What's New on Skill-Hive: Safer Lessons, Clearer Payments

We've spent the last few months on the parts of Skill-Hive you don't always see but rely on every time you book or teach a lesson. Here's a quick tour of what's new.

Private video rooms for every lesson

Every lesson now gets its own private video room with a name that can't be guessed. Only the learner and teacher on that booking are given the link, so nobody can wander into your session by accident.

A simpler, clearer checkout

The checkout page has been redesigned so you can see exactly what you're paying for before you pay: the skill, the teacher, the package and the total. Payments are handled securely by Stripe — Skill-Hive never sees or stores your card details. After paying you get a clear confirmation page and an emailed receipt.

An earnings page for teachers

Teachers now have an Earnings page in their dashboard showing what they've earned from each lesson, what has already been paid out and what is still owed. Teachers can add their bank or PayPal details there, and those details are stored encrypted.

Fairer teacher rankings

"Top Teachers" used to favour anyone with a single five-star review. Rankings now take into account both the rating and how many reviews it's based on, so a teacher with fifty great reviews isn't overtaken by one lucky lesson.

Lesson times in your time zone

Lesson times are now stored and shown consistently, which fixes the occasional case where a session looked an hour off or ended at midnight.

Stronger account security

We've added protection against repeated password guessing, safer password resets with links that expire after 30 minutes, and extra checks on every form to stop other websites submitting actions on your behalf.

Have an idea for what we should build next? Tell us — we read every message.