned app navigation.
Manage Portal — Mobile Navigation
Mobile navigation menu
The Manage portal now features a hamburger menu and slide-out drawer on mobile and tablet screens, so business owners and event organisers can access every dashboard section on smaller devices.
App Navigation Redesign
Arc submenu navigation
The bottom navigation has been rebuilt around four primary tabs — Home, Discover, Services, and Profile. Tapping Discover or Services opens a radial submenu with quick access to Businesses, Events, Clubs, Map, Jobs, and Amenities.
AI Engine Upgrade
Cohere embeddings and reranking
The AI search engine now uses Cohere for both embeddings and reranking, improving result relevance across all content types.
Business Enhancements
Expanded business categories
Business categories have been expanded to roughly 200 subcategories with a principal and secondary category model, making it easier for customers to find exactly what they need.
Marketing Website
New pages and sections
Added dedicated pages for businesses, event organisers, and clubs, along with new feature showcase sections and screenshots.
January 2026
The biggest month yet — launching the Manage portal, overhauling AI search, introducing the geographic area system, and a platform-wide glassmorphism redesign.
Manage Portal Launch
Dedicated management app
A brand-new management portal at manage.loclie.com.au gives business owners, event organisers, and club managers a dedicated space to manage their listings, separate from the consumer browsing experience.
Admin, business, and event dashboards migrated
The admin dashboard, business dashboard, and event dashboard have all moved from the consumer app to the Manage portal with a desktop-first glassmorphic design.
Club management
Full club management — creating clubs, managing members, handling join requests, posting updates, and moderating discussions — is now on the Manage portal.
Clubs & Events — Linked Together
Club-event association
Club owners and moderators can now link events to their club when creating or editing an event. Linked events appear on the club's page, and event cards display the associated club name with a direct link.
AI-Powered Search Overhaul
Hybrid search (V11)
The Ask Bar has been completely rewritten with a hybrid search architecture combining semantic vector search with PostgreSQL full-text search, then fusing scores for the best results.
AI re-ranking
An AI reranking layer intelligently filters and orders results so the most relevant businesses, events, and amenities appear first.
Clubs in search
Community clubs are now fully searchable through the Ask Bar with vector embeddings, alongside businesses, events, jobs, and amenities.
"Open Now" indicators
Business results in the Ask Bar now show an "Open" badge when the business is currently open, based on their listed hours.
Customisable Top Questions
The homepage now shows your personalised top questions. Add and remove questions from your settings to get one-tap access to the searches you use most.
Rotating example questions
The Ask Bar placeholder cycles through example questions to inspire new searches.
Geographic Area System
Town links and cross-border areas
Towns are now linked into local areas that cross state and LGA boundaries — so twin towns like Cobram and Barooga share content automatically.
LGA normalisation and regions
Local Government Areas are fully normalised with a dedicated table, and regions group LGAs into broader geographic areas for better content discovery.
Glassmorphism Design System
Platform-wide glassmorphism
Every page across the platform — businesses, events, clubs, amenities, jobs, maps, and dashboards — now uses a consistent frosted-glass aesthetic with backdrop blur, translucent surfaces, and soft shadows.
Unified HeroCard system
All content cards (businesses, events, clubs) now use a unified HeroCard component with full-bleed hero images and consistent interaction patterns.
Time-aware backgrounds
The app background adapts to the time of day with smooth palette transitions across six time periods — dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, sunset, and night.
Events & Campaigns
Unified "What's On" feed
Events and business campaigns are now displayed together in a unified feed, accessible from the centre navigation pin. Swipe through cards or browse by section.
Events page redesign
The events page combines community events and business campaigns in time-based sections — On Now, This Week, and Coming Up — with category filtering.
Business Features
Hero display cards
Business listings now use full-bleed photo background cards, replacing the previous grid layout for a more immersive browsing experience.
Context-aware opening hours
Business cards display opening hours that adapt to the current time, highlighting whether the business is open now and showing today's hours.
Business updates, experience time, and accommodation
Businesses can now post updates, specify how long a visit typically takes, and add accommodation details for lodging businesses.
Ownership transfer on claim approval
When a business claim is approved, ownership is automatically transferred to the claiming user.
Menu link feature
Businesses can now add a direct link to their menu, displayed prominently on their listing page.
Interactive Map
Amenity-focused map redesign
The map page has been rebuilt with checkbox controls for 16 amenity categories — medical, education, parks, transport, fuel, and more — making it easy to find specific facilities.
User location and directions
The map and Ask Bar results now show your location and offer one-tap directions to any business or amenity.
Media & QR Codes
Image editor and preview system
A new image editor lets business owners and event organisers drag, zoom, and position their photos with multi-format previews and a safe-zone overlay.
Universal Discovery Poster QR codes
A new poster QR system lets admins place tracked QR codes in towns. Scanning takes users to a /discover page, and all scans are tracked with analytics in the admin dashboard.
Landing Page
Featured business carousel
The homepage now showcases featured businesses in an auto-scrolling carousel with verified and approved filters.
Animated HeroPin mascot
An animated Loclie pin mascot greets users on the landing page with depth effects and smooth palette-blended transitions.