Changelog

Video Thumbnail Generator

• Now supports shortened Youtube URLs

Inbox Preview Updates

• Live previews have been removed
• Inbox Previews now run automatically after previews have been selected
• Navigation now includes previous and next buttons
• Aligned the UX of the pop-out preview page with the embedded preview

Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a bug that prevented users from easily jumping between snippets and emails
• Support for self-closing components
• An MJML bug that was impacting including components has been fixed

Server Upgrades

• We've doubled our servers, database RAM, and CPUs to increase the speed of Parcel.

Updated Onboarding

• New users will now receive more personalized emails when they create an account.

Fixes and Improvements

• Added a 2-minute cache for resolved assets to speed up the preview using images
• Fixed a bug with the search results not displaying properly
• A bug that was impacting zip file downloads has been fixed
• A bug that was impacting a user's ability to skip through onboarding questions has been fixed

Manage Versions

• Interested in saving versions of your email? You'll see a new tooltip if you are on a paid subscription!

Fixes and Improvements

• The status bar now matches the height of the dev tools
• Serverless function handlers have been moved to be in the same region as our API and database, resulting in a 40% faster-loading speed
• Assets load faster

Upload MJML files

Parcel now supports direct uploads of MJML files!

Contact Support

Need to report a bug? Have a question? Want help with upgrading your account? You can now contact support through the left-hand side of your navigation.

Fixes and Improvements

• "Files" has replaced Workspace in the left-hand navigation. Files is inclusive of workspace-specific emails, assets, and components.

• Actions such as creating a new email, duplicating, renaming, or moving files to another workspace show on hover in the left-hand navigation.
• Active line styles in the code editor have been restyled
• Analytics, is now referred to as Email Analytics in the sidebar
• Navigating snippets and files with your keyboard is now much easier with our new tree component!
• The status bar underneath email previews has been removed
• Inbox previews now have their own tab in the email preview. Switch between Browser, or Inbox Previews to QA your email as you design.
• Test emails now will be sent from system@testparcel.io
• The connected status has moved from the bottom of the left-hand navigation, to the top of the left-hand navigation
• The collapse button has been moved next to the "New email..." button
• Moved the "Versions" button next to the "Format" button in the editor actions

Scroll my email

Scroll my email, a new free tool to generate a scrolling GIF of any email screenshot, is now live.

Improved Sign-Up Experience

New Parcel users will see a few additional questions when creating their Parcel account! To guide customers better and showcase different features according to different customer needs, we're released an update that will ask for the level of experience with Parcel and the individual's user role within their organization.

Fixes and Improvements

• Emulated dark mode has been fixed to show correctly when a Feedback link is shared
• Better control of email subscriptions when signing up to Parcel

Passwords

For those that prefer an alternative to the magic link sign in method, you can now create a password to log into Parcel with. You can find this option underneath your Account Settings - Security.

Snippets

The workspace got a refresh this week! Snippets have moved into the left-hand navigation as a collapsable view similar to emails and folders. You can still search, and sort them. By default they will be ordered alphabetically.

Snippet Previews

You can now preview your snippets! The same experience you get when previewing your emails is now applied to snippets.

Fixes & Improvements

• Marketing and transactional emails that originate from Parcel will soon have different subdomains.
• Email test sends that originate from Parcel will soon have a different sending domain.
• Disabling Prevent Threading, the feature that prohibits emails from threading in the inbox is now only available on the Parcel Pro or Business plan. By default, if the same test email is sent multiple times, all emails will land in the inbox with unique subject lines containing the timestamp it was sent.
• Parcel achievements (the fun notifications you receive inside the product when you accomplish certain actions), have now have their images decreased by 60%. A good reminder to optimize your images for their used sizes!
• Fixed an issue with component JavaScript being executed in incorrect circumstances

New Default Email

In all new workspaces, Parcel has an updated default email titled "My First Email" — it comes equipped with some great tips on how to use Parcel.

Custom Preview Images

Sharing a link with others of your email? You'll no longer see the default Parcel image, and instead it will be replaced with a preview rendering of your email.

