Q3 Release: Precision and Self-Service

This quarter, the theme running through everything we’ve shipped is precision and autonomy. Precision means finding exactly what you need: you shouldn’t have to wade through search results that miss the point, but rather find assets by what they show and mean. Autonomy means control over how your workspace runs: letting people request the access they need, letting admins stay in control without manual approval chains, and letting the platform reflect your brand at every touchpoint. Q3 represents a significant step forward for teams that need their DAM to work faster and feel more like theirs.

Find Anything You Need: Context Search

Search now understands what your assets show, not just the words attached to them.

Search has always been a starting point for finding assets, but traditional search misses something crucial: meaning. You might know an asset shows a specific product or moment, but if the right keywords aren’t in its title or metadata, it stays hidden. This quarter, we’re introducing Context Search, a new way of finding that describes images, documents, and videos automatically, so you can match assets on what they actually contain.

When you search “product launch event in an urban setting,” Context Search finds that specific moment even if no asset carries those exact words. A Context Search option next to the standard search box lets you search by meaning alone. When a normal search finds nothing, instead of showing an empty page, users see the closest matches, turning a dead-end into a discovery moment.

Context Search changes how quickly teams can locate the right asset, especially when working across large libraries where metadata alone can’t capture everything.

Your Workspace, Your Access

Letting people help themselves reduces friction, and giving admins tools to oversee it keeps everyone safe.

Access Requests From the Login Screen

Not everyone in your workspace starts with access. Previously, that meant email chains: someone requests access, an admin gets an email, finds the right request form, fills it out. This quarter, we’ve moved the first step into the platform itself. People can now request access directly from the login screen, selecting which teams or roles they need, and admins review all requests in a single queue.

Admins can approve with the existing invite flow (roles and permissions are pre-filled based on the request) or reject with an optional reason. The invite form now also records who requested the user, building context into every onboarding decision. Admins can customize the request form to match their workspace by choosing which fields to show, which to require, and what message appears at the top.

It’s a small change that removes a common friction point and gives people a self-service path while keeping admins in control.

More Control Over Your Workspace Design

This quarter, workspace branding expanded significantly. Beyond logo and primary color, admins can now customize corner rounding, choose custom fonts, and control whether the top bar appears. This gives white-labeled workspaces a truly distinct look. Every detail contributes to the feeling that the platform belongs to your organisation, not the other way around.

A Platform That Feels Like Yours

Your brand shouldn’t stop at the interface. It extends to every email the platform sends.

When your team receives notifications from Data Dwell (password resets, invite links, approval queues), those emails now share the same visual language as your workspace. Admins can brand every email under Branding settings, choosing background colors, button colors, and a logo used only in email. A live preview lets you see how emails appear before you save.

Emails now also include a plain-text version, ensuring they read clearly everywhere. When someone signs out of your white-labeled workspace, they see your brand’s sign-out screen with your styling, not a generic Data Dwell message. These small touches add up to a cohesive experience that reinforces your brand at every point of contact.

Under the Hood

Alongside the headline features, we’ve made several smaller improvements:

Bulk Subasset Upload

Drag multiple files onto an asset at once to add them as subassets. They inherit the parent’s metadata and appear in the list with clear type and size indicators.

Custom Default Thumbnails

Files without a preview (ZIP, audio, as an example) now show a file-type icon. Admins can upload custom thumbnails, choose their background color, and link them to specific file extensions.

Merge Copyright Holders

Consolidate duplicate copyright holders in one action. The holder you keep takes over all assets, and smart folders pointing to the old ones update automatically.

Remove Metadata in Bulk

Bulk edit now includes a remove mode, so admins can clear a metadata field on many assets at once.

Advanced Lifecycle Rules

Rules can now condition on the folder an asset is in, who uploaded or owns it, and check automatically as assets change. They’re not limited to overnight checks. This means approval workflows can complete instantly when conditions are met.

Faster Folder Loading

Library navigation and permission assignment now load faster, especially with large folder structures.

Drag to Select

Multi-select assets by dragging, making bulk actions quicker and more intuitive.

What’s Next

Q3 has laid groundwork in precision and autonomy that we’re expanding significantly in Q4. Context Search was the start: we’re now refining the AI behind it, making it smarter about what users are looking for, and giving admins visibility into search trends so they understand how their teams discover assets. That data becomes actionable when paired with metadata improvements we’re working on, where AI will suggest the right metadata as assets are uploaded, and admins get better tools to manage and maintain it at scale.

You can also catch up on what we shipped in our Q2 release.