Invision Community 5.1 brings a wide range of improvements to the user interface, with a particular focus on performance, accessibility, and usability.

We’ve modernized many of our existing components, reduced our reliance on third-party JavaScript, and made dozens of small refinements that make the overall experience feel faster and more intuitive.

Here are some of the highlights.

Better performance

Performance has been a major focus of 5.1.

We’ve upgraded jQuery to version 4 and have removed several third-party libraries, including UnderscoreJS. Combined with the performance improvements introduced in 5.0, this has reduced the amount of JavaScript downloaded on each page by around 250KB compared to Invision Community 4.

That means less code for the browser to download and process, helping communities load and respond faster while relying less on third-party libraries.

Several individual components have also seen significant reductions in JavaScript.

Mini profiles

Mini profiles have received a significant overhaul in 5.1. Previously, a mini profile could accidentally appear simply by moving your mouse over the trigger. They also presented a number of accessibility issues.

In 5.1, mini profiles require a deliberate click or tap to open. They’re now fully keyboard accessible and, for the first time, they work on touch devices. On mobile, you can also use a familiar swipe gesture to dismiss the profile card.

Ratings

Ratings have been redesigned to make them both more deliberate and significantly lighter. In 5.0, it was possible to submit a rating accidentally with an unintended tap or mouse click. In 5.1, rating options are contained within a simple dropdown that only appears after an intentional interaction.

The component has also received an 80% reduction in JavaScript, making it considerably lighter.

Reactions

The reactions interface has also been modernized. Previously, the reaction menu appeared when hovering over the component, which could make the interface feel a little fragile, especially when using a mouse. In 5.1, the reaction picker is opened with an intentional click and can be navigated entirely with the keyboard.

It’s also around 40% lighter in JavaScript.

Native form controls

We’ve updated a number of form components to make greater use of native browser controls. One example is the select tree. In 5.1, it uses the Popover API alongside semantic input elements. This improves its accessibility while also allowing us to reduce its JavaScript by around 75%.

Password peek

We’ve also added a password peek feature to password inputs throughout the platform.

A simple control lets users temporarily reveal what they’ve typed, making it easier to catch typing mistakes before submitting a form.

Accessibility improvements under the hood

In 5.1, screen readers receive more accurate information about interactive elements such as menus and dialogs. We’ve also replaced dozens of interactive links with native button elements where appropriate. These changes provide better semantics and more predictable keyboard behaviour, helping make the interface more usable for people who navigate communities without a mouse.

A more polished 5.1

These are just some of the changes coming in Invision Community 5.1.

Alongside the improvements highlighted here, we’ve made dozens of other accessibility improvements, performance optimizations, UI refinements, and bug fixes throughout the platform.

The result is an interface that is faster, more accessible, and more polished, while making better use of modern browser capabilities and native controls.

We’re looking forward to getting 5.1 into your hands shortly!

View full blog entry

Great stuff @Ehren !

This is why you are the wizard of all things frontend!

Great improvements, well done team! 💪

The improvements are a huge plus. I'm impressed.

Simply amazing, Ehren! You're a beast. 🤩

Wonderful, I can't wait to get version 5.1 ! 🙌🫶

Reactions were fine before, it shouldn't need two clicks (I know on mobile you do anyway but on desktop it was better before). The profile hover change wasn't really needed either but less bothered about that as I don't use it

Lighter / faster loading was really needed though, but would need to see that in action.

Edited August 12Aug 12 by marklcfc

I would replace the caret-down icon with chevron-down or angle-down. @Ehren Or maybe remove it altogether, because it suggests a downward arrow, while after clicking it, the reaction picker appears at the top :D.

Wouldn't it be better to replace the smiley icon with this one? On many major social media platforms, the reaction system is presented this way.

Edited August 12Aug 12 by DracoBlue

Loving these UI updates. I particularly like the mini profile change, as well as ratings and reactions tweaks. All seems to be a lot more considered. Thanks a lot for the hard work Ehren.

I'm hoping there's scope to redesign the full profile pages too, in the future :) But the new mini-profiles look great!

I, too, prefer the 5.0 hover to display the mini profile and reaction tab on a desktop. In the year 2026, 99% of people prefer to do less clicking to achieve things. Hopefully, a third-party dev will create an app that restores hover to display mini profiles and the reaction tab. All the other new features are nice.

15 hours ago, DracoBlue said:

Wouldn't it be better to replace the smiley icon with this one? On many major social media platforms, the reaction system is presented this way.

In addition to 'Like' (the blue heart), we created two new reactions in the ACP: 'I agree' (a green '+1'); and 'Acknowledged' (a burnt yellow thumbs-up). These allow for more nuanced reactions without the need to post. For example, when someone delivers some bad news, responding with a 'like' is hardly appropriate; 'Acknowledged' is a better fit. Or if a member receives some pushback on some matter, 'like' can feel like a pile on; '+1', less so. We find these two new reactions are used a lot at our community. 'Like' is just too specific to be used for all types of approval. Simply replacing the icon (which we considered) does not really resolve the problem. We have kept 'Like' as the default because it remains the most appropriate catch all.

iAgree.svg

iAgree.svg

Edited August 13Aug 13 by Como

Hmmm. I am unable to edit/delete attachments in my posts here.

Edited August 13Aug 13 by Como

Maybe the attachments are cached. In case they disappear in the above, here:

iAgree.svg

26 minutes ago, Como said:

Maybe the attachments are cached. In case they disappear in the above, here:

iAgree.svg

My forum use This

Like, hearth - thanks, no like

Edited August 13Aug 13 by DracoBlue

12 hours ago, beats23 said:

I, too, prefer the 5.0 hover to display the mini profile and reaction tab on a desktop. In the year 2026, 99% of people prefer to do less clicking to achieve things. Hopefully, a third-party dev will create an app that restores hover to display mini profiles and the reaction tab. All the other new features are nice.

