📘 TextWhisper Features

TextWhisper is a rehearsal and performance platform for performing-arts groups. Core strengths include centralized layered PDF annotation, text and lyric learning tools, live score interaction, structured content operations, collaboration management, multi-source file integration, and ownership tracking.

👤 User Identity

  • Logged-in user shown in top-right menu
  • URL reflects selected user or list token, and item — updates dynamically when browsing or sharing
  • User avatars displayed next to usernames in user lists and chat messages for better visual identification.

🛡️ Account Security & Validation

  • Strong password requirements (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, minimum 6 chars)
  • Email confirmation required before login
  • Disposable email domains blocked during registration
  • Display name validation with anti-spam filters (no gibberish, reserved words, excessive repetition)
  • Client-side and server-side input validation for consistency

🔐 Privacy Controls

  • Each list has a privacy level that controls who can access it:
  •  🌐 Public – open and searchable by anyone
  •  🔒 Private – visible only to you and invited list-chat members
  •  🕵️ Secret – hidden from search, but shareable via private link
  • Privacy affects list visibility, chat access, and who can view or join
  • You can change a list’s privacy setting anytime from the list menu
  • Only owners or admins can invite others or adjust privacy
  • All chats are end-to-end encrypted. Only users with list-chat access can read them.

🗂️ List & Item Management

  • Create, rename, reorder, and delete lists
  • Add/remove items from lists (yours or others')
  • Mark lists as Public or Private
  • Favorite lists for quick access
  • Item actions: add to list, attach PDF, remove
  • List actions: offline access, add to My Lists, rename, delete

💬 List Chat & Collaboration

  • Real-time chat scoped to each list
  • Floating chat icon (mobile/desktop-aware) or footer toggle
  • Displays messages with emoji and multi-line formatting
  • Supports invite-only list participation
  • Owners, Admins and editors can invite members via email
  • Role system: Viewer, Commenter, Editor, Admin, Paused
  • Invite UI integrated in chat panel with inline role editing
  • Access control enforced server-side for chat visibility and modification
  • Unread message count shown per list
  • Clickable badge opens the chat directly from the list
  • Only invited members can see or send messages for a list
  • Smart menu to select unread list chats (shown when clicking chat tab with unread)
  • Unread chat selector shows per-list unread counts and current list (if not already listed)
  • Chat selection clears unread state automatically (badge + backend timestamp)
  • Chat auto-scroll and "new messages" indicator work seamlessly
  • Push notifications triggered by messages containing ! or 🔔
  • Push includes list name as title, respects sound + visibility settings
  • Only subscribed and invited users receive pushes
  • User avatars shown inline with chat messages
  • Timestamps displayed above each chat message bubble
  • All chats are end-to-end encrypted

🧭 Sidebar & Navigation

  • Sidebar tabs: Lists / Users
  • Search box filters users/lists/items
  • Sidebar auto-collapses on small screens
  • Floating ⋮ toggle button (mobile)
  • Unified sidebar toggle across header, footer, and floating button
  • Sidebar toggle preserves the current tab
  • Share Group action available in sidebar group menus

📅 Event Planner & Polls

  • Event Groups (with members) and Categories (label-only classification)
  • Category settings with custom color selection
  • Create recurring events per group
  • Member/admin check-in and check-out
  • Attendance reports with filters (period, group, category)
  • Built-in event polls: create, vote, and share in chat

📄 PDF Viewer with annotations

  • Owner and user annotations supported (two overlays)
  • Hover or tap annotation to see who is the owner
  • Scroll and zoom while drawing or viewing
  • Annotations persist across sessions and offline use
  • Draw with mouse, finger, or stylus using pointer events
  • Pinch-to-zoom with consistent panning support
  • Line width adjusts non-linearly with zoom for visual stability
  • Base annotation overlay per owner or admin
  • Additional annotation overlay per user
  • Double-tap edges to switch to next/previous item
  • Smart margin detection automatically reduces large white borders for a cleaner view
  • Optimized screen usage — PDFs expand to fill available space, especially on tablets
  • Adaptive zoom levels based on detected text area
  • Configurable navigation arrows for Continuous and Paged view modes
  • Continuous view: page up/down via arrows
  • Paged view: previous/next page via arrows
  • Boundary navigation to previous/next item (PDF) in the list

✏️ PDF Annotation Tools

  • Pen tool (uses color picker)
  • Highlighter tool draws straight lines, uses same color picker (avoids black)
  • Eraser tool (freehand erase)
  • Undo last annotation
  • Clear all annotations
  • Save annotations
  • Reload annotations
  • Print with annotations included

