OpenClaw Daily News Roundup: 2026-04-23

This roundup includes only OpenClaw project news for 2026-04-23 (no competitor coverage).

Official releases published

v2026.4.22

• Providers/xAI: add image generation, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text support, including grok-imagine-image / grok-imagine-image-pro, reference-image edits, six live xAI voices, MP3/WAV/PCM/G.711 TTS formats, grok-stt audio transcription, and xAI realtime transcription for Voice Call streaming. (#68694) Thanks @KateWilkins.
• Providers/STT: add Voice Call streaming transcription for Deepgram, ElevenLabs, and Mistral, alongside the existing OpenAI and xAI realtime STT paths; ElevenLabs also gains Scribe v2 batch audio transcription for inbound media.
• TUI: add local embedded mode for running terminal chats without a Gateway while keeping plugin approval gates enforced. (#66767) Thanks @fuller-stack-dev.
• Onboarding: auto-install missing provider and channel plugins during setup so first-run configuration can complete without manual plugin recovery.
• OpenAI/Responses: use OpenAI's native websearch tool automatically for direct OpenAI Responses models when web search is enabled and no managed search provider is pinned; explicit providers such as Brave keep the managed websearch tool.
• Models/commands: add /models add <provider> <modelId> so you can register a model from chat and use it without restarting the gateway; keep /models as a simple provider browser while adding clearer add guidance and copy-friendly command examples. (#70211) Thanks @Takhoffman.
• WhatsApp: add configurable native reply quoting with replyToMode for WhatsApp conversations. Thanks @mcaxtr.
• WhatsApp/groups+direct: forward per-group and per-direct systemPrompt config into inbound context GroupSystemPrompt so configured per-chat behavioral instructions are injected on every turn. Supports "*" wildcard fallback and account-scoped overrides under channels.whatsapp.accounts.<id>.{groups,direct}; account maps fully replace root maps (no deep merge), matching the existing requireMention pattern. Closes #7011. (#59553) Thanks @Bluetegu.

Source: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/tag/v2026.4.22

Notes

• Competitor news is intentionally excluded from this daily roundup format.