What is new in Afren

People who hire across borders need to know what is changing in the product they depend on, and what is happening to their money. This release makes both easier to follow. We are publishing our changes in the open, tightening how the wallet describes currency, and making sure that when something cannot be found, we say so plainly.

The principle is simple. A product earns trust by being specific about what it does and honest about what it does not.

New

• This changelog. Every product change now lives on this page, newest first, written for the people who use Afren rather than the people who build it. Pages are rendered on the server with canonical URLs and Open Graph metadata, so updates index cleanly and preview properly when shared, and there is a standard RSS 2.0 feed for any reader, Slack or Discord.
• A page for every post. Each news post and each changelog entry now has its own link. If you want to point a teammate or a client to one specific update, you can share that exact page instead of a long list.

Improved

• Currency converter in your wallet. The currency tool in your wallet is now a plain converter. It shows a recent reference rate, so you can estimate what an amount is worth in another currency before you decide to move money. Currency is converted at the moment you fund your wallet or withdraw, and your balances and transaction history are unchanged.
• Clearer error messages. When you open a project, a contract or a session that does not exist, you now see an accurate "not found" message instead of a general failure notice. Knowing the difference tells you whether to check the link, sign in to another account or contact support, and it saves a round of guessing.
• Reliability behind the scenes. We continued to harden security and reliability behind the scenes.

Building software with an assistant should feel like editing a document. You should be able to try something, go back, and keep working while the previous change is still finishing. This release brings that to the builder.

The idea behind it is that iteration is cheap only when nothing can be lost and nothing makes you wait. Versions remove the fear of changing your mind. Queued changes remove the idle time between ideas.

New

• Version history. Every build is saved as a complete, numbered version: the first generation, each change you request and each restore. Restoring is non-destructive, because it creates a new version rather than rewriting history, so the full record of how your app evolved is always intact. Open Version history from the left bar to see what produced each version and restore any of them in one click.
• Queued changes. Send your next change while a build is still running. Changes join a first-in, first-out queue for your project and are applied in the order you sent them, never in parallel, so two edits cannot race each other. Changes that are waiting together may be applied as one version, and you can cancel any change before it starts.
• Live Preview. For supported stacks, your app now runs live in an isolated environment of its own while you work on it. Each change appears within seconds, and the preview link is private to you. Shortening the loop between a request and its visible result is the single biggest lever on how fast you can make good product decisions.

Improved

• Reopening a build. When you come back to a project, you see its current build, or the one still in progress, instead of an empty screen. If you close the tab mid-build, you pick up exactly where you left off.
• Clear publishing messages. If a publish cannot finish, we now tell you why. That lets you fix the cause and try again straight away instead of retrying without knowing what to change.
• A clearer About page. Our About page now sets out who we are, when we were founded and how Afren works, in plain facts that are easy to check and quote.
• Better answers in Docs. The assistant on the Docs page now knows about publishing and every feature in the guide, so questions about how to do something get a specific answer.

A platform that handles contracts and payments should be plain about its rules, and should leave decisions with you. This release is about being explicit: who Afren is for, what you are agreeing to when you subscribe, and how much email you receive.

Clear terms are part of the product. You should never have to search for the price of a plan, the date it renews or the way to cancel it.

New

• One-click unsubscribe. Every non-essential email carries an unsubscribe link that works without signing in, plus the standard one-click List-Unsubscribe header (RFC 8058), so mail apps can show their own Unsubscribe button. You can switch these emails on or off at any time in Settings. Account, security, payment and contract emails always reach you, because you need them to run your work.
• Copyright policy. Our copyright policy explains how to report content that infringes your rights, including on sites published through Afren. It gives rights holders a clear route and a clear process.
• Security page. Our security page describes how we protect your data and how to report a concern, so you can assess Afren before you rely on it.

Improved

• 18+ confirmation. Afren is for people aged 18 or over. You confirm this when you sign up, and existing accounts are asked to confirm the next time they sign in. Contracts on Afren are binding agreements, and this keeps every party able to enter into one.
• Renewal terms up front. Price, billing interval, auto-renewal and how to cancel now appear next to every subscribe and upgrade button on the pricing page, in the paywall and in Billing. You see the full terms before you pay, not after.
• Review updated terms. When our Terms or Privacy Policy change, you are asked to read and accept the new version, so you always know which rules apply to you.
• ID upload disclosure. Before you upload an ID, we now show how it will be used, so you can decide with the facts in front of you.
• Privacy-friendlier apps and previews. Apps built with Afren include an adult confirmation on sign-up forms and an unsubscribe link in marketing email. Design previews load their fonts and styles from Afren itself, so a third-party font service never sees the people reviewing your designs.
• Reliability behind the scenes. We continued to harden security and reliability behind the scenes.