🖨️ PDF Printing

  • Print PDFs with annotations included
  • Uses subject as suggested file name

📤 PDF Upload

  • PDFs stored per item and loaded on demand
  • Drag-and-drop PDF upload with automatic replacement
  • PDF File upload from PC or device
  • Support for pasting direct PDF URLs
  • PDF IMSLP search, autofills from text subject
  • Mobile-safe upload button fallback

👆 Gesture Navigation

  • Swipe left/right (in center of screen, one finger) to go to next/previous item
  • Works globally when not in edit mode
  • Double-tap screen edges (PDF view) also navigates between items

📝 Text Editing

  • Edit mode for owners and admins
  • Rich text tools: Bold, Italic, Underline
  • Dual textareas (editable + trimmed preview on wide screens)
  • Slider to adjust text trim level
  • New, Save, Refresh, Delete, and Print controls
  • Smarter HTML-based editor for stable formatting
  • Toolbar visibility synced with edit mode and the Text tab
  • Shows owner and last editor
  • Edit history is stored

✏️ Text Annotations

  • Available to all logged-in users (private to each user)
  • Highlight text selections with color options
  • Add comments in draggable bubble markers
  • Freehand drawing directly on the text
  • Drawings appear in movable bubbles anchored to the correct word
  • Unified Undo for highlights, comments, and drawings
  • Accurate touch selection and smooth mobile drawing
  • Annotations save automatically and restore when reopening items
  • Text stays unchanged — annotations float safely above it

🎵 Music Tab

  • Add music via drag-and-drop or by pasting links in the Music panel
  • Add music from This device, cloud imports, and supported links
  • Upload your own MIDI, MP3, WAV, FLAC, or M4A files per item for in-browser playback
  • Paste links from YouTube, Spotify, and Soundslice — embedded players appear automatically
  • Supports built-in MIDI player with channel mute, solo (focus), per-channel volume, and editable names
  • MIDI player shows real-time activity pulses and supports seeking via progress bar
  • Channel names are editable and saved per file for consistent labeling
  • Native HTML5 audio player used for supported audio formats
  • Pin any player (YouTube, Spotify, MIDI, audio) to float outside the panel for focused playback
  • Floating players are draggable and mobile-aware — reposition with drag or long-press
  • Playback continues uninterrupted when collapsing or pinning/unpinning the player
  • Only one pinned player is active at a time — auto-unpins or restores as needed
  • Delete uploaded music files if you are the item owner or an admin
  • Soundslice links also open fullscreen or in-app (mobile-aware)
  • Footer music button toggles the Music panel and adapts behavior to platform

🎶 Music Playback Enhancements

  • Loop playback: repeat the same track or automatically move to the next item
  • Set a default audio or MIDI file per item for playlist-style looping
  • Loop mode selector directly in the audio player (no loop / repeat track / loop list)
  • Player controls fully usable in pinned mode (progress, speed, skip, loop)
  • Pinned player stays active while navigating — draggable on desktop and mobile
  • Cleaner right-aligned controls with pin and default checkmark

⚙️ Config Menu

  • Home, Logged in as..., Login/Logout
  • Edit Mode toggle
  • About, Version, App Reset
  • Signed-in avatar indicates active identity/context

📴 Offline Mode & PWA Support

  • Works as a Progressive Web App (PWA) — installable like a native app on mobile or desktop
  • Offline access for marked lists: view text, PDFs, and annotations without internet
  • Service Worker caches the app shell, list metadata, PDFs, and drawing data
  • List viewer supports offline loading with a refresh fallback if partially cached
  • Version-aware cache invalidation with automatic background updates
  • Offline indicator banner shows when no connection is detected

🧠 Smart UI Behavior

  • URL updates dynamically as user switches lists or items
  • Direct links to /token/surrogate open exact content
  • Sidebar state (tab, scroll, expanded/collapsed groups) persists
  • Soundslice tab launches fullscreen or app depending on device

🔗 Sharing

  • Share lists: https://textwhisper.com/{token}
  • Share items: https://textwhisper.com/{token}/{surrogate}
  • Supports usernames and list tokens in URLs
  • Accessible via list and item menus (⋮ → Share this list/item)
  • Opens native share options: copy link, Nearby Share, Messages, Mail, Facebook, Chat, and more (based on your device)
  • Meta tags for rich previews on social and chat apps
  • Works with offline lists too

👥 Friends tab

  • "My Friends" view shows all distinct chat-connected users across your lists
  • "List Chat Members" allows lazy-loaded viewing of participants per list, including roles and invited users

