January 2019 Squarespace Product Updates
Every week as a Squarespace Circle Member (sign-up if you regularly build client websites) we get the latest product updates sent to our email. We realized that even though this community is growing, there are a lot of other Squarespace users that don’t get these updates, so the Brad Good team wanted to compile the most important changes every month in a easy to read blog post.
If you are wondering about all of the new updates Squarespace released in January, read more below!
Week: December 24 to January 6
Panel Navigation Improvements
Squarespace made the following improvements to the editing experience based on your feedback:
The URL slug field is back in the Basic tab of Page Settings.
The option to disable Promoted Blocks is now in Design > Template Settings.
Custom CSS was bumped up a level in the Design panel. It was previously under Design > Advanced.
To add custom Adobe Fonts, go to Settings > Advanced > External API Keys.
More Email Campaign Automation Tools
You can now delete automations in Email Campaigns, and each automation has its own Analytics.
Resources
The Squarespace help site is constantly updated with new information you can browse, use to troubleshoot, and get ideas for your own client education content. Here’s a sample of recent changes:
Changing title formats for SEO and browser tabs - Added more tips and examples.
Choosing the right template - Completely revised this popular guide with new recommendations.
Customizing your checkout experience - A hub of links on all the ways you can tailor a checkout page to a store’s needs, including custom forms, styling options, required information, and Express Checkout.
Email campaign unsubscribes - All information about unsubscribes in one place.
Navigation menu icons - There’s a new section on hiding the icon on mobile. It’s a built-in option in some templates, and others require custom code.
Some guides now have additional instructions for the Squarespace App. For example, see the Announcement Bar guide, with more to come in the future.
Week: January 7 to January 13
Global Template Store Improvements
Template stores in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese now have example customer sites and a prominent search at the top. Squarespace added these features to the English version back in October.
As an example, here’s Brine’s page in Spanish.
Discontinued Feature: Facebook Tabs
Facebook Tabs, the integration that allowed you to embed pages from a Squarespace site into tabs on a Facebook Page, was removed from the platform last week.
The Facebook Tabs integration wasn’t widely used and was unreliable at times. The benefits of letting it go outweighed the benefits of maintaining it. By retiring Facebook Tabs, Squarespace can continue building new marketing features that provide the most value to our customers.
Any existing Squarespace tabs left in Facebook Pages might be blank. To fix the issue, follow Facebook’s directions on removing tabs and apps.
Marketing Panel Polishes
There are a few subtle navigation improvements in the Marketing panel:
Ad Tracker is now called URL Builder.
For better organization, menu items are grouped under Discovery, Engagement, and Promotion sections.
Week: January 14 to January 20
Video Backgrounds Now Play On Mobile
Thanks to recent updates to iOS and Android operating systems, video backgrounds can now play on mobile. We recommend adding a mobile fallback image just in case, since that will display on slower connections or older devices that don’t support video playback. Like other imagery areas in Squarespace, there’s some expected cropping so the videos best fit on mobile displays.
Zapier Form Storage Improvements
By popular demand, you can now add Zapier as the only storage option for the following forms, even while the connection is set to pending:
Form Blocks
Newsletter Blocks
Cover Page forms
Additionally, you can start the connection to Zapier directly from the form’s storage tab instead of being directed to our help guide first. For detailed steps, visit Adding form integrations with Zapier.
Retired Adobe Fonts
Adobe retired the following fonts from their subscription library last week. If a site is already using a retired font, it’ll continue to display. However, once you change the font, you can’t go back to using the retired font:
Chemist
Chemist Rough
Couture
Couture Sans
Daniel
Fanwood Text
Intruder Alert
Junction
League Script No 1
Lobster
Luxi Sans
Luxi Serif
Molengo
New Cicle
Nobile
Prociono
Puritan
saxMono
Silkscreen
Simply Mono
Vera Sans
To learn more about how Adobe retires fonts, visit their documentation.
Week: January 14 to January 20
Squarespace Marketplace Is Now Live
Squarespace partnered with 99designs to create the Squarespace Marketplace to help their most experienced and active Circle members connect with and delight even more clients.
To learn more, see their FAQ for designers or help center guide for potential clients.
Changes To The Account Dashboard
Squarespace made a couple changes to domains on the Account Dashboard:
If a user's account doesn't have Owner or Admin permissions for a site, they won't see its domains in the Account Dashboard. This hides the domains from users who can't take action on them.
A new Transfer a Domain button takes you to options for moving Squarespace domains to a parking page or existing site.