February 2026 — Platform Update: New Features & Improvements

February 2026 Platform Update

We've been busy behind the scenes this month working to make Kingdom Connect a better experience for everyone. Here's a full overview of what's new, improved, and fixed.

🗺️ Regional Location Filtering

Not everyone wants to share their GPS location — and that's completely understandable. We've added a Filter by Region option across the Churches, Events, and Homepage listings. Simply select a UK region (London, Scotland, Yorkshire, etc.) and results will filter accordingly — no location permission required. Your choice is saved between visits so you don't have to keep re-selecting it.

🗂️ Browse Events by Category

You can now explore events by category, just like you could browse churches by denomination. We've added:

A dedicated By Category link in the main navigation (desktop dropdown and mobile menu)

A category filter directly on the Events listing page, so you can narrow down without leaving the page

Category links in the site footer

📸 Improved Event Detail Page Layout

On larger screens, the individual event page now makes much better use of the available space. Photos appear prominently at the top of the right sidebar with a full-width feature image and thumbnail strip. The interactive map sits below the photos, still fully clickable with links to Google Maps, Apple Maps, and OpenStreetMap. The left column stays focused on the event details and key links.

🔒 Security & Spam Protection

We've quietly wired up Google reCAPTCHA v3 across all public submission forms — the Church submission form, the Event submission form, and the Contact page. It runs entirely in the background, so genuine users won't notice anything different. It simply helps us keep the directory clean and free from spam.

We also resolved a number of upstream security vulnerabilities in build dependencies, bringing our security audit to a clean bill of health.

🔍 Smarter Search

The homepage search bar now also searches location fields — so entering a city, town, or area like "Manchester" or "Bristol" will surface churches and events in that area, not just ones with that word in the title.

✨ Other Improvements

The Home breadcrumb link in the Churches and Events hero sections was invisible (white on white) — fixed

Added richer SEO descriptions to the Churches and Events pages to help more people find the directory through search engines

Added Browse by Denomination and Browse by Category links to the site footer

Various layout and performance polish throughout

💬 We'd Love Your Feedback

Kingdom Connect is built for the Christian community, and we want it to keep improving based on what you actually need. If something isn't working the way you'd expect, if a church or event is missing, or if you have an idea for something we should add — please get in touch using the Contact page.

We read every message and your feedback genuinely shapes what we build next.

Thank you for being part of Kingdom Connect. More updates coming in March.