Fixes & Improvements

• The snippets editor has been fixed and appears full width on page load.
• The passwordless links are more secure with a new 3rd party provider

Feedback and Approvals

The feedback page allows other team members to leave comments, annotations, and approvals on your email. Create your first feedback version by clicking on the "Feedback" button in the upper right corner.

Real Time Collaboration

You can now work with teammates on the same file at the same time. In the upper right corner of the editor, you'll see a circular user icon for each user who is active in the workspace.

Click on any user's icon to jump to the file (but not line) where they are working.

If you both have the same file open, you'll see their text cursor on whatever line they are editing.

Users who are working on other files within the workspace will appear next to that file name in the file tree.

If two or more users are working on the same file, their icons will be replaced with a number.

Verify your network connection status in the lower left corner - if it does not say "Connected", you will not be able to make edits.

Inbox Previews

Inbox previews allow you to view your email in a variety of inboxes from real devices/apps/clients.

Analytics

Embed a pixel in each of your emails to gain access to post-send analytics about your open rate, device, reading time, and other metrics.

Fixes and Improvements

• Live previews now load ~2.3x faster
• Screenshots are more reliable
• The Billing page now has better information and the ability to change a subscription
• The notifications bell appears correctly when the sidebar is collapsed.

Documentation Improvements

Search bar

The Docs pages now have a search bar, so you can more easily find the information you need. Search for any key word or text that appears anywhere in the documentation.

Descriptive Text

All of the images and videos throughout the Parcel documentation now include accessible descriptive text, which can be read by screen readers or viewed on-page with the press of a button. Each text block supplements the captions and describes, step-by-step, the content and meaning of each image and screen recording.

Improvements and Fixes

• The share menu in the upper right has been redesigned for a cleaner user experience
• Color scheme controls are available in the command palette

Improvements and Fixes

• Dark mode now works on individual previews
• Block images, dark mode, and visual impairments are now controllable via a single Preview Controls menu. Previously, each preview modifier had it's own button above the preview.
• Email load times are now significantly faster, especially for large emails.

Notifications

In the upper right corner of the left sidebar there is now the notifications menu, where notifications for the user are displayed. The badge number on the icon indicates the number of unseen notifications. Notifications are considered seen once they become visible in the notifications menu. New notifications are unread and will have a blue dot on the right side and colored text. Click on any notification to mark it as read, which will remove the blue dot and redirect you to the relevant page. The timestamp denotes when the relevant action occurred, which is not necessarily the time the notification was created. Notifications are sorted by timestamp descending.

Improvements and Fixes

• Fixed an issue that prevented components from being named.

Improvements and Fixes

• Removed original Transformers button from the left side bar (Transformer functionality has been in an email part tab since February 7th).
• Added a Reset to Defaults button in the Transformers pane
• Added options in the Editor Preferences pane to disable hover overlays and/or MSO highlighting
• Updated the Accessibility Checker docs to specify each rule checked
• Added a prompt to the workspaces settings page that alerts the user if they try to leave the page before saving changes
• Newly created components now include placeholder content
• Mousing over an image path will display the image in a hover overlay.

Achievements

Much like in a video game, a variety of actions a user takes within Parcel will now unlock achievements. Each achievement, when first achieved, comes with a notification and celebratory confetti. Users can view the achievements they have unlocked and outstanding ones on their profile settings page.

Read more about achievements on the blog.

User permissions page

It's now easier to see which users have access to which workspaces. The Members page now shows the workspace permissions for each user. From this interface, admins can add or remove users to/from any workspace that they have access to. Admins can still add/remove users or change the user's role from this page.

Components Improvements

Improved component parsing and serializing of attributes along with new, more friendly error messages. Additionally, we added a new component.matches function to target how your component is used with the full power of CSS selectors. Components now have full autocomplete and hover information, customizable through the new <meta /> tags at the top level. Lastly, we added a new state global variable, to give you access to which environment your email is being compiled for, as well as the subject and preview values from the email message details tab.

Improvements and Fixes

• Bug fixes for file tree syncing in real-time collaboration experiment
• New right click context menu on email file tabs
• New file tree button to open the context menu (previously and still accessible via right click on the file)
• Email size is now correct for MJML emails and emails with components
• Corrected an issue that prevented versioned emails from being deleted properly
• When you reopen Parcel, it will load into the most recently accessed workspace, instead of the first workspace on your list.

