Esri Community Platform Update: Aurora Upgrade Postponed

[JesseCloutier]

We would like to share with you an important update regarding our planned Esri Community upgrade to the next version of the Khoros community platform (referred to as the Aurora upgrade).

After careful consideration, we have chosen to delay the upgrade until 2025. This decision has been made to ensure that we can provide the best possible experience for our users and to allow additional time for thorough testing and preparation.

We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work towards this significant enhancement. We will provide additional updates once they are available, including launch date, change details, and more. We have provided some Q&A below. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Esri Community team by commenting on this post, through our Community Feedback board, or by email: [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support and engagement in Esri Community.

Aurora Q&A

What is the Aurora upgrade?:

Aurora is the name given to the next generation version of the Khoros Community platform, on which Esri Community is already built. Aurora reflects evolving best practices for online communities and incorporates capabilities that keep pace with the state of technology.

What changes can we expect from this upgrade?:

With new capabilities available both on the front and backend, some aspects of Esri Community will be refreshed to embrace a better overall user experience. This includes updates to navigation, available features, interaction styles, and more. Our Esri Community team will release more specific change details in advance of the upgrade launch date in 2025.

Is this a migration?

No. Unlike the migration from JiveX to Khoros in 2020 (when GeoNet was rebranded as Esri Community), Aurora is a Khoros community platform that Esri Community will upgrade to from its current version, now referred to as Community Classic. Members will continue to use their existing accounts and much of the Aurora-hosted Esri Community experience will remain familiar.

[LindsayRaabe_FPCWA]

Hi Jesse. I assume this notification banner in ArcGIS Online today is meant to tie in with this upgrade?  Guessing someone forgot to postpone the notification!

[JesseCloutier]

Thanks for checking, @LindsayRaabe_FPCWA. ArcGIS Online and the Aurora upgrade mentioned in the post above are two different things. Aurora is the name for the next generation version of the platform Esri Community is built on, which we expect to upgrade to in 2025. ArcGIS products will continue to follow their own independent update schedules. All the best!

[LindsayRaabe_FPCWA]

Ahhh - I see where I've gone wrong. The main reason I asked was because when you click the link in the banner it takes you to a page where it talks about Junes updates - nothing in November. And I'd only recently read this but forgot it was community specific.