What's New
User-facing updates in recent Sparky Cooks releases.
What's New
Use this page to see recent Sparky Cooks updates that affect everyday use.
iPhone and iPad
1.1: A Calmer Way to Cook
- Start Cooking: Move through Plan, Gather, Prep, and Cook without changing the saved recipe.
- Focused Cooking Steps: See the current instruction with its ingredients, helpful equipment, timers, temperatures, and a preview of what comes next.
- Apple Cooking Timers: Run multiple timers, pause or extend them, follow them on the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island, and hear an alarm until you stop it.
- Cooking Progress That Waits: Close Start Cooking and return without losing the current stage, checklists, or cooking step. Finish clears the temporary session.
- Existing Recipes: Prepare a cooking guide automatically the first time Start Cooking is used with an existing recipe.
- Fresh Guidance After Editing: Check whether the cooking guide needs an update after a cooking-related editing session closes.
See Start Cooking and Cook and Timers.
1.0: Sparky Cooks for iPhone and iPad
- Recipe Browsing: Browse account and shared recipes by folder, search, and keep your preferred sort and dashboard tab.
- Full Recipe Editing: Create and edit complete recipes with headings, lists, links, alignment, and images.
- Manage Files and Photos: Preview, open, move, and rename recipes; create and rename folders; and manage recipe photos.
- Cooking Assistant: Create recipes, ask cooking questions, and request help with selected recipe text.
- Grocery Lists: Create lists from recipes, import pasted or uploaded lists, reorder and check items, share lists, and work offline.
- Sharing and Comments: Accept recipe shares, manage sharing and public links, and follow recipe conversations.
- Offline Protection: Read cached recipes, keep local drafts, and review differences when the saved recipe changes elsewhere.
- Profile, Passkeys, and Account Controls: Use native profile, security, notification, sharing, and permitted account-management screens.
See Recipes, Grocery Lists, Manage, and Drafts, Edit Locks, and Conflicts.
Web
4.3.3: Start Cooking, Grocery Imports, and Faster Loading
- Start Cooking: Move through a focused Plan, Gather, Prep, and Cook guide without changing the saved recipe.
- Useful Step Context: See the ingredients, equipment, temperatures, and timers relevant to the current cooking step.
- Continuous Navigation: Use Previous to move backward through individual steps and earlier cooking phases.
- Temporary Progress: Ingredient and preparation checks belong only to the current cooking session and never rewrite the recipe.
- Import Lists: Paste a grocery list or upload a text or CSV file, review and edit the items, check possible duplicates, and add them to a new or existing list.
- Smoother List Editing: See more responsive checkboxes and faster entry while adding or editing list items.
- Better Recipe Imports: Retain more original sections, instructions, ingredients, and yield information.
- Improved Cooking Assistant: Get clearer answers and choose whether the assistant can use saved recipes.
- Better Recipe Search: Find recipes with more precise results and clearer folder information.
- Faster Reuse: Sparky Cooks reuses a current cooking guide and regenerates it only when cooking-related recipe content changes.
- Faster Loading: Dashboards, recipes, and shared folders load more efficiently.
- Clearer Progress: Signup and invitation actions show better loading and progress feedback.
See Start Cooking, Import a Grocery List, Import From a URL, and Settings.
4.3.2: Folder Rename, Image Uploads, and Editor Polish
- Rename Folders: Rename recipe folders from Files without disconnecting their recipes or shares.
- More Reliable Folders: Keep folder selection, account switching, default folders, and all-files views consistent.
- Improved Image Uploads: Upload larger recipe images with upload and processing progress.
- Use Existing Assets: Choose a stored Sparky Cooks image directly from the recipe editor.
- Upload, Replace, or Embed: Use the same editor image menu to upload a device image, select an existing asset, embed a URL, or replace an image.
- Better Editor Menus: Open recipe editor menus in a more usable position.
- Cleaner Sharing and Comments: Follow sharing and comment links to the expected recipe.
- Tag Editing Fixes: See manual recipe tags refresh correctly after saving.
- Account Safety: Protect the last account owner and protected users from accidental deletion.
See Files, Recipe Photos, Sharing, and Account Deletion.
4.3.1: Sharing, Grocery Lists, and Offline Access
- Public Links: Share an individual recipe with anyone using a read-only link.
- Link Control: Copy, open, enable, and disable public recipe links from Sharing Center.
- Folder Sharing: Share a recipe folder once and include recipes added to that folder later.
- Better Shared Folders: Filter shared recipes by folder and include subfolders when you want a broader view.
- Reusable Grocery Lists: Create, edit, duplicate, delete, and share grocery lists.
- Recipe to List: Create a grocery list from selected recipes or append ingredients to an existing list.
- Offline Grocery Lists: Use recently synced grocery lists without a connection and sync changes later.
- Quick Mobile Access: Add Sparky Cooks grocery lists to your mobile home screen.
- Clear Read-Only Views: See clearer read-only behavior when viewing recipes shared by someone else.
- Notifications: See alerts for sharing activity, comments, and replies from the notification bell.
See Public Recipe Links, Folders and Sharing, Grocery Lists, and Settings.
4.2.1: Passkeys, Cooking Assistant, and Profile Updates
- No More Passwords: Use your fingerprint, face, or PIN to sign in securely with optional passkeys.
- Stay Safe: Your biometric data never leaves your device.
- Manage Easily: Add or remove passkeys from your Settings page.
- Updated Cooking Assistant: Paste a recipe URL and let Sparky Cooks import and format the recipe.
- Ask Cooking Questions: Ask cooking-related questions and get quick, helpful responses.
- Search Account Recipes: Include account recipe data for more personalized Cooking Assistant responses.
- Try it Out: Open Cooking Assistant from the app or start a recipe from the sidebar.
- More Profile Choices: Upload photos from your device, choose a previous profile photo, or have Sparky Cooks generate one for you.
- Generate Avatar: Go to your Profile page and click Generate Avatar to create a unique profile picture.
See Account Security, Cooking Assistant, and Profile.
4.0: Sparky Cooks 4.0
- Secure Sign-In: Use fingerprint, face, or PIN sign-in with passkeys.
- Faster Photos: Browse photos faster with smart previews.
- Folder Organization: Organize photos and recipe files with folders.
- Recipe Sharing: Send recipe sharing invitations and accept or decline shared recipes.
- Mobile Friendly: Use a smoother mobile-friendly recipe experience.
- Streamlined Settings: Find account and profile preferences more easily.
See Getting Started, Manage, and Settings.