What's new in Hives: October 2026

On 7 October 2026 we released a new version of Hives. Most of the work happened under the hood: the platform is faster and more reliable, and every permission in Hives now follows one clear set of rules. You will also notice a cleaner interface and lots of small fixes.

This page sums up what changed. Each section links to the full guide.

For everyone

Signing in. You sign in with a 6-digit code sent to your email, or with Google or Microsoft, depending on what your organisation has turned on. Codes are valid for 10 minutes. One sign-in now opens every hive you belong to. See How to sign in to Hives.
Single sign-on (SAML) on request. Besides Microsoft, Google and the email code, single sign-on through SAML can be set up for your organisation on request. Contact your contact person at Hives.co.
Notifications. Opening a notification now marks it as read. Replies say “replied to your comment”, several comments in a row from the same person on the same idea are grouped, and comment notifications take you straight to the comment. Your unread count also shows next to Notifications in your profile menu. See Notifications and emails from Hives.
Privacy. Email addresses are no longer shown to everyone. Only Admins and Managers see them in the member list and search. Members see names, roles and groups. See Roles and permissions in Hives.

A friendlier idea form. The cursor starts in the first question. If the submit button is greyed out, hovering it tells you which required questions are still empty. If you close the form by mistake, Hives asks before throwing your text away. See How to submit an idea.
One Edit option. The ⋯ menu on an idea now has a single Edit that opens the full form, and Delete asks you to confirm. You can delete your own idea while it is still in the Inbox. See How to edit or delete your idea.
Comments. Links in comments are clickable, and Shift+Enter starts a new line. See Commenting on ideas and replying.
Hidden names stay hidden. When a collection hides contributor names, nobody else sees who submitted, not even managers or Admins. See Hidden ideas, hidden names and anonymous collections.
Keyboard and browsing. Idea cards can be opened with the keyboard, and the idea grid reads row by row in the order you sorted it.

For collection managers

Creating a collection is quicker. You only need a title. You choose the workflow, page and folder afterwards. See How to create a collection.
Collection managers can do more. You can change your collection’s settings and apply a workflow to it yourself, without asking an Admin. You get the View, Manage and Edit tabs on your collection whatever your role, even as a Member. See Collection managers: who they are and how to add them.
Simpler settings. Reactions are now one choice: Likes, Votes or None. Allow contributing without signing in replaces the old anonymous contributions switch. The Edit mode tab Other is now After submitting. See Collection settings explained.
Folder managers are full collection managers of everything in their folder and its subfolders. See Giving people access to a folder.
Reviewers and panels now see the ideas in their step, even hidden ones, while the idea is there. They can also answer and rate that step’s questions on the idea. See Reviewers and panels.
Summaries by Ida. AI summaries of a collection are now written by Ida, and only use what everyone in the collection may read. See AI summaries of a collection.
The “+” button (for Admins and Managers) opens a clear menu with one box per option: Collection, Survey, Page, Announcement and Invite.
“Manager” is now “Managed by me” in the menu. See Managed by me: your collections and surveys.

For survey managers

Survey answers are always anonymous. Nobody, not even Admins, can see who answered. Exports contain no names, emails or dates. See Survey results, results link, export and AI summaries.
Three separate links for answering, viewing results and previewing, each switched on and off on its own. See Sharing a survey.
Survey managers can now edit their surveys and see the results. Admins choose who the survey managers are. See Who can see, manage and answer a survey.
One response per person for people who are signed in. They can stop halfway and pick up where they left off. See Answering a survey.

For Admins

Who can join is now one clear choice: Invite only, Anyone can join or Allowed email domains only. Your previous settings were carried over. An invitation from + > Invite sends an email and lets the person join, whichever of the three you choose. That includes people outside your allowed domains. See Choosing who can join your hive.
Clearer roles. Only Admins change roles. The Manager role is for creating collections, surveys, pages and folders. It does not give access to ideas in collections the Manager does not manage. See Roles and permissions in Hives.
Pages have page managers. Only Admins and a page’s managers can edit or delete it. See Pages: how to create, publish and choose who sees them.
Workflows are managed by Admins and are available on every hive. See What is a workflow?.
Ida and other AI features follow one switch for your hive. When AI is off, every AI feature is off. See What Ida can see and how your data is handled.

Questions?

If something does not work the way you expect, or you used a feature that you cannot find any more, contact us at help@hives.co. We are happy to help.