Raw Preview

If you prefer to use the browser's built in developer tools, you can now view the HTML content of an email rendered in your browser. Right click on any file in the file tree and then click Open raw in new tab. This will open a new tab with the HTML content of the email. Unlike the in-page preview, the raw preview is not live - refresh the page to see the changes.

Highlight Ambiguous Characters

The editor will now highlight Unicode "confusables" - characters that look very similar to characters commonly used when programming. Mouse over any highlighted character to see an explanation of why it is highlighted. Note this does not highlight smart quotes.

Improvements and Fixes

• Emoji autocomplete only triggers if there is a leading space before the :
• Corrected an issue that could cause AMP generation to fail with a blank HTML email
• Updated the old Parcel logo on the share page
• Fixed an issue where the command palette send test function sent an outdated email
• Improved the stability of Focus Mode
• Improved internal error handling
• Added online status indicator to workspace
• New editor loading symbol

Preference Center

We released a new email preferences centers to make it easy to get only the emails you are interested in.

Real Time Collaboration Experiment

There is a new experimental feature for real time user collaboration. Users with this experiment enabled can edit emails simultaneously and see the cursor and edits of their teammates in real time.

April Fools Fun

For a limited time, the Editor now has additional handwriting and other esoteric fonts to supplement the standard mono-spaced fonts. Users are prompted to try a new font at random, with the option to easily restore their original font.

Improvements and Fixes

• Folders and images can now be duplicated with the right click menu
• Exporting a workspace now includes a text file with any custom words
• Fixed an issue that caused MJML emails imported from the share page to break
• Corrected an issue that could cause redundant tabs for the same file
• The left sidebar can now be resized farther
• There is a new Copy code button in the Source window to easily copy the source code - this functions the same as Export -> Copy HTML.
• Edit Workspace page has been renamed to Workspace Settings

Versioning

Pro and Business users can now save versions of their emails. Save a new version with the Version button in the upper right corner.

Specify a name for the version and optionally a description.

View all existing versions of an email in the same menu. The version view page has a difference comparison between that version and it's predecessor (if any exists). You can switch between split or inline difference view, and use the arrows in the upper right to jump between differences. Show/hide auto saved versions with the drop down menu in the upper left corner.

You can restore an older version at any time. Select your desired version and click the blue Restore this version button. After a confirmation, the system will auto-save your current email as a new version and then restore the earlier version.

Business users can opt-in on a workspace level to daily auto versioning, which will automatically version every email in the workspace, once a day.

Other fixes and improvements

• Emails that contain components work properly when shared
• Corrected an issue that prevented workspaces from being deleted
• Fixed the Create Workspace button so it leads to the correct page

New User Permissions

Workspaces now have customizable user permissions. By default, any workspace previously created is accessible to all users, until changed. Going forward, new workspace creation includes specifying which users have access.

Add / remove a user from a workspace

Admins can add or remove users (including other admins) from workspaces. Navigate to the workspace settings page by opening the workspace menu and selecting Edit workspace. Admins will see a checklist of users. Checked users already have access to the workspace. Check/uncheck any user to add them to/remove them from the workspace, and then hit Save. You cannot remove yourself from a workspace. Admins can only edit workspaces they already have access to.

Workspaces Overview Page

To see the list of workspaces on your account, admins can go to the workspace overview page. Each workspace you have access to will have it's name listed. If you do not have access to any of the workspace(s) on the list, it'll be listed as 'Anonymous Workspace'. You can see the names and email addresses of each user assigned to that workspace.

Any orphaned workspace without any users assigned will have a Claim button. Click this button to add yourself to the workspace and recover it from the void. If you are unable to claim an orphaned workspace, please contact support.

Message Details Tab

The editor has a new tab for message details, where you can update the subject and preview text.

Emojis in the Subject

Subject lines (either in the Message Details tab or Send Test) now support emojis. Type : and the name of the emoji. As you start to type, emojis will be suggested - select the option you want with the either cursor or arrow keys and tab. Click here for a full list of possible emojis.

