Canvas Deploy Notes (2026-02-18)

Canvas deploys contain code changes that are intended to fix bugs, improve performance, and prepare for new features. These deploys take place every two weeks and can be tested in the beta environment before the production deploy date indicated in the title of this document.

Unless otherwise stated, all features in this deploy are available in the Beta environment on 2026-01-29.

The 2/11 deploy has been rescheduled to 2/18. Code updates will be deployed on 2/18; however, the Navigation feature described below remains delayed to a future deploy. For more information, see the Updated Canvas Deploy Schedule.

Updated Features

Conferences

New Users See BigBlueButton Conferences [Added on 2026-02-23]

Affected User Roles: Instructors, Students

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	BigBlueButton

Summary

When creating a new conference in BigBlueButton with the Invite all course members option, newly enrolled users can automatically view both active and concluded conferences. As a result, the Sync Attendees option is removed.

Change Benefit

Newly enrolled users automatically have access to both active and concluded BigBlueButton conferences, reducing instructor effort, eliminating the need for manual attendee syncing, and ensuring all students can stay up to date.

Navigation

Small Screen Global Navigation Branding Updated [This feature is currently delayed in production and beta environments and will be included in a future deploy.]

Affected User Roles: All Users

Feature Option Name to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Global Navigation

Summary

The Global Navigation menu displays the correct Navigation Branding on small screens instead of the previously incorrect branding.

Change Benefit

This update ensures a consistent and accurate interface that aligns with the institution’s design.

Feature Workflow

When using a small screen, the Global Navigation displays the correct branding.

Change Log

Date

Description

2026-02-23

Added

Conferences: New Users See BigBlueButton Conferences

2026-02-13

Updated Production Deploy Date

The production date is changed from 2/11 to 2/18.

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Comments

InstContentTeam

Comments in this space are intended for collaboration between Community members. Instructure employees may review discussions and respond when possible, but responses are not guaranteed. Users are encouraged to work together by sharing use cases, best practices, questions, and clarifications.

Please keep replies threaded whenever possible to help keep conversations organized and easy to follow.

If you encounter a bug or need account-specific assistance, please contact Support, as issues reported here are not tracked or resolved.

Chris

Hi @InstContentTeam,

I think the notes on the branding change need to be a bit more clear. This change means we're actually going to need to update our logo because you're changing the color, and I wasn't clear on that at all from the description. We has set our mobile logo to account for the white background. For us, this change makes the background blue, making more of our logo invisible. Could you maybe expand the notes to call out the change in a better way? Overall I like that the menu will now match the desktop version more, but the branding update needed for the icon is slightly unwelcome without a better call out.

Current (Prod):

Future (Beta):

-Chris

Robert

The Hi-contrast setting in the User Tray is not using the Nav Text color becoming low contrast.

Chris

I concur with this, ours is even worse with a darker blue…

-Chris

Robert

Please suspend this release.

The desktop tray has a fixed color, white. Without an option to set the tray color, the active and hover state of links in the responsive tray becomes low contrast. Themes would need configurable colors for both trays, or identify which brandable color will be used in each view.

jperkins

Thanks for all the feedback. We'll get this reverted in Beta and pulled from the deploy.

SarahBlanton

Thank you, @jperkins. May I ask, will a deploy still take place? In other words, are there changes that will still occur on 2/11? If so, would it be possible for us to know any details?

jperkins

A deploy will still take place.

Here's a snippet about deploys from our Release Notes FAQ

Deploy Notes cover smaller feature updates like performance improvements, and early steps toward future features. They may also include minor changes to the user interface. Deploy Notes do not indicate features that are currently in development or could be in development.

j_avneri

Hi @jperkins, could I please clarify - is this deploy for the Small Screen / Navigation update still taking place in Production on 11 Feb 2026? Just wanted to double-check based on the comments above and also where it says "[Delayed as of 2026-01-30]"

Heather Ahern

Hi @SarahBlanton To add to Jeremy’s response, there should be no impact to users from this deploy, as no other features are included at this time.

Heather Ahern

Hi @j_avneri Thank you for the question. This feature is removed from beta and will not be released to production on the 11th. When the team is ready, it will be added to a future deploy note.

MDonaldson

@InstContentTeam Can we get an update as to whether or not this Deploy is still happening on February 11? Comments on January 30 say yes, even after the accessibility concerns were raised. Comment yesterday says no. But the Deploy Notes still has the release date as February 11. And there is no indication on the official Deploy Notes that this is being delayed.

tbaker-mc

It's indicated at the top that it's delayed and will be in a future deployment:

[This feature is currently delayed in production and beta environments and will be included in a future deploy.]

We'll probably know in two or three weeks as to when it'll be back in beta and set for a future deploy.

SarahBlanton

Thank you!

InstContentTeam

Update
The 2/11 deploy has been rescheduled to 2/18. Code updates will be deployed on 2/18; however, the Navigation feature described below remains delayed to a future release. For more information, see the Updated Canvas Deploy Schedule.

StuartAnderson

Hi,

Can you provide assurance that when the navigation feature deployment does occur, the HTML/CSS changes will be exactly as have already been pushed out to beta? I only ask because I have developed and deployed a CSS rule patch to stop our custom theme from breaking based on the changes the the navigation menu which were pushed out to beta and I need to know if I'll need to revisit this.

