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Pangea 8.44 - Release highlights

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Release schedule:

The Pangea 8.44 release is scheduled for Wednesday, November 19th 2025 at the times listed below:

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
  • Prague time: 05:00 am - 07:00 am
  • DC / Miami time: 11:00 pm (November 18th) - 01:00 am (November 19th)
Voice of America
  • DC / Miami time: 02:00 am - 04:00 am
  • Prague time: 08:00 am - 10:00 am
Office of Cuba Broadcasting
  • DC / Miami time: 04:00 am - 05:00 am
  • Prague time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
LibertyNet
  • Prague time: 07:00 am - 08:00 am
  • DC / Miami time: 01:00 am - 02:00 am


What's new?


Vertical player for embedded videos

Vertical video embeds now appear in a vertical player on all devices, not just on mobile. Previously, vertical videos appeared in a horizontal player with black bars on the sides.

This change applies for vertical video embeds on the following text content pages:

  • Article | Blog | FactCheck | Feature | Feature story | Live blog | News | Transcript

This change also applies for vertical video embeds on HTML widgets.

To make your vertical videos look as attractive as possible, optimize both the horizontal and vertical thumbnails. For details, see the following article:



Sharing navigation redesign

We have completely redesigned the sharing navigation that appears on content pages. All actions are now grouped together under a single Share button.

This approach offers the following main benefits:

  • Clearer labeling: The "Share" label is directly visible and clearly communicates the button's purpose.
  • Cleaner pages: The new navigation occupies less space, removing visual clutter from content pages.

New behavior for content sharing on mobile

On mobile devices, the new Share button opens the native share card (on devices and browsers that support this functionality). The share card provides convenient access to all installed apps on the particular device that can be used for content sharing.

NOTE: Where the native share card is not supported, the Share button opens the website sharing navigation (same as on desktop).

What you need to do

We've updated some global share button labels to be shorter. If your site uses localized labels, go to the Site localization page in Pangea CMS and update them to match the new global values:

Key nameGlobal value (new)
Responsive.Sharing.CopyLinkCopy link
Responsive.Social.EmailToFriendEmail

The Copy link and Email buttons will start to appear on every website. Please add local values, even if these buttons don't currently appear on your site.

The buttons for specific platforms (such as Facebook and Telegram) will update automatically with no action required from services. For example:

  • "Share on Facebook" will change to Facebook.
  • "Share on Telegram" will change to Telegram.



AI Content Assistance: New ChatGPT model

We've updated AI Content Assistance to work with Chat GPT 5, the latest ChatGPT model. This update gives editors access to more advanced AI capabilities.

After the 8.44 release, we'll test ChatGPT 5 with a small group of services. If testing goes well, we'll enable this update for all our pilot services in the following weeks.

NOTE: AI Content Assistance is a new feature on the Pangea platform, which is currently only available for selected pilot services. Learn more.



AI Audio Narration: Custom pronunciations

You can now tell AI Audio Narration how to pronounce particular words. This is useful if the AI consistently mispronounces a word that commonly appears in your articles.

Custom pronunciations are set individually per website. To add one or more custom pronunciation rules, contact Pangea Customer Care.

NOTE: We can configure AI Audio Narration for individual services on request, subject to language availability. Learn more.



Small image embeds on mobile

Small images on content pages (images embedded using the Small size option) now show in a smaller size also on mobile. Previously, the smaller size was only visible on desktop.



Region retirement (effective from 8.45)

Regions will be retired in the Pangea 8.45 release (January 27, 2026). Regions will continue to work normally after 8.44, but will not be visible on content pages after 8.45.

Find more details below:

A Region is a collection of widgets that appears on article pages (at the side of the page on desktop and below the main content on mobile devices).

The decision to retire Regions was made in consultation with RFE/RL news division management for the following reasons:

  • For readers on mobile, Regions can create an overwhelming experience with too much content stacked below the article body.
  • For readers on desktop, Regions can disrupt the reading experience and increase cognitive load.

No action is required. However, you may want to review the content promoted through Regions and consider alternative promotion strategies.

Consider these alternatives:

  • You Might Also Like (YMAL): A collection of widgets that appears at the bottom of the article. Each article automatically displays the YMAL assigned to its Primary Category.
  • Related content: A collection of content links that appears at the bottom of the article. Related content is manually added for each article.
  • Core navigation: Elements (such as Primary and Footer navigation) that appear on every page and typically include links to key pages.

Migrating content from Regions to YMAL

Be selective with YMAL content. We don't recommend automatically transferring everything from a Region to its corresponding YMAL. Instead:

  1. Review both the Region and YMAL for each Category.
  2. Select the content that provides the most value to readers.
  3. Display only this high-value content in the YMAL.

For detailed guidance and tips on how to optimize YMAL, see the following article:

In Pangea CMS, Regions will stay accessible and available to view until after the 8.46 release (March 24, 2026). After this date, the Regions list will be removed from Pangea CMS.

If you would like advice or assistance on how to promote the content from your Regions, please contact Pangea Customer Care. We will be happy provide tips and practical training on how to work with Pangea CMS features.



Slide-in widget retirement (effective from 8.45)

Slide-in widgets will be retired in the Pangea 8.45 release (January 27, 2026). Slide-in widgets will continue to work normally after 8.44, but will not be visible on content pages after 8.45.

Find more details below:

A Slide-in widget is a special widget that slides in at the bottom of an article page after a reader starts scrolling.

The decision to retire Slide-in widgets was made in consultation with RFE/RL news division management for the following reasons:

  • Website data shows very low audience engagement with Slide-in widgets.
  • During research interviews, website readers reported that Slide-in widgets are disruptive to the reading experience, especially on smaller mobile screens.

No action is required. However, you may want to review the content promoted through Slide-in widgets and consider alternative promotion strategies.

Consider these alternatives:

  • You Might Also Like (YMAL): A collection of widgets that appears at the bottom of the article. Each article automatically displays the YMAL assigned to its Primary Category.
  • Related content: A collection of content links that appears at the bottom of the article. Related content is manually added for each article.
  • Core navigation: Elements (such as Primary and Footer navigation) that appear on every page and typically include links to key pages.

For detailed guidance and tips on how to optimize YMAL, see the following article:

In Pangea CMS, Slide-in widgets will stay accessible and available to view until after the 8.45 release (January 27, 2026). After this date, the Slide-in widget list will be removed from Pangea CMS.

If you would like advice or assistance on how to promote the content from your Slide-in widgets, please contact Pangea Customer Care. We will be happy provide tips and practical training on how to work with Pangea CMS features.

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