AssisT 1.0.0 - First stable release
Everything here has landed since 0.9.3, including the 0.10.0 work that was prepared but never published. Full notes and the download go up on GitHub Releases when the release is published.
AssisT 1.0.0 goes out through the Chrome Web Store first. The tag on the public repository follows the Chrome Web Store release rather than leading it, so the newest tag on GitHub may be a version behind what is described here.
New
- Nothing of yours leaves your device until you say yes. AssisT asks before it sends anything you select, type or say to an outside service, one question per service: the dictionary, translation, Translate Page, checking a citation online, downloading a Read from Images language other than English, dictation, lecture capture and each cloud AI provider. On a course page the question opens in a small AssisT window, so Chrome can ask for its permission in the same press. Each question names exactly what would be sent and remembers your answer. First-run setup asks only about the services your own choices would use.
- A Your data tab in Advanced options lists every service with your answer and every saved AI key, with a Remove button and a way to change your mind at any time. A change takes effect on the very next request.
- Mind Map (beta) - an outline-first planning and revision tool that works with AI switched off. The outline is a WAI-ARIA tree you can drive entirely from the keyboard, and the canvas is a second view of the same map. Six templates, a searchable library, a File menu, export to Markdown, OPML, JSON, SVG, PNG and FreeMind, read aloud, study mode, "Add to mind map" from any page, and "Map this page" from a page's headings. Alt+Shift+M opens it.
- Mind maps move between AssisT and other tools. Open a map made in XMind, Coggle, MindMeister, Freeplane or FreeMind, or a plain indented outline, and save one as a FreeMind .mm file that all of them open. Files are read on your own computer, and a file you open always becomes a new map.
- Work on one branch of a mind map at a time with Focus (Alt+Shift+F), select several nodes and act on them together with one undo, drag a node above, below or inside another, and move a node without dragging with "Move to…" (Alt+M).
- The new popup is the only popup: every support on one screen, grouped as Reading, Writing, Seeing, Focus and Study, with a light and dark theme. Search it by what you want to do, such as "read to me" or "too bright", as well as by name. Matching happens on your device.
- The citation manager, rebuilt: in-text citations with page and paragraph locators, a checker that compares your essay against your reference list on your device, a restorable trash, bulk select, book chapters and theses, undated sources, Zotero BibTeX and RIS import, add by DOI, and a style that stays where you set it. Harvard, APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago 17.
- Maths Support - an on-page calculator with a scratchpad, and large-number formatting that groups digits, keeps the value copy-safe and speaks the number in words to a screen reader. Off by default.
- Companion features, each with its own switch: study-tools discovery, Personalised AI, equation read-aloud, Authorship Shield (a private local writing history you can export), flashcards with spaced repetition, a reading-level setting for AI summaries and simplification, a lecture companion with live captions and notes, and hands-free voice commands.
- See what the learning record holds about you, and delete it in one step. "Keep a record of how I work" and "Offer help when reading gets hard" are off until you turn them on, and are described in plain words first.
- Make a flashcard from the highlight menu on any page.
- New shortcuts: Alt+Shift+V starts and stops dictation from anywhere on the page, and Alt+Shift+U moves focus to Undo in the Saved tray. The mind map's own shortcuts can be changed and checked for conflicts like every other AssisT shortcut.
- Dictation says in plain words when it is starting, recording, paused, or blocked because the microphone is not allowed.
- AssisT's own controls declare their purpose with WAI-Adapt attributes, for assistive tools that show symbols instead of words.
- An optional OCR accuracy boost for low-quality scans and small text, higher-fidelity OCR layout, and equations read aloud through the Speech Rule Engine.
- Read from Images works in English with nothing downloaded: the recognition engine and the English language file ship inside AssisT. The file for another language is downloaded once, after you allow it, checked, and kept on your device.
- The code that runs a Browser AI model ships inside AssisT. Only the model itself downloads, from Hugging Face, when you choose one.
- A configurable local-AI server address in the Local AI panel. The public build accepts loopback addresses only.
- A welcome page that opens on install, with AI setup and "Discover your tools", and a "Report a Bug" link in the popup.
Changed
- Read Aloud now starts with a voice that runs on your device. Online voices are still available, and the voice picker says which company each one sends your text to.
- AssisT no longer asks at install for access to any outside service except Hugging Face for Browser AI models: not the dictionary, MyMemory, Crossref, jsDelivr, Google Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, Semantic Scholar or a local AI server. Chrome asks when you choose one, and the popup offers an "Allow access" button if it is needed.
- The source check on a citation shows a plain rating (Looks reliable, Check before you use it, Hard to tell) with its reasons, instead of a numeric score.
- Syllable colours is the default dyslexia reading mode.
- Very plain summaries are short and in everyday words, and simplified text keeps the proper term and explains it in brackets. Neither starts with a line such as "Here is a simplified version".
- References follow each style's published rules more closely: editions, page ranges, organisation authors, authors who share a surname, undated works and social media posts.
- Saved keyboard shortcut sets pick up new defaults instead of ignoring them.
- The Local AI panel lists only models that can hold a conversation, and local failures say what actually went wrong.
Fixed
- A setting you change in the popup no longer overwrites one you changed on the page a moment earlier, and font and spacing settings are remembered again.
- Pages already open when AssisT is installed, or when you allow it everywhere, get AssisT straight away.
- Canvas, Moodle and Google Classroom integrations load again, announce themselves only on their own pages, and Read Aloud works on Moodle and Google Classroom as well as Canvas.
- Dictation works in Canvas's rich content editor again.
- A note you add to a paragraph you selected by triple-clicking is kept.
- Keyboard and focus: popup buttons, the citation manager, the AI setup page, the magnifier, the reading guide, the study timer, Speed Read and every AI panel can be used from the keyboard, Escape closes them, and focus returns to what opened them.
- Side panels fit a 320px-wide screen, and on-page controls share one dock instead of covering each other.
- Grammar colours tag every word correctly, and several colours and badges now meet WCAG AA contrast.
- Screen Color Overlay and Custom Cursor work in Google Docs and Google Sheets.
- Local reasoning models no longer leak their thinking into answers, and the on-device AI picks a model that is actually installed.
- Removing duplicate citations keeps every quote, page, note and tag, and RIS export no longer breaks a note across two lines.
- The discovery quiz switches on every feature it recommends.
Removed
- The DeepL and Microsoft Translator options, which nothing in AssisT could call. Any key saved for them is deleted. MyMemory is the translation service.
- The Azure Speech option, which nothing could reach.
- The "Try the new AssisT" switch, the Layout mode option and the stuck-reader rescue prompt, which "Offer help when reading gets hard" replaces.
- The field for pasting an institution branding key. Branding set by institution policy, and branding already applied, keep working.
Security and privacy
- Every request to an outside service goes through one place in the extension, which checks your answer first. A missing or unreadable answer is never treated as a yes.
- A settings file you export never carries an AI key or a consent answer.
- The console no longer records what you dictate, what an AI feature answers about your work, or what is read aloud.
- Saved keys are stored encrypted, and the hidden page that holds your citation library accepts messages only from AssisT's own background script.