We're committed to a mobile-first, and accessible interface. This means making sensible design decisions to ensure functionality is available to all.

13 hours ago, beats23 said:

I, too, prefer the 5.0 hover to display the mini profile and reaction tab on a desktop. In the year 2026, 99% of people prefer to do less clicking to achieve things. Hopefully, a third-party dev will create an app that restores hover to display mini profiles and the reaction tab. All the other new features are nice.

Personally, I agree. But, this:

42 minutes ago, Matt said:

We're committed to a mobile-first, and accessible interface. This means making sensible design decisions to ensure functionality is available to all.

I'm glad to see that the JavaScript is being cleaned up systematically. Performance is crucial nowadays, so it's great to see this getting attention. I'm looking forward to the next updates!

20 hours ago, DracoBlue said:

Wouldn't it be better to replace the smiley icon with this one? On many major social media platforms, the reaction system is presented this way.

No, I personally think a smiley icon is the correct choice here. It aligns with most users' expectations of a "emoticon/feedback" section would look like. I quite like the smiley face too because it's a generic icon to represent all Reactions (rather than using an actual Reaction from your community, which can influence users to using that by default for everything).

I do wonder if consideration has been given to the Reaction popout drawer itself though, in terms of accommodating a large number of Reaction icons. If a community wants to add 10+ Reaction options, those can easily spill out of the viewport on mobile (and could break desktop pages as well if a browser's been resized to be small enough). Maybe a small selection of icons in the immediate popout, with a clickable icon that opens up the drawer to reveal more Reactions if selected?

1 minute ago, Dreadknux said:

I do wonder if consideration has been given to the Reaction popout drawer itself though, in terms of accommodating a large number of Reaction icons. If a community wants to add 10+ Reaction options, those can easily spill out of the viewport on mobile (and could break desktop pages as well if a browser's been resized to be small enough). Maybe a small selection of icons in the immediate popout, with a clickable icon that opens up the drawer to reveal more Reactions if selected?

It kind of defeats the purpose of quick reactions.

1 minute ago, DracoBlue said:

It kind of defeats the purpose of quick reactions.

I mean, you could say that about the entire change to the Reactions drawer in 5.1. It'll still be two clicks to React whether the thing you're clicking on is a smiley or a heart.

Ignore me I thought you were talking about something else! 😄 That's a fair comment.

Edited August 13Aug 13 by Dreadknux

I am curious how much reduction in were you able to remove from the ACP? And if you had made some of the same improvements there - I have noticed there are places in the ACP that could be made more intentional instead of clicks that fire by accident. Thanks.

@Ehren Instagram and Facebook have a really nice flexible footer menu. Maybe it could serve as some inspiration for the 5.1 version?

3 hours ago, Ocean West said:

I am curious how much reduction in were you able to remove from the ACP? And if you had made some of the same improvements there - I have noticed there are places in the ACP that could be made more intentional instead of clicks that fire by accident. Thanks.

I actually worked on updating some of the ACP yesterday, I'm just not sure if it'll sneak into 5.1, or if it'll come in a future update.

Both the frontend and backend will continue to receive UI polishes in future updates. The frontend was given priority for 5.1 since that's where a majority of your users will visit, but the backend won't be left behind. 👍

7 hours ago, Dreadknux said:

I do wonder if consideration has been given to the Reaction popout drawer itself though, in terms of accommodating a large number of Reaction icons. If a community wants to add 10+ Reaction options, those can easily spill out of the viewport on mobile (and could break desktop pages as well if a browser's been resized to be small enough). Maybe a small selection of icons in the immediate popout, with a clickable icon that opens up the drawer to reveal more Reactions if selected?

We're using the anchor positioning API so the popover will automatically stay within the viewport, and the reactions will wrap to a new line if necessary. Here's an example with 35 reactions. I don't recommend doing this, but it's possible 😇

On mobile, the swipe menu is used, so there's no chance of overflow there. Text labels are also shown incase any reaction icons are ambiguous.

This feels like a well‑timed topic to highlight just how far the mobile experience has come. It’s definitely a niche use case, but I’ve been using Samsung DeX as my travel “laptop,” and IC5 has honestly been one of the best platforms for that hybrid “kind‑of‑mobile / kind‑of‑desktop” environment.

Plenty of sites work on DeX, but IC5 sites actually stand out; they feel smoother, more consistent, and far more predictable than most of what I use. I know this isn’t something anyone specifically designs for, but it really shows how strong the underlying mobile‑first approach is.

And while I get that mobile‑first has its kickbacks and isn’t always loved by long‑time desktop users (I’m one of them), the reality is that more people are on phones, tablets, touchscreens, and hybrid devices that don’t behave well with classic desktop‑first UI patterns. IC5 seems to be striking that balance better than almost any other platform I’ve used.

I give the devs plenty of complaints, but this is one area where I can genuinely give support and a big thanks for how well it works.

I know this isn't really a suggestions topic, but since it is mobile-based... It would be a nice UI improvement if the small little red clock that appears next to the title on future-dated items would display the publish time/date pop-up on click. As is, this icon is unusable on mobile, and trying to plan a schedule is a bit rough, as the time is hidden unless you edit the item again. Or if the icon had the time displayed as part of it, as the date is listed on the item in other places, but this may cause UI oddities.