Sometimes it's not the big flashy features—it's the thoughtful details that transform how you work. December is that kind of month.

📝 Resizable slide notes pane (finally, bestie)

The vibe check: You're used to resizing your notes pane in PowerPoint and Google Slides. It's muscle memory at this point. Then you switch to another tool and... wait, why can't I adjust this? Instant frustration.

What's new: You can now resize the slide notes pane freely in AhaSlides—exactly like you do everywhere else. AhaSlides remembers your preferred size across all slides and presentations.

Why this matters more than it seems: When you switch tools, your habits should travel with you. Small friction points add up to "ugh, this tool is annoying" even when the tool is actually great. This removes one of those friction points.

Also, reading tiny text while trying to present is nobody's idea of a good time. Make it whatever size helps you stay confident and on track. Try these notes on Remote Control as well. 

🤖 AI presentation report agent: Smarter insights from better data

The old way (lowkey exhausting): Finish your presentation. Export the results. Open ChatGPT or Claude. Copy-paste your data. Type your question. Wait for analysis. Copy insights back. Rinse and repeat for every presentation.

The new way (actually chill): AI-driven insights appear directly in your presentation reports. Instant analysis. Immediate next steps. No export, no copy-paste, no tab-switching between five different tools.

Real example: Instead of manually analyzing which questions stumped your audience, AI tells you: "67% struggled with the cost-benefit question—consider adding a visual breakdown next time."

Better data tracking powers better AI

Here's where it gets interesting: We've also upgraded our data infrastructure with participant device ID tracking. When participants join multiple presentations from the same device, we now recognize it's the same person.

Why this matters for AI: AI output is only as good as the input. Better data = smarter insights. With device-level tracking, we can now identify patterns like "this participant attended 5 sessions and engagement increased each time" or "participants who join from mobile behave differently than desktop users."

The bigger picture: This data infrastructure upgrade today enables the smarter AI features we're building for tomorrow—like AI agents that analyze patterns across multiple presentations and tell you: "Participants consistently lose focus 23 minutes into your sessions—try adding an interactive reset at the 20-minute mark."

Better data → Better AI → Better insights → Better presentations. That's the chain we're building.

🚀 Faster slide creation: Recently used + kick-start screen

Two improvements with one goal: Stop making you hunt for the same slide types over and over.

Recently used section

Your go-to slide types now appear right at the top. No more scrolling through the entire list every single time you need a poll or word cloud (which, let's be honest, is constantly). This will super helpful when we add 3 more slide types in 2026 😆.

Kick-start screen

When you start a new presentation, we now open the slide modal by default. Pick your slide type in one click and start building immediately.

The philosophy: Every second spent searching for a button is a second you're not spending on actually creating. Small friction compounds. These changes remove it.

Think of it like your most-played songs always being at the top of your Spotify—except for presentations.

🔧 Small fixes that feel like hugs

Last edited time: Actually honest now

Your presentation list now only shows "Last updated" when you actually edited something. No more phantom timestamp changes that make you paranoid. We heard you, we fixed it, you're welcome.

Enterprise billing: Hidden from confused team members

If you're on an enterprise account, your team members no longer see billing options they can't (and shouldn't) access anyway. One less thing to explain.

Audience controls that actually control

Turn off "Allow audience feedback"? The button actually disappears now. Turn off "Allow audience to review slides"? That tab vanishes too. Full control over what your participants can access—like it always should have been.

File upload limit: Back to 50MB

The technical gremlins are gone. Upload files up to 50MB again. Crisis averted.

Share folders with presenter role

Remember multi-session and presenter roles from earlier this year? You could share individual presentations with presenters so multiple trainers could run the same content in separate sessions. Now you can share entire folders the same way—because you told us managing permissions presentation-by-presentation was tedious. Distribute whole folders to your team with presenter-level access in one click.

🧠 We hosted a webinar about your biggest nightmare (audience distraction)

Real talk: 82.4% of presenters deal with distracted audiences regularly. But here's what really got us: the emotional toll. One presenter told us they feel "invisible" when facing a tuned-out room. Another said "incompetent." These aren't just presentation problems—they're hitting people's sense of professional worth.

So we brought together three experts who actually understand what's happening in those distracted brains: Dr. Sheri All (neuropsychologist), Hannah Choi (executive function coach), and Neil Carcusa (training manager who's been in the trenches). The insights hit different: attention spans have collapsed from two minutes to 47 seconds. Multitasking is a myth. The biggest mistake? Thinking you capture attention once and you're done—you need resets every 5-10 minutes. And here's the compassionate truth from Hannah: when someone gets distracted, it's usually not them—it's the design.

[Read the full webinar recap and watch recording →]

🚀 Looking ahead to 2026

December was about polish. Q1 2026? That's about power.

We're bringing you three most-requested slide types (ranking, open-ended with voting and grouping, and pin on image—your #2 most-requested feature), lightning-fast performance that finally breaks down the adoption barrier for teachers afraid to use interactive tools, comprehensive reporting that answers your boss's toughest questions, and AI as your practical co-pilot across your entire workflow.

It's the biggest quarter in AhaSlides history. Speed, reliability, and tools you can actually trust. More variety to keep attention. Better data to prove training ROI.

Your presentations aren't just about engagement—they're about driving real workplace performance. 2026 is when we make that dramatically easier.

Stay tuned. It's going to be good.

Got thoughts? Small frustrations we should tackle next? Ideas that keep you up at night?
Seriously, tell us: [hi@ahaslides.com]

We're building this for you, with you. Your feedback shapes what we make.

Happy holidays from all of us at AhaSlides! 🎄

Here's to presentations that connect, engage, and actually work in 2026. See you in the new year.

From The AhaSlides Team ❤️

P.S. — If you watched the "Defeat the Distracted Brain" webinar and had an aha moment, we'd love to hear about it. Sometimes the best insights come from the people actually doing the work.