An idea is easier to judge once other people can open it. This release shortens the distance between a finished build and a link you can share, and it lets the work you have already done flow into Afren instead of being retyped.

It also makes hiring work in both directions. Talent no longer wait to be invited, and can start a conversation about a contract themselves.

New

• One-click publish. Click Publish on a finished build and your app goes live at its own address on demo.afren.ai. Publish again after a change and the same link updates, so links you have already shared keep working. Publishing needs a Pro or Team plan, or a build credit, and you can see the options on the pricing page.
• Attach a PRD. Upload a requirements document (PDF, TXT or Markdown) and Afren uses it to start your scope. If you have already written down what you want, you do not have to describe it again, and the plan starts from your own words.
• Contract proposals from talent. Talent can now send you a contract proposal directly, and you can review and accept it from your contracts. It gives you a way to engage people who find your project and know how they would do the work.
• Choose your profile photo crop. Pan and zoom to pick exactly which part of your photo appears as your avatar, so the face people see on your profile is the one you chose.

Improved

• Profile strength. Your profile strength now updates as you add work experience and complete assessments, so you can see the effect of each step on how complete your profile is.
• Assessment timer. A live countdown now shows while you take a skill assessment, so you can pace your answers.
• Maintenance page. If we ever need to pause Afren briefly, you now see a clear, branded page that explains what is happening.
• Team chat history. Project chat messages now stay in the conversation when you reconnect, so a dropped connection does not leave gaps in what the team said.

Fixed

• Reset password. The reset password button now responds as expected and completes reliably.
• CV and portfolio. CV uploads open correctly, and portfolio items save to your profile.

Teams on Afren work across countries and clocks, and they trade real money. That raises two questions every month: can I be sure it is you signing in, and do we agree on when something is due. This release answers both.

It also changes how much of Afren you have to use. You can plan with us and build with people you already know, or hire straight into a contract.

New

• Passkeys. Add a passkey in Settings and sign in with your fingerprint, face or device PIN instead of a password. Passkeys use the WebAuthn and FIDO2 standards: the private key never leaves your device and each one is bound to afren.ai, which makes them resistant to phishing by design. Your password keeps working, so you can adopt passkeys at your own pace.
• Two-step verification. Turn on time-based one-time codes (TOTP) from any standard authenticator app for sign-ins on new devices. You get single-use recovery codes in case you lose your phone, and you can mark a device as trusted and review or revoke trusted devices at any time.
• Timezones. Afren reads your IANA time zone (for example Africa/Lagos) from your browser each time you open it, so it follows you when you travel. Times are stored in UTC and rendered in each person's zone, so deadlines, meetings and reminders stay correct across borders and through daylight-saving changes, and your team chat shows each teammate's local time.
• Bring your own team. Choose planning-only mode and Afren produces your scope, plan and documents so you can build with people you already know. You keep the planning and skip the hiring.
• Market and opportunity analysis. Your scope now includes a view of the market, competitors and opportunity, so you can judge the idea before you commit budget to it.
• Hire straight into a contract. You can now start a contract directly from a talent profile, without going through the builder first.
• Choose how your team works. In the team chat, the team can agree on the way it likes to work, and the AI project manager follows that agreement.
• Birthday balloons. On your birthday, balloons float up when you sign in.

Improved

• Amounts in the right currency. Clients see proposal and contract amounts in US dollars, while talent still see the amount they asked for in their local currency. Each side reads the number it expects.
• Deadlines you can rely on. Contract deadlines now respect each person's timezone, including daylight saving changes.
• Interview focus. The AI interviewer now stays on your role and profession throughout the conversation.
• Maintenance notices. If we pause Afren for maintenance, you are now taken to a clear status page.

Fixed

• Proposals and awards. Talent proposals and the award step in the builder flow now work from end to end.
• Contract pages. Contract pages open reliably, and funding errors explain what went wrong.

Hiring across borders only works when both sides trust the money. Founders need payment to follow delivered work, and freelancers need the money to exist before they start. July was about making both of those true, and about keeping the work moving once it begins.

