Changelog

What's new

Every release, written for humans. The engine's performance budget applies to every line here: no feature ships if it costs more than 0.5% CPU.

1.0.0-beta.10

latestJuly 2026

Unlimited free recording — the cap becomes a watermark

  • newNew freemium model: recording is FREE and unlimited — the 5-minute cap is gone. Processed exports (Compose, Studio, Subtitler, Redact, Enhance…) carry a small watermark on Free; Pro removes it.
  • newPro Lifetime: a one-time purchase (no subscription) joins the Annual plan. Existing subscribers keep their plan unchanged.
  • newCell shapes in Compose: any source can render as a circle (webcam bubble), rounded rect, triangle or hexagon — in the app's per-source shape picker, the live preview, the render, saved sessions, the CLI (compose-grid --shape 1:circle) and the MCP compose_grid tool.
  • newSaved settings files run headless: every editor exports/imports its full session as JSON (💾 Save settings / 📂 Import, with wrong-tool detection), the open dialogs accept a settings JSON directly, and `wispframe run settings.json` — or the new run_settings MCP tool — executes compose/trim/redact sessions without opening the editor UI.
  • newCompose: edit a Custom keyframe's arrangement after the fact — ✎ on the keyframe row loads it onto the mini canvas, 💾 saves it back.

1.0.0-beta.9

July 2026

Studio polish & in-app Pro

  • newCompose layout timeline: the arrangement can now change mid-video. Drop layout keyframes on the timeline — sbs for the intro, grid at 12s, one source big for the demo — each arriving as a cut, slide, eased glide, or cross-dissolve (fade), for up to 9 sources. Live in the app's Compose window (add a keyframe at the playhead, scrub to see mid-transition morphs), and scriptable everywhere: wispframe compose-grid --layout-key "12:grid:ease:0.6", plus the MCP compose_grid tool's layout_key parameter.
  • newStudio: one-click framing that turns a raw recording into the polished, framed look — a backdrop (six gradient presets, a solid color, your own image, or a blurred copy of the clip), rounded corners, and a soft drop shadow, with adjustable padding and canvas up to 4K. Baked in at near-zero CPU. Cursor-zoom is next.
  • newStudio crop: drag a rectangle on the live preview to keep just a region of the frame — Studio crops, then frames and saves it. Headless too, with wispframe studio --crop "x,y,w,h".
  • newAutomatic subtitles (Subtitler): on-device Whisper transcription (Metal) with word-accurate timestamps, 22 one-click caption styles — from clean captions and karaoke fills to word-by-word popups, gradient pills (Aurora, Sunset, Ocean), Neon, Serif, Script, Impact and more — full font/color/outline/shadow/box control, drag-to-move and scroll-to-resize on the live preview, a smooth burned-in preview player, split-line editing with linked timings, burn-in, and SRT/VTT/JSON export. CLI: wispframe transcribe + wispframe subtitle.
  • newEnhance: on-device video upscaling — Real-ESRGAN on the GPU (CoreML MLProgram, general + full-x4plus sharp models) or Apple's built-in VTSuperResolutionScaler on the Neural Engine (macOS 15.4+), with seam-free overlap tiling, an adjustable denoise strength, and a before/after comparison player with a 1:1 detail crop — 2× or 4× with an optional resolution cap. CLI: wispframe enhance --model general|sharp|apple.
  • newPro is now an in-app subscription through Apple's StoreKit: Annual $29.99 or Lifetime $79.99, with Restore Purchases across Macs on the same Apple Account and cancel-anytime from the App Store.
  • improvedMulti-source recording now spans 2–9 sources, and App-tab entries are selectable alongside displays and windows.
  • improvedThe free 5-minute cap now covers Studio too; Pro removes it everywhere.

