What's New in 2.6.1

MediaVerse 2.6.1 tightens privacy, makes Explore easier to browse, and clears up the prompts members see when they upload and organize media.

Included in Free unless marked Pro. Paired with MediaVerse Pro 2.6.1 - install and test both together.

Privacy

• Followers is a new privacy level members can choose: only people who follow them see the item. See Privacy & Access Control.
• Private and members-only albums and collections are listed on the /album/ and /collection/ pages only to people allowed to see them.
• The tag cloud counts only public items, and the tag list shows logged-out visitors only tags used on public items.
• Duplicate detection checks only the member’s own uploads. A file another member uploaded is not a duplicate, and the notice says “You had already uploaded N of these files.”

Explore

• Sort by Newest, Trending, Oldest or Most viewed. Trending ranks by recent reactions, comments and views.
• A Type filter (All types, Photos, Videos, Audio) shows on Explore and on the Pro feed layouts.
• Lists with Load More load the next 3 pages as you scroll, then show the button so the footer stays reachable.

See Display Settings.

Upload

• “Matching tags” pills complete the word a member types in Tags.
• The full upload page shows the picked file’s thumbnail and name.
• When Allow Users to Set Privacy is off, members see who will see their upload, for example “Public: anyone can see. The site owner sets this for every upload.”

Lightbox

• The Save button shows “Saved” while the item is in the member’s Favorites.
• Image alt text is the AI description when there is one, otherwise the title.

Albums

• Adding a photo that is more private than the album names the photos, and the button reads ‘Show them as “Public”’ (or the album’s privacy).
• Changing an album to a stricter privacy asks first and says how many photos are affected.
• In wp-admin, Album type is a choice: Standard album or Playlist (audio only).
• WordPress’s password and private options are hidden for albums and collections. See Albums.

Emails

• Two new emails in Settings > General > Emails: New follower, and Comment on their media. They start on for a new install and off for a site that updates.
• On BuddyNext sites, BuddyNext sends member emails for MediaVerse activity and the Emails section does not appear. The account deletion confirmation is always sent.

My Media

• On BuddyNext sites, My Media no longer shows the Edit profile section or the “Complete your profile” banner. Members edit their profile in BuddyNext.
• On phones, My Media shows media first with a compact profile row.

For developers

• Media objects in the REST API include alt, filtered by mvs_media_alt_text.
• GET /mvs/v1/tags returns only public-item tags to logged-out visitors.
• The core routes /wp/v2/mvs-albums, /wp/v2/mvs-collections and /wp/v2/mvs_tag are removed. Use the mvs/v1 routes. /wp/v2/mvs_category remains.
• New mvs-collections-changed event. See Hooks & Filters.

See the full changelog in readme.txt for every change.