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Pugpig Bolt September 2026 updates: Faster timelines, a refreshed subscription modal & PPID support

Pugpig Bolt’s latest updates include more flexible paywalls, easier saved content filtering and faster timelines. We’ve also introduced a refreshed Android subscription modal and are making ongoing improvements to vertical video in Clips.

18th September 2026

Here’s your latest round of Pugpig Bolt updates. This time, we’re giving you more control over paywall subscribe buttons, making saved content easier to navigate and continuing to evolve our vertical video experience, Clips. We’ve also added Publisher Provided ID support to Google Ad Manager on Android and improved timeline performance.

This edition covers:

Read on for full details. And as always, if there are any features below you’d like to configure in your app, reach out to your Customer Success Manager. If you’re not a Pugpig customer, let us know if you’d like to arrange a demo of our mobile app platform.

You can also view the full Bolt release notes.

Pugpig Bolt release dates

Let readers filter their saved content by type | 3rd September | Timeline 5.19.6

More control over the paywall subscribe button | 26th August (iOS), 1st September (Android), 3rd September (Android external-link buttons), coming soon (iOS external-link and external-link entitlement buttons) | iOS 5.1.1, iOS 5.1.2, Android 5.2.2, Android 5.2.3

Publisher Provided IDs for Google Ad Manager on Android | 3rd September (Android), coming soon (iOS) | Android 5.2.3

A cleaner subscription modal on Android | 4th August | Android 5.2.1

Faster, smoother timelines | August 2026 | Timeline 5.19.1 and 5.19.2

Different toolbar logos per section | 13th August (iOS), 4th August (Android) | iOS 5.1.0, Android 5.2.1

New feature: Let readers filter their saved content by type

Useful for: Your product and editorial teams

If your readers save a mix of articles, audio and video, it’s now easier for them to find what they’re looking for. The Saved screen has content-type filter pills, so readers can narrow their saved items by type with a tap.

If they have saved only one type of content, the filter quietly hides itself. The experience follows the same clean pattern as search, with Liquid Glass pills on iOS and Material 3 chips on Android.

Who’s affected: Publishers whose readers save a mix of content types, including articles, audio and video.
What you need to do: Update to Bolt Timeline 5.19.6. No configuration required.

New feature: More control over the paywall subscribe button

Useful for: Your subscriptions and product teams

You now have more control over when the subscribe button appears on your paywalls. A new setting lets you leave it as it is, hide it entirely, or switch to a dynamic mode that shows it only where it makes sense. For example, you could hide it on a registration paywall but show it on the final-stage paywall.

Existing apps are unaffected unless you opt in and the way users subscribe stays the same. The setting applies to in-app purchase buttons and external-link or external-link entitlement subscribe buttons on iOS and Android.

Who’s affected: Publishers with multi-stage or registration paywalls who want more control over where the subscribe button appears.
What you need to do: Update to iOS 5.1.1 and Android 5.2.2, or Android 5.2.3 for external-link buttons, then reach out to Support for configuration.

New feature: Publisher Provided IDs for Google Ad Manager on Android

Useful for: Your ads and revenue teams

If you monetise with Google Ad Manager, your Android app can now send Publisher Provided Identifiers (PPIDs) natively. This can help you make more of ad targeting, reporting and frequency capping.

PPIDs are sent only when they are available and the user has consented. Requests without an eligible PPID continue to work exactly as before.

Who’s affected: Android publishers using Google Ad Manager who want to use PPIDs for targeting or frequency capping.
What you need to do: Update to Android 5.2.3 and reach out to Support to enable and configure PPIDs.

Improvement: Improvements to vertical video in Clips

Useful for: Your product and editorial teams

Clips is continuing to evolve, with a series of improvements designed to make the experience smoother for both readers and publishers.

Coming soon – we’ll be adding Google Ad Manager support for VAST video ads in Clips, allowing publishers to show interstitial video ads between swipes in the feed. This will give you a new way to build advertising into the vertical video experience, while keeping readers within the app. We’ll share more information when it’s available. Here’s the full Clips doc if you want to read more. 