New

• Contracts with escrow. Every engagement runs on a contract with milestones. You fund escrow up front, talent sign once it is funded, and each milestone is released when you approve it. If something goes wrong, you can raise a dispute from the contract.
• An AI project manager. Once you have a team, an AI project manager turns your scope into tasks and milestones, checks delivered work against what the milestone promised. When it is confident a milestone is complete, it releases that milestone's payment from escrow automatically; when it is not, the decision stays with you, and you can run the check yourself at any time.
• Team chat and progress reports. Each project has a team chat with the AI project manager in the room, where you can ask for advice or to adjust the timeline. Clients get progress reports on request and after milestones, saved in the project and sent by email.
• My Tasks for talent. Talent see all their tasks in one list, update status and flag blockers.
• Preview while you build. Open a working preview of your app as soon as the frontend is ready, while the rest of the build finishes.
• Change your app by describing it. Use the refine bar to say what you want changed, for example "make the hero dark", and the preview updates.
• Designs before code. Pick your brand colours, or choose between three design directions before full designs are generated, then click through an interactive prototype before any code is written.
• Identity and CV checks. Clients and talent can verify an ID, and talent can fill in their profile from a CV.
• Wallet in your own currency. Talent see their balance and transactions in their local currency, and talent outside Nigeria can set up international payouts. Skill assessments are now generated for their own profession.
• Account and settings. Sign in with more social accounts, choose exactly which emails and push notifications you receive, and delete your account from Settings (it is disabled straight away and permanently removed after 14 days). Profile pages gain documents and social links.
• Add context to a scope. Add more context at any point and Afren re-scopes your project.
• Docs, News, Careers and Community. Our new Docs, News, Careers and Community pages are live.

Improved

• Easier payments setup. Pick your bank from a searchable list and enter your phone number in a country-aware field.
• Clearer wallet history. Each credit and debit shows the amount you paid in your own currency, so your records match your bank.

Fixed

• Assessments and jobs. Assessment states are clearer, and clients can post jobs without interruption.

A plan is only useful if it becomes something you can use. In June we extended Afren from scoping into making: screens first, then a full project in the stack you choose, and a clear way to take it with you.

The principle was ownership. What you build on Afren is yours to download, host and change, and the price of using the builder should be easy to read before you start.

New

• Design generation. Turn your scope into design screens, with desktop and mobile previews, so you can review how the product looks on the devices your users have before any code exists.
• Full-stack code generation. Choose your frontend and backend stack and Afren generates the whole project. Download it as a structured ZIP, ready to open and run.
• Ways to ship. Take your code with you by downloading it, pushing it to your own repository or deploying it to your own cloud account. Deploy it to your own cloud and it runs on infrastructure you control.
• Pricing and plans. Every account gets free project scopes. Pro and Team plans and one-off build credits cover designs, code and publishing, and a billing dashboard shows your plan and credits. See pricing for the details.
• Pay by card. Card payments are now supported for subscriptions and wallet funding.
• Job board for talent. Browse and apply to jobs with a note on why you fit, and track everything under My Applications. Clients review applicants and leave reviews when work ends, which builds a visible record on each profile.
• Install Afren. Afren is now an installable progressive web app on your phone or computer, with its own window, home-screen icon and an offline page when your connection drops.
• Privacy and terms. Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service are published.
• Dark mode. A full dark theme for clients and talent.
• Invite pages. Talent can accept or decline a project invite from a dedicated page, with the project details in front of them.

Improved

• Onboarding. Onboarding forms for clients and talent are smoother and more forgiving, and there is a manual option for your bank account name if automatic checking cannot confirm it.
• Mobile. Layouts and navigation are improved on small screens.
• Home page. A refreshed home page focuses on getting a product built.

Fixed

• Pre-interview start. The Start Interview button now starts the interview as expected.

Most people with a product idea have the same problem. They know what they want, but not what it will cost, who can build it or how to start. Afren began as an answer to that: describe the idea in plain language, and get back a plan and the people to carry it out.

This first release covered the whole path in outline, from sign-up to a payment. Everything since has been about making each step stronger.

New

• Accounts and onboarding. Sign up with email or a social account, verify your email, and set up your profile as a client or as talent. Each role gets the setup that fits it.
• AI project scoping. Describe your idea in plain language and get a structured scope with documentation, a budget and a talent estimate. You leave with something concrete to react to, instead of a blank page.
• Risk and market review. Each scope comes with a review of the risks and the market fit, so you can see weak points early, while they are cheap to change.
• Suggested talent. Afren suggests talent whose skills fit your scope. Invite them by email, or swap anyone out for another match.
• Invites and proposals. Talent can accept or decline offers and send proposals, and clients can award the work. Both sides can see where a decision stands.
• Pre-interview for talent. A short voice and video interview with an AI interviewer adds a result to your profile, giving clients more than a CV to go on.
• Skill assessments. Talent can take assessments to show what they can do.
• Wallet and payments. Fund your wallet, receive payments and withdraw, with live currency conversion for the people who work in more than one currency.
• Chat, notifications and dashboards. Project chat, a notifications panel, and dashboards for clients and talent keep everyone in the loop.

Improved

• Budget check. If your budget does not cover the scope, we tell you and let you choose how to proceed, rather than leaving you to find out later.