🔒 System Features

  • Session-based authentication
  • Ownership-validated inserts, edits, deletes
  • Private lists are hidden from search/guests
  • Public content accessible without login
  • Optional “Stay logged in” with secure persistent cookie

🧩 Enhancements (November 2025)

  • ✏️ Unified Text Annotation System — highlights, comments, and drawings now share the same engine
  • 🖍️ Freehand drawing on text with accurate anchoring to the correct words
  • 🫧 Movable drawing bubbles with stable positions and automatic re-anchoring on text changes
  • ✒️ New highlight engine — smoother selection, no duplicated text, better removal
  • 💬 Improved comment bubbles — cleaner editing, stable offsets, full undo of moves and text changes
  • ↩️ Unified Undo System — undo highlights, comments, drawings, and text edits
  • 🖐️ Touch improvements — accurate highlighting and drawing on phones and tablets
  • 🎨 New drawing palette with color pickers for pen, highlighter, and draw tools
  • 🅱️ Rich text formatting added: Bold, Italic, Underline
  • 🔧 New HTML-based text editor replacing old plain-text engine for stability and precision
  • 🔄 Refresh action now resets both text and drawing canvas, respecting active tools
  • 🧠 Edit mode permissions tightened — only owners/admins can edit text; all users can annotate privately
  • 🧲 More consistent tool state syncing between text mode, draw mode, and palette buttons

🧩 Enhancements (October 2025)

  • 🎵 New audio loop system — choose between no loop, repeat track, or loop entire list
  • 📌 Pinned player enhancements — cleaner UI, stable playback, draggable on all devices
  • ⭐ Default music per item — mark one audio or MIDI file as the default for automatic playlist looping
  • 🎚️ Fully interactive pinned player — progress bar, speed control, loop mode all work correctly
  • 🔍 More precise click-handling — player no longer collapses when adjusting controls
  • 🧩 Cleaner control layout — default checkbox aligned next to the pin button for music and MIDI only
  • 💾 Persistent defaults — default pinned music stored per item for smart auto-play when looping lists
  • 📄 Automatic PDF margin detection — intelligently trims large white page borders for cleaner, space-efficient reading
  • 📱 Tablet-optimized view — maximizes content area so PDFs fill the screen instead of wasting space on margins
  • 🔍 Smarter zoom behavior — auto-adjusts zoom levels based on detected text region, no manual fine-tuning needed
  • ⚡ Faster page rendering — margin detection now uses optimized pixel scanning for quicker load times
  • 🖥️ Consistent layout across devices — ensures PDFs look balanced on phones, tablets, and desktops

🧩 Enhancements (April 2025)

  • 💬 List-based chat: one chat per list, visible only to invited members
  • 👥 Inline member invite interface with role control: Viewer, Commenter, Editor, Admin, Paused
  • ➕ Member management is fully integrated into the chat panel UI
  • 📂 Unified sidebar toggle logic across footer, hamburger, and floating button (window.toggleSidebar())
  • 🧭 Footer navigation bar with tab switching, fullscreen toggle, chat toggle, and Soundslice integration
  • 📺 Fullscreen mode via footer button, including support for iOS Safari scroll hack
  • 💬 Footer-based chat toggle replaces floating bubble, fixes overlap and maintains state
  • 🎨 Edit mode toolbar logic synced across tab switches (text and PDF)
  • 🧠 Sidebar toggle and item selection preserve the current active tab
  • 🛡️ Registration hardened with client+server display name validation
  • 📛 Display names must be 3–30 chars and reject gibberish, repetition, and reserved words
  • 🚫 Disposable email addresses are now blocked at signup
  • 🖍️ New zoomable canvas with stylus/touchpad/finger drawing support
  • 📐 Smart line scaling: stroke thickness remains visually stable at any zoom level
  • 📄 PDF annotation tools improved with eraser, box erase, and undo
  • 📤 Drag-and-drop PDF upload replaces old version and updates cache
  • 📴 Enhanced offline support with version-aware Service Worker caching
  • 🔐 Fully redesigned login system with session + persistent token support
  • 🧼 Automatic cleanup of duplicate session tokens per browser/device
  • 📲 Login sessions display OS, browser, and device type in plain English
  • 🗑️ Logout panel with option to revoke specific sessions or all devices
  • 🟢 Active session is visually highlighted ("This browser") and non-revocable
  • 🛑 Session versioning prevents reuse after remote logout
  • 🔁 Persistent tokens auto-renew upon reuse (rotation + expiry refresh)

🧩 Enhancements (May 2025)

