Release 5.3 | Civio Civio Assist Knowledge Base [Skip to content](#main) [ ![Civio Civio Assist Knowledge Base](/civio-light.svg) ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io) [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [ Support portal ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login) Toggle navigation [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [Support portal](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login) 1. [Home](/) › 2. [Release notes](/releases) › 3. Release 5.3 Release 5.3 =========== Latest release Released 28th Aug 2026 Search Search A new design has been added for the chatbot: **Nova**, built to get users to an answer faster. Users can ask, search, or start from a question card, and every reply offers the next question worth asking. The chat can also sit inside a page now, rather than behind a floating launcher. Both designs also answer questions better: multi-part questions receive more complete answers, follow-ups are understood in context, and more question types get an answer. Meet Nova, a faster way to answers ---------------------------------- ![The Nova chat window showing the frequently asked question cards, then answering a typed question about microchipping a cat](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/jT5pMEfSowIJBckYc8DY0u46Wd171R7OjOKFkxBG.gif) Nova is a new design for the chat window, offered as an alternative to the existing Classic design. Both answer from the same knowledge base, carry your branding and list the pages and documents each reply drew on, but Nova offers more ways to get an answer: - **Question cards** on the start screen, drawn from recent conversations or written by your team, let a user begin without typing anything. - **Ask next** buttons under each reply offer follow-up questions, so a user can keep going without having to work out how to phrase the next one. - The **Search** tab returns blazing fast results: a list of matching pages and documents instead of a written answer, delivered almost instantly. Users can search with a full sentence rather than guess the right keyword. - **Frequent searches** fill the Search tab while its search box is empty, drawn from what users have been asking recently. ![The Nova Search tab showing Frequent searches, then a full-sentence search returning two matching pages instantly](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/vS5JcChuzyKbk1Ntpmg7edW9NxoflEzMUyyCMrbg.gif) Nova offers great accessibility: - A text size control in the header steps every font in the window through five sizes. ![The text size dial stepping every font in the chat window through smaller and larger sizes](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/llxosVuv3i6foldBtgFn2zXOqv9dLowrmMku4oni.gif) - A **Listen** button on each reply reads it aloud. ![The Listen control traced in orange in the row of buttons beneath a reply](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/VW5BNctY2YBzxaOgESEr74CtZKR79K2zMGTh0mSz.png) Your chatbot's design is set by the Civio team. Contact your Civio representative to change it. [Learn about the Nova design](/articles/chat-window-designs) Three new bot launchers ----------------------- ![The three launcher designs in a row: the Dock bar labelled Ask our AI assistant, the round Orb button and the upright Rail tab](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/zXmPls4NtL8Wt05kcsDHYNRIfCTUxAae1qvyWTSu.png) The launcher is the button that sits on your page and opens the chat. It now comes in three designs, each giving the chat a different presence on the page, built to capture more engagement from your users: - **Dock**, a wide bar sitting on the page's bottom edge. - **Orb**, a round button held just in from the corner. - **Rail**, an upright tab down the page's right edge. The chat tells your page how much room the launcher needs, so your website's embed code does not have to change. [Learn more about the launcher designs](/articles/chat-window-designs) Better judgement, higher quality answers ---------------------------------------- This release lifts the quality of every answer: the chatbot now identifies the intent of each message and takes the best path to a reply before it responds. - **More questions get an answer, and a better one.** Where a question looks like it may sit outside the chatbot's scope, the chatbot now adds a knowledge base search to its own judgement, and that extra context makes its answers more precise and more complete. - **Questions with several parts are answered in full.** "When is my bin collected, and how do I pay my rates?" is split into its parts and each is searched for on its own, so the reply covers both rather than only the first. - **Better handling of user follow-ups.** A question like "How much is it?" for instance, will now get more context over what was asked earlier before searching through a knowledge base. - **Sharper classification of everything else.** The behaviours the chatbot already had are more reliable too: a question with more than one possible answer gets a clarifying question back, a request for a person is met with the offer to raise it with your team, greetings get a greeting, and attempts to misuse the chatbot are refused. [Learn more about how the assistant answers questions](/articles/how-the-assistant-answers-questions) The chat inside a page ---------------------- The chat window can now be placed in the body of a page rather than in the corner behind a launcher. It is always open, the page decides how much room it takes, and content flows above and below it. This suits a dedicated help or contact page, where the chat is the purpose of the page rather than an aid alongside it. ![A web page with the chat window embedded in the content column, page text flowing above and below it](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/I0ecIOCdxSIWAkG0eOOoxeRPdOi3G4DQ4FTQhogO.png) [Learn more about embedding the chat inside a page](/articles/inline-embed) Minor Features -------------- ### Error messages in the chat When an error interrupts a conversation, a banner appears at the top of the chat window and stays in place however far the conversation has scrolled. Users can close it, and the time it remains before clearing itself is set for each chatbot. ### Redaction exclusions per chatbot Specific personal details can now be excluded from redaction using a keyword whitelist, configured per chatbot, giving you greater control. *Learn more about [how personal information is protected](/articles/how-personal-information-is-protected).* ### Page URLs in conversation logs Each user message in a conversation log now shows the URL of the page the user was on when they sent it, so a conversation can be reviewed in the dashboard with the context of where it started. *Learn more about [reading a conversation and understanding alerts](/articles/reading-a-conversation-and-alerts).* Fixes and Improvements ---------------------- - Every link in a reply is now checked against the pages that answer drew on, so a reply cannot point users at a page it did not use. - Pages whose wording reads like an instruction, such as a set of steps or a form, are now treated as content to answer from rather than as directions aimed at the chatbot. Unsafe requests are refused as before. *Learn more about [safety guardrails](/articles/safety-guardrails).* - Searches narrowed to one section of your website's content are now as fast as a search across all of it, so answers on those topics come back without the wait. - PDF documents are picked up from more websites, including those that need JavaScript to display their pages, so fewer documents are missed when a knowledge base is built. Questions about this release? ----------------------------- Many of these changes came from customer feedback. Tell us what you would like next, or let us know if something is not behaving. [ Submit a support request ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/login) [ Previous release Release 5.2 ](/releases/release-5-2) [ Browse All releases ](/releases) In this release Release details Released 28th Aug 2026 Previous [ Release 5.2 · 1st Jul 2026 ](/releases/release-5-2) Read more - [ Embedding the chat inside a page ](/articles/inline-embed) - [ How personal information is protected ](/articles/how-personal-information-is-protected) - [ How the chat window is branded ](/articles/chat-window-branding) - [ The chat window: Classic and Nova ](/articles/chat-window-designs) ### Never miss a release Get a summary by email each time we ship. [ Manage preferences ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-assist-docs.dh1.amazee.io/portal/preferences) **Need additional help?** Contact our support team at [help@assist-support.civ.io](mailto:support@civ.io) © 2026 [Civio](https://civ.io)