Thanks,

Stuart

(The University of Manchester, UK)

InstContentTeam

Update

Added

Conferences: New Users See BigBlueButton Conferences- Instructor, Student

ffdixon

Hi Everyone,

I'm the product manager for BigBlueButton. While I can't speak on behalf of Instructure, I can give a bit more insight into the new feature added to conferences.

Previously, it was a big pain to add late enrolments to an existing BigBlueButton session. It wasn't visible to the educator that a new student may have enrolled, but the built-in access control list to conferences (what Canvas traditionally called the BigBlueButton integration), did not automatically add late enrolments.

A while back, there was a "sync Attendees" feature added, but this was only meant as a temporary solution.

Going forward, when creating a conference, if you leave Invite all course members checked (see below), late enrolments are automatically added.

This new capability applies to all new conferences. Gone is the option to sync attendees — it's not needed anymore for new conferences. Also, when you conclude a new conference, late enrollments will also be able to view the recordings (this wasn't supported previously).

For today,

If you have existing conferences that won't have any late enrolments in the course, no change is needed.

2. If you have existing conferences in courses that will have late enrolments, we recommend you create a new conference.

We recognize that (2) will incur a bit of work in the short term, but the transition will be to a much better place that will reduce your efforts in the long term and make it even easier to use BigBlueButton within Canvas.

Regards,… Fred

james_whalley

@InstContentTeam Did this deploy include a secret update to the Syllabus? Starting the next day, we have been getting reports of the Syllabus tool now saving new Ally accessibility symbols into the html of the Syllabus every time an edit and save are made.

Screenshot 2026-02-23 at 10.56.59 AM.png

kjackson26

From A Co-Chair of Online Policies & Procedures

This is not a critique of the intent behind transparency or documentation; rather, it reflects a disconnect between technical release communication and the practical realities of faculty workflow.

I have reviewed Canvas release notes and deploy notes multiple times over the past cycles with the intention of following along, understanding the changes, and reporting back to faculty colleagues, but honestly, I can’t make this work. I leave these posts feeling like faculty are responsible for adapting to changes, but the information provided does not make those changes intelligible.

A Suggested Re-Approach

Faculty-only-facing summaries written in plain language
Bottom-line the significance and/or call to action in a MAX of 5 bulleted points
Clearly highlight impact well-defined areas of faculty concerns, e.g.:
- course design
- grading
- assignments/quizzes/discussions
- accessibility workflows
- student-facing interface changes
- Respondus LockDown/Proctor
Attach a process page where applicable with relevant screenshots or quick examples when interface changes occur (most of us don’t have time to watch videos and/or the video is more focused on form than substance, and/or narrow application that it’s not worth the time to explore)
Clearly identify:
- “No action required”
- “Awareness only”
- “Action recommended before next term.”
Support IT staff in acquiring plain language and direct link skills in terms of what is done, how it’s done, what’s affected on the USER end, and how to communicate news and to whom

Problems I Currently Face

Canvas update notes feel written for IT or development audiences, requiring significant interpretation before faculty can understand whether or how a change affects teaching.
Difficulty identifying actual impact It is often unclear:
- what exactly has changed,
- who exactly is affected,
- whether action is actually required,
- or whether a change is simply background maintenance.
Links frequently lead to additional layers of technical explanation, outdated pages, or require extensive navigation to locate relevant details
Delayed actions become part of the ongoing record making it difficult to understand what goes with what and where it is in your process
Determining practical implications requires disproportionate time investment relative to the clarity gained.
Changes are often discovered only after faculty or students encounter unexpected behavior in live courses.

Faculty need concise explanations focused on teaching practices, student experience, and grading workflows — not technical implementation language.

venitk

+1. I attend an hour-long weekly meeting with admins from the UW system just to go over these release notes. We make sure we understand them, figure out which features work and don't work, figure out which optional features we want to turn on and which are likely to break something, figure out how to push back on features that are not listed as optional... When we moved to Canvas, I likened reading these release notes to reading Shakespeare—you sort of have to do it for a while before they start to make sense, so now I'm the specialist on my team whose job it is to make sense of the release notes and translate to the rest of my colleagues.

It would make my job easier if the notes were written in simpler English, and if more testing was done on features and changes before releasing them. Respectfully, I'd love to have more confidence in the features when they're rolled out, instead of feeling like I need to do unpaid quality control work for canvas to advocate for my stakeholders.

Changes to community notifications (all posts and comments are sent to my email immediately now, instead of in a daily digest) have also made things a bit more chaotic, but I understand from my CSM that you all might already be aware of that pain point.

jlee16

@venitk they have added a daily digest option at the bottom of your notification settings, but it seems to be curated and doesn't include entire comments, so I wind up coming over to the site and reading everything here, anyway.

vinoluac

We have been having similar issues, incredibly frustrating.

saustin

We can confirm the same

james_whalley

They have now acknowledged this as a Known Issue.

Naomi Petty

Hi, @kjackson26!
Thanks for taking the time to share your perspective and feedback! We’ll definitely keep these ideas in mind as part of our ongoing effort to support the release process.

Naomi

mbgraham

Re BBB Conferences and removal of Sync Attendees button

First, THANK YOU! That was a long time coming and appreciated. However, one issue remains - if you create a Conference and add to Calendar so that all students are invited, but you do it before the course start date, no one ever gets invited. So, you either have to delete and create a new conference after Day 1, or edit the conference, and deselect Add to Calendar then reselect it.

Is there any way to NOT make instructors do this? We like our faculty to set up their weekly conferences ahead of time, but now they either have to wait until Day 1 of the course, or do the Add to Calendar gymnastics.

Many thanks!

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