Other Fixes/Improvements

• Sponsored howtotarget.email
• Self closing tags (like <br>) no longer autocomplete a closing tag
• Fixed an issue where the initial workspace was not properly defined

MJML

Parcel now has full native support for MJML! You can create emails using MJML using all the goodness that Parcel has, from Inspect Element to Emmet to custom components.

Learn more in the blog post.

Improved Export

Exporting an email as a zip now also includes any uploaded assets. All uploaded images used in the email will be contained in an Assets folder at the top level of the zip, along with the email files.

User Profile Images

Add your own face to your account with a profile image. Navigate to your user settings page and click on the avatar to upload an image.

Workspace Images

Workspaces are now easier to differentiate visually with workspace profile images. Navigate to the workspace's settings page, and click on the blue circle to add an image.

Move files between workspaces

You can now move files and folders between workspaces. Right click on the file in the file tree, click Move to workspace, and select your desired workspace.

You'll be prompted to confirm the move and then the file will be moved to the top level of the new workspace. If you move a folder, all of it's sub folders and files will also be moved. When the move is successful, you'll get a success notification with an undo option. If you want to undo the move, you can do so within 5 seconds, after which time the prompt will disappear.

If the destination workspace already has the same file/folder name at the top level, the moved file will have ' -- Moved' and a timestamp appended to it.

Turn Off Spellcheck / Code check

There are now toggles in the Editor preferences pane to disable spellcheck and the code checker.

Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed broken link on home page
• Improved MJML validation inside of component files
• Added Lorem Ipsum to the spellcheck dictionary

Spellcheck

The editor now has an integrated spellchecker for Pro and Business users. Words that are spelled incorrectly will have a blue squiggly underline. If the spellchecker has suggested replacement words, they will be under the quick fix menu.

Email level languages are set via the <html lang= attribute. See the table below for supported languages. Dictionaries are at the workspace level, so you can define custom words within each workspace.

Languages Supported

If you'd like to have spellcheck support for an additional language, please let us know.

Versions

There is now experimental versioning feature for Pro and Business users. Save a version of an email, along with any assets and components it uses. Press the Version tab in the bottom left corner of the editor to save a new version.

Export Snippets

You can now export all of your snippets as a single zip.

Export Workspace

You can now export all of the files in a workspace as a single zip.

Fixes & Improvements

• Corrected broken links on various docs pages

Audit Log

Business users now have access to a 30 day log of all activity on their account. View it in account settings. Admins can view 500 logs on the webpage or download all the records from the past 30 days as a CSV.

Read more about what is captured in the audit log on the docs.

Fixes & Improvements

• Improved color and contrast of text in auto complete suggestions in the editor to make them easier
• Fixed app crashing from malformed MSO code
• Added NEW flair to docs pages
• HTML tags now auto complete in the editor
• Sidebar is now resizable

PDF Reports

You can now export a PDF summary report of your email. Use the PDF as an easy way to share your email with teammates, reviewers, stakeholders, or archive for your record keeping. The PDF includes the sender details, a 700px width 'desktop' screenshot, and optionally a 700px dark mode screenshot, 320px mobile screenshot, a live preview link, link validation, image validation, and SpamAssassin results. Export the PDF as a single continuous page or paginated for printing on A4 paper.

Learn how to export a PDF in the PDF export docs.

Cerberus Integration

We've partnered with Cerberus to bring Parcel's editor to their responsive, accessible email templates. When exploring a template on Cerberus, click the Edit in Parcel button. You can edit and see your changes live, send a test to your inbox, and even save the email right to your Parcel account!

Import from ESP

Importing an email is now as easy as sending an email from your ESP. Send an email to your workspace's import email address to have that email imported into your Parcel workspace.

Learn how to import from your email service provider on the docs.

Fixes & Improvements

• Parcel now auto completes !important when inside a CSS property
• 15% speed increase in performance in editor
• MSO comments are visually desaturated to make them easier to differentiate from regular HTML code
• Markdown now properly renders in CSS hover information
• Scroll bars match the theme to be more subtle
• Parcel is now listed on amp.dev's tool page
• Billing (formerly Plan) page now displays plan details, invoice history, and payment information.

Other News

We've launched !important tips, a weekly newsletter featuring one new thing from an awesome member in our community, each week.