Who’s affected: Publishers who want to add a vertical video feed to their app.
What you need to do: Reach out to your CSM to get set up.

Improvement: Faster, smoother timelines

Useful for: Your product team

We’ve made several performance improvements to timeline loading and rendering, particularly on slower connections and older Android devices.

Images and adverts now wait until the timeline is ready, while slow-connection detection helps optimise font loading. The result is a faster, smoother experience for readers.

Who’s affected: All publishers, with the biggest benefits for readers on slower connections or older devices.
What you need to do: Update to Bolt Timeline 5.19.2 or later. No action required.

Improvement: A cleaner subscription modal on Android

Useful for: Your subscriptions and design teams

The subscription modal on Android has had a refresh. It’s now more compact, with a call-to-action that stays in view, purchase options presented as clear pre-selected choices, and a tidier list of benefits.

The way users subscribe hasn’t changed, but it now looks and feels cleaner. We’ve also added analytics so you can see how the new design performs. Read more about the new subscription screen in this doc.

Who’s affected: All Android publishers offering in-app subscriptions.
What you need to do: Update to Android 5.2.1. The new design ships with the update, so no configuration is required.

In case you missed it…

Diario de Yucatán brought over a century of reporting to Pugpig Bolt

Diario de Yucatán’s new app is now live on Pugpig Bolt, bringing more than a century of reporting from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico and the wider world to mobile. Readers can follow specific topics and authors to build a personalised timeline, save stories and videos for later, and watch video content in-app. Catch up on the launch here.

Media24, South Africa’s leading media company, launched the Daily Sun app on Pugpig Bolt

Media24 has launched Daily Sun’s first app on Pugpig Bolt, giving its fully digital audience a dedicated mobile home for news, video and audio. Readers can swipe through Clips, our Reels-style vertical video experience, listen to narrated articles and podcasts, and build a personalised timeline by following topics and authors. Daily Sun is a major addition to the Pugpig portfolio, and our first customer in South Africa! Catch up in full here. 

YubaNet launched on Pugpig Bolt, bringing real-time Sierra Nevada news to mobile

YubaNet’s new Pugpig Bolt app brings its wildfire, emergency and community coverage to mobile, giving Nevada County residents a single place to follow active fires, breaking local updates and road conditions. It also includes a searchable events calendar, YubaNet’s podcast series and an interactive map for tracking fires across California and beyond. Catch up in full here.

Pugpig Media Bulletin: The audience is not one funnel: what Pew’s four engagement groups mean for publishers

Publishers have spent years trying to move audiences through a single engagement funnel, from anonymous visitor to registered user, subscriber and loyal customer. Based on a survey of 5,393 US adults, combined with findings from a separate survey of 5,195 people, Pew Research Center found four engagement groups that suggest people build relationships with news in different ways. This bulletin looks at what that could mean for audience strategy, media products and the role of mobile apps. Get our take here.

Pugpig Media Bulletin: How publishers can build a stronger app advertising business

As open-web ad supply comes under pressure, publishers are looking to apps to build higher-quality advertising products around engaged audiences, stronger signals and more valuable formats. We explored what that means in practice, and how publishers can build app platforms that deliver both a better user experience and a stronger advertising business. Check it out here. 

Pugpig Media Bulletin: How publishers can build a stronger app advertising business

If you’re not already part of Mobile Matters, now’s a great time to get involved. It’s a community built for publishers and media professionals to connect, share what’s working (and what isn’t), and stay on top of the latest trends in mobile. We’d love to see you in there! Click here to join. 

And there we have it! Take a look at all Bolt product release notes for more details. And if you’re a customer, don’t forget to reach out to your Customer Success Manager if you’d like help implementing anything featured here. If you’d like a demo of our mobile app platform, you can reach out to our team. We also send these product updates out in an email newsletter – get in touch if you don’t receive it and would like to. 

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