What's new in this version:

New features
- Channel Preview Images: a real-time thumbnail, viewer count, and bot score under every live channel in your list. Optional, off by default.
- Ad Blocking (experimental): skip pre-roll and mid-roll ads on Kick streams. Off by default.

Fixes
- Rewrote the session-error messaging for users signed in via Google or Apple — now explains the cause and walks through the fix step by step, instead of a generic "please log in" message.
- Fixed a bug where streams opened in a background tab by Auto-Launch could freeze — the browser's autoplay policy was blocking the unmute attempt and pausing playback entirely. Now falls back to muted playback instead.

Updated in all 13 supported languages (EN, TR, DE, FR, ES, PT, IT, RU, JA, KO, ZH, AR, CS).

• Session token selection now picks the most recently issued cookie
  when multiple exist, instead of an arbitrary one.
• Root-caused a long-standing "please log in" error affecting some
  users even while genuinely logged in: confirmed via captured network
  evidence that this stems from an intermittent inconsistency on Kick's
  own backend (the identical valid session token is sometimes rejected,
  sometimes accepted, by Kick's own servers) — not an issue in this
  extension, and not Cloudflare-related.

• Error messages now distinguish "not logged in" from "logged in but
  Kick's server briefly rejected the session," instead of showing a
  misleading login prompt in both cases.
• Added a one-time, dismissible notice in Settings recommending
  email/password login on Kick over "Continue with Google," based on
  a pattern observed across multiple affected users.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/segelferd/kick-alert/compare/v2.3.8...v2.3.17

• Error messages shown when channel data fails to load were often
  misleading. Only 401 (not logged in) and 403 (Cloudflare/IP block)
  had dedicated messages — every other failure (offline, rate
  limiting, Kick server errors, unexpected responses) incorrectly
  showed "please log in to Kick," even when the real cause had
  nothing to do with login state.
• This surfaced clearly during a Kick-side outage on Aug 12, 2026,
  when several users reported the extension "broke" and asked them
  to log in again, when the actual issue was on Kick's end.

• Error handling now distinguishes 6 cases and shows an accurate,
  actionable message for each: offline, rate-limited, Kick server
  error, and a neutral fallback for anything unrecognized.
• All error message translations across the 13 supported languages
  were reviewed for tone and register consistency, not just literal
  translation accuracy.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/segelferd/kick-alert/compare/v2.3.7...v2.3.8