  • 🧼 Box eraser with live preview overlay (dashed rectangle)
  • 🧠 Undo stack per page for annotation edits
  • ✏️ Stylus, finger, and touchpad drawing supported across platforms
  • 📄 Annotations saved per page and persist across sessions
  • 📉 Smart zoom & pan support while drawing (touch-action tuning)
  • 🕊️ Missing annotation files return silently — avoids error logging
  • ⚡ Fast overlay rendering even without existing annotations
  • 📱 Scroll-to-bottom bug fixed on long PDFs
  • 📏 Line width auto-scales with zoom for better visual consistency
  • 🧭 Sidebar auto-collapses on iPads in portrait mode
  • 👓 Dual textarea display enabled for screens wider than 1000px
  • 📝 In edit mode, original (readonly) textarea auto-hides
  • 🔁 Sidebar and tab state preserved across navigation
  • 🛡️ Role-based drawing control (e.g., viewer cannot annotate)

🧩 Enhancements (Jun 2025)

  • 🔐 Session-based token management (temporary vs persistent) now unified
  • 🧠 Logout preserves referrer logic — returns to current list or root
  • 📛 Improved session labeling: includes IP, device type, and expiration
  • 📄 Cleaner device session rendering using parsed User-Agent summary
  • 🧩 Revoke session UI grouped and styled consistently with form behavior
  • 🔴 Unread message count shown per list — updates in real time
  • 🔴 Clickable badge opens the chat directly from the list
  • 🔔 'New messages' alert shown in chat when user scrolls up
  • 💬 Messages aligned left/right based on sender identity
  • 📋 Multi-line messages preserved with proper formatting
  • 😊 Emoji insertion via native OS picker
  • ✏️ Input area supports Shift+Enter for newlines (desktop)
  • ⏳ Auto-scrolls to bottom when new messages arrive (unless scrolled up)
  • 🔐 Only invited members can see or send messages for a list
  • 🐽 Smart menu to select unread list chats (shown when clicking chat tab with unread)
  • 📍 Unread chat selector shows per-list unread counts and current list (if not already listed)
  • ✅ Chat selection clears unread state automatically (badge + backend timestamp)
  • 🧠 Chat auto-scroll and 'new messages' indicator work seamlessly
  • 🔔 Push notifications triggered by messages containing ! or 🔔
  • 🔔 Push includes list name as title, respects sound + visibility settings
  • 🔔 Only subscribed and invited users receive pushes
  • 🎵 MIDI and MP3 file upload supported per item
  • 📌 Pin music players (MIDI or MP3) to float outside panel for persistent playback
  • 📤 Drag-and-drop music file upload with file type validation and size limits
  • 📝 Uploaded audio filenames preserve Icelandic characters (í, æ, ö, etc.)
  • 🗑️ Delete buttons for music files (visible to owner/admin only)
  • 🔗 Soundslice links supported in text — rendered in Music tab automatically
  • 📥 Pinned music players auto-close when switching away from Music tab

🧩 Enhancements (July 2025)

  • 📺 YouTube links now render embedded video players in the Music panel
  • 📌 Floating player logic extended to YouTube, Spotify, MIDI, and audio embeds
  • 🧠 Music panel parses and displays multiple link types with correct player format
  • 🎛️ Built-in MIDI player redesigned with channel mute, solo (focus), volume sliders, and editable names
  • 🌈 Real-time channel activity pulse visualizations in MIDI player
  • 📝 Channel names are preserved between sessions using metadata storage
  • 🎚️ MIDI progress bar supports interactive seeking
  • 📍 Pinning/unpinning or collapsing players no longer interrupts playback
  • 🔐 All chats are end-to-end encrypted. Only users with list access can read them.
  • 👥 User avatars displayed next to usernames in user lists
  • 💬 User avatars shown inline with chat messages
  • 💬 Timestamps displayed above each chat message bubble
  • 👥 “My Friends” view shows all distinct chat-connected users across your lists
  • 👥 “List Chat Members” allows lazy-loaded viewing of participants per list, including roles and invited users
  • 🔗 Share option added to list and item menus, with support for native app sharing and rich previews

🧩 Enhancements (August 2025)

  • 📄 'No PDF found' screen redesigned with consistent layout and permission-aware options
  • 📥 In addition to drag/drop and file upload, added support for pasting direct PDF URLs
  • 🔍 IMSLP search autofills from text subject and reuses a single browser tab

🔮 Planned Enhancements

  • Secret list tokens (no login sharing)
  • Expiring share tokens
  • Public list discovery/search
  • Market mode for selling contributions
  • User-specific annotation layers
  • Auto-optimize scanned PDFs (readability + size)
  • Import from IMSLP or public sources (curated, with metadata)
  • Music-sharing hub (public domain sheet music)