1.0.0-beta.8

July 2026

Face blurring, native-res default & the video mixer

  • newAutomatic face redaction: blur every face, or click the ones to hide — each is detected on-device (Apple Vision) and tracked independently through the video. Combine with drawn boxes; blur or blackout.
  • newCrystal-clear by default: recordings now capture at your display's true native resolution, so text stays sharp on 4K/Retina screens. Switching displays follows the new native size; explicit picks always win.
  • newFull video mixer in Compose: drag and resize every source anywhere on the canvas, overlap them, set per-source opacity, volume, and start offsets — plus canvases up to 8K and adjustable PiP main/tile sizes.
  • newEvery finished processing job (redact, background removal, compose, GIF) now lands as a Done row with Play / Reveal / Save As — no more hunting for the output file.
  • improvedAspect ratios are always preserved when compositing — cells letterbox instead of stretching.
  • improvedThe 5-minute free-tier limit now applies consistently to all processing tools, with a clear message before a long job starts. Pro is unlimited everywhere.
  • fixedUI polish: proper window margins, no more clipped buttons or missing-glyph boxes, aligned option rows.

1.0.0-beta.7

July 2026

Multi-source recording

  • newRecord 2–9 screens and windows at once: pick them with numbered badges, choose a layout, and stopping merges everything into one video automatically.
  • newcompose-grid --audio-from carries one source's audio track into the merged video, untouched.
  • newGIF button on every finished recording row.

1.0.0-beta.6

July 2026

Multi-monitor polish

  • newRegion crop now works on any monitor in multi-display setups, not just the main one.
  • fixedRecordings of a completely static screen now report the correct duration.
  • improvedFrame delivery is gated to the display's actual refresh rate — even less wasted work.

1.0.0-beta.5

July 2026

Crash-proof recordings

  • newRecordings are written as fragmented MP4 every 2 seconds — a crash, power loss, or force-quit costs you at most the last 2 seconds, never the take.
  • newRedaction is now in the GUI: drag boxes over sensitive regions, choose blur or blackout, baked into the file.
  • newText & emoji overlays — burn titles and full-color emoji into the video from the CLI or the app.
  • improvedBuilds are signed for App Store distribution.

1.0.0-beta.4

July 2026

Reliability sweep

  • newGIF export from the Done row — any clip becomes a share-ready GIF.
  • newPermission deep-links: the app opens the exact System Settings pane when Screen Recording access is missing.
  • newPer-session stats — see duration, size, and dropped-frame count (still zero) after every take.
  • improvedThe app's own window is excluded from your recordings automatically.
  • fixedProRes recordings now finalize correctly; display-disconnect mid-recording is handled gracefully.

1.0.0-beta.3

July 2026

Audio mixing & iPhone camera

  • newRecord system audio and your microphone at the same time, mixed into one AAC track with per-source gain (0–200%).
  • newCamera picker with Continuity Camera support — your iPhone shows up as a webcam, no cables.
  • newCompose 2–9 videos onto one canvas: grid, side-by-side, rows, PiP corners, or speaker layout.
  • improvedCompose supports exact pixel rects and time windows, with PTS-correct pairing.

1.0.0-beta.2

July 2026

The UI release

  • newSource picker with live screen-capture thumbnails and large hover previews — see exactly what you're about to record.
  • newMultiple parallel recordings with a live session panel.
  • newSnipping-tool style crop overlay; app-grouped source cards.
  • newMenu-bar timer with one-click stop, plus the ⌘⇧. global hotkey.
  • improvedLive progress bar for background removal; status and errors surface in the UI.
  • fixedStartup crash on thumbnail upload; muxer crash on empty sessions.

1.0.0-beta.1

June 2026

First public beta

  • newThe zero-copy engine: 4K60 screen recording at less than 1% CPU, with zero dropped frames.
  • newH.264, HEVC, and ProRes encoding — all in hardware.
  • newDisplay, window, and app-level capture; region crop; multi-monitor parallel recording.
  • newWebcam picture-in-picture; background removal (Vision + U²-Net).
  • newFree tier (5 min/recording) and Pro subscription.
  • newOpen benchmark harness — reproduce every performance claim with `wispframe probe --bench`.