Changelog Week 47

This week's updates address two aspects of collaborative manuscript editing: synchronizing AI annotations across users and reducing initial loading times. These changes make AI-assisted writing more practical when multiple people work on the same manuscript.

Synchronized AI Annotations

AI suggestions, highlights, and checks now persist and synchronize across all users in a workspace. When one person runs a style check or accepts an AI suggestion, other collaborators see those changes without refreshing the page. This synchronization includes:

• Shared visibility: All users see the same AI highlights and suggestions simultaneously
• Action propagation: When someone accepts, dismisses, or resolves an AI suggestion, that state updates for everyone
• Persistent state: AI annotations persist between sessions and across devices

Changes appear for collaborators without requiring page refreshes. When you join a manuscript that others have been working on, you see their AI suggestions and any decisions they've made about them.

Loading Time Reduction

Manuscript loading is now faster, particularly for documents with AI annotations enabled. The previous implementation waited for all AI data to load before showing the editor, which created noticeable delays.

The loading process is now more responsive:

Progressive loading: The editor appears as soon as AI synchronization begins, rather than waiting for it to complete. You see "AI annotations syncing…" instead of a blank loading screen.

Status visibility: The editor shows whether AI annotations are loading, syncing, or encountering errors.

Shorter waits: Reduced the maximum time the editor waits for AI data before proceeding.

These changes cut loading time by approximately 60% for manuscripts with AI annotations.

Quality of Life Improvements

Several smaller improvements support collaborative AI editing:

Instant updates: Clearing AI annotations in the sidebar now updates for all collaborators immediately.

Faster feedback: Accepting or dismissing an AI suggestion updates other users' views right away. Dismissed suggestions remain visible to show what was reviewed, rather than disappearing.

Sync status: The editor shows whether AI annotations are syncing, up to date, or encountering errors.

Persistent settings: Display preferences for AI features (auto re-check after applying fixes, highlight visibility) save across sessions.

AI Feedback Opt-In

Account settings now include an option to help improve AI suggestions. When enabled, the system records what happens when you interact with AI suggestions: whether you accepted or dismissed them, what type of issue was flagged, and short excerpts (truncated to 200 characters) of the original text and the suggested replacement.

This information helps us understand which suggestions are useful and which need improvement. The feature is opt-in and can be toggled at any time in account settings. When disabled, no feedback data is collected.

The feedback collection doesn't affect how suggestions work or what other collaborators see. It operates separately from the manuscript editing and sharing features.

What This Enables

These changes make AI assistance practical for collaborative writing. Previously, each person maintained their own local AI state, leading to confusion when one person accepted suggestions that others still saw as pending. The synchronized state means AI output becomes part of the shared manuscript context rather than a private layer on each editor.

The loading improvements reduce friction when switching between manuscripts or returning to work. Faster load times help maintain focus, particularly when working across multiple documents.