Really Good Emails Integration

We've partnered with Really Good Emails to bring Parcel's editor to the 10,000+ emails they've curated. When viewing an email on Really Good Emails, click the Code tab and see the raw HTML from the email. You can edit and see your changes live, send a test to your inbox, and even save the email right to your Parcel account!

Email-Level Transformers

Transformers are now applied at the email level (they were previously applied at the Workspace level). When you next sign on to Parcel, you'll be prompted to either apply your current transformer settings forward to all emails or start fresh. We'll recommend an option based on your transformer settings. Transformers now live in a tab at the top of the editor, with the same functionality as before. The original Transformers button in the left sidebar continues to work. This is the next major step the transformers functionality that enables a host of new tools.

Read more about this change on the blog.

The Transformers tab now also visually denotes which transformers are active with a count.

Component Navigation

Components are now easier to navigate and use. In the editor, command click (Mac) or control click (Windows) on a component's name to open the component.

Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed an issue where an incorrect error would appear when first creating a component
• Improved messaging for network errors in the preview
• Improved component errors so the last successful preview is still shown
• Added a capitalize function for components
• Corrected broken button on Playground docs page
• Added experimental support for MJML
• Fixed development attributes showing up in the Source tab when using components with inline CSS
• Fixed exports popover going off screen for some users

Accessibility Checker

Parcel provides an accessibility checker so you can easily check your email for accessibility issues and best practices. This validation is free - we want to help email developers create better and more accessible emails.

Access the checker from the Dev Tools panel in the bottom of the preview - click the Accessibility tab and then the Check Accessibility button. The checker will evaluate your email and return a list of issues, sorted by severity. Collapse any severity group by clicking on it's header. Click on any issue to be brought to that spot in the code. Under each issue is a longer description that is linked to an external webpage with more information.

The Accessibility tab also provides access to the Headers and Landmarks tools, which highlight the h1-h6 headers and page landmarks in the preview. When enabled, each header or landmark (and any content enclosed) will be highlighted with a colored labeled border. This overlay will not show up in screenshots or affect your output Source.

Read more on the accessibility blog post and launch tweet.

Dark Mode in Preview

The preview now supports dark mode, which alters the appearance of code that includes the prefers color-scheme:dark CSS media feature. You can choose between light mode, dark mode, or system via the new color scheme button above the Preview.

Preview dark mode is available on the Pro and Business tiers.

Class and ID autocomplete

Parcel now will autcomplete your class names and IDs using the class names and IDs in your <style> tags.

Fixes & Improvements

• Improved the HTML to AMP converter to be more robust and more accurate.
• Fixed an issue with the inline error checker where results were obscured if the problematic line was at the top of the editor.
• Improved server stability and performance.
• Improved in-app customer messaging around email limits.
• Added Parcel to the list of projects that use axe-core.
• Added a new settings page for the showcase experiment for public emails.

We're thrilled to announce that after 18 months of work, Parcel is coming out of beta and into Version 1! Version 1 brings exciting new features and the start of our new Business subscription tier, which offers even more functionality for teams and professionals.

New Subscription Tiers

Parcel now has three subscription tiers. Pick the tier that best matches your needs and budget.

Community (Free)

The community tier is for anyone who wants to try out Parcel. It's free to use - ideal for those prototyping and testing emails.

Pro ($29/user/month)

The Pro tier is for professionals building production emails. It includes all of the features of the community tier plus screenshots, uploadable assets, multiple workspaces, more test send recipients, more shared users, and access to powerful snippets and components.

Business ($56/user/month)

The Business tier is new with the Version 1 launch. It's the highest feature tier and unlocks all current Parcel functionality - perfect for teams and companies working at scale. The Business tier adds remote data fetching, web scraping, one click AMP generation, and SpamAssassin.

Full list of features

New Domain

Update your bookmarks - Parcel has a new home at parcel.io! The useparcel.com address will continue to work.

Changelog

The V1 launch also ushers in this changelog, where we'll keep you updated about exciting new functionalities and features as we add them.

Blog

Parcel also now has a blog! Tune in to read our musings from time to time.

Minor updates and changes

Parcel has a new and improved logo and color palette!

We've de-saturated the Parcel theme so your own email designs stand out better.