Icecat Studio – Sprint 95 Release Notes

Sprint 95 was a busy one. We pushed forward on several fronts simultaneously: new AI capabilities in the Sandbox, a refreshed Story Builder interface, meaningful infrastructure improvements, and the early groundwork for features that will shape the platform over the coming sprints. Here’s a full rundown of what we delivered.

AI-Driven Sandbox image generation

Our AI-powered image generation in the Sandbox continues to evolve. This sprint we added suggestion chips — quick-access prompts that help users get started faster without having to write everything from scratch. We also set a smarter default model to ensure the best out-of-the-box experience for most use cases (GPT Image 2).

Story Builder v2 – Left Sidebar

This is one of the most significant Studio releases in recent months — the builder is noticeably more attractive and easier to use.

Here’s what changed:

• Completely rethought module bar: The left sidebar is now structured around the ideal rich content journey — Brand & Trust, Introduction & Key Sections, Image Gallery, Video & Rich Media, Key Benefits, Feature Details — making it intuitive to build stories in the right order.
• New module preview designs: Cleaner visuals, better aligned with the Icecat visual identity.
• Hover preview: Modules now show a quick preview on hover for faster navigation without extra clicks.
• Search by keywords and key story elements: Finding the right module is now much faster — no more scrolling through the full list.
• New ordering tree: A clearer view of the story structure with easier drag-and-drop rearrangement.
• Updated top bar: Key action buttons have been reorganized for a more intuitive workflow.
• Favorites preset: Users can now save their own preset of favorite modules — especially useful since most brands work with a recurring set of 10–15 modules.

Sandbox Improvements

We shipped a meaningful set of improvements and fixes to the Sandbox this sprint:

Improved close dialog: When closing the Sandbox with unsaved changes, a new modal now offers three clear options: Yes to save and close, No to discard changes and close, and Cancel to return to the Sandbox.

Bug fixes: Resolved several small bugs related to frame sizing, background resizing, and SVG import — text positioning in imported SVGs now preserves the original alignment instead of forcing everything to the left. We also changed the default fill for transparent PNG images from dark to transparent.

Detach background: A new “Detach background” function lets users detach the background and convert it into a regular layer. Previously, the background would be automatically removed with no way to preserve it.

Cropping: A dedicated crop function is now available — triggered by double-clicking an element or pressing the “Crop” button. This opens a crop frame you can adjust freely. Confirm with Enter or by clicking outside the crop area; press Escape to cancel.

Lock aspect ratio: A lock aspect ratio button is now enabled by default. When dragging a corner handle, the image scales proportionally. Unlocking allows free resizing in any direction.

Content Versioning

Addition of “Name” Entity in Icecat Studio DB

As part of our ongoing work on Content Versioning, we introduced a new Name entity in the Icecat Studio database in the previous sprint. In this sprint, we took the next step and laid the foundation for the UI for adding new versions, bringing this feature closer to being available to end users.

Delayed publication/unpublication

Also in the context of versioning: we’ve been working on support for scheduled publication and unpublication of story variants and versions. This will allow teams to plan and automate content to go live or be taken down at specific times, a key capability for campaign management and time-sensitive product launches.

Auto-import – UI, Backend Improvements

Work on the Auto-Import pipeline continues. This sprint we made progress on both the backend and frontend layers, including improvements to the flexible modules feature. Flexible modules provide fallback logic when a single template receives different input data structures, important for maintaining consistency. We’re continuing to build toward a robust, scalable import system.

Storage System Optimization

We continued our large-scale effort to optimize and migrate our storage infrastructure. This is an ongoing initiative spanning multiple sprints, and while the changes are mostly under the hood, they directly affect performance, reliability, and long-term scalability of the platform.

Product Story Framework v2

Significant progress on our next-generation Product Story framework:

• Architecture migration complete: The framework logic has been fully rewritten, delivering more stable behavior and faster content loading.
• New UI components: Updated interface elements have been introduced, including comparison modules, improved galleries, and interactive content blocks.
• CDN & asset optimization: A new image and media processing pipeline has been implemented to improve performance.
• Improved responsiveness: The framework now renders seamlessly across mobile devices and a wide range of desktop browsers.
• Flexible style customization: Extended styling options have been added that allow content managers to customize the look and feel.

If you are interested, click here and book a demo with Icecat Studio.