HighLevel Updates: New Features for October 19-23, 2026

The week of October 19th to October 23rd 2026 brought HighLevel changes to the tools agencies and small businesses use daily. Conversation AI agents can now run on Anthropic or Google models instead of one provider. Custom fields gained five new types and real validation across contacts and deals. Bookings your team creates can carry intake forms, QR codes moved into the website builder and the developer docs became readable by AI assistants.

Conversation AI Now Runs on Claude and Gemini

Every Conversation AI agent used to speak through an OpenAI model. The Agent Builder dropdown now adds seven models from two more providers: Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5 and Haiku 4.5 from Anthropic, plus Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.7 Flash and 3.5 Flash Lite from Google. Existing OpenAI models stay exactly where they were.

You choose per agent and can nominate a secondary model as a fallback, so one slow provider no longer drags client conversations down with it and each agent can be tuned for speed, cost or tone. An independent judge scored all nine models and every one cleared roughly 96 percent on appointment conversations. Gemini 3.7 Flash led at 98.8 percent, Sonnet 5.5 selected the correct action 100 percent of the time and Haiku 4.5 plus GPT-6 Luna scored 100 percent on business questions. Enable Claude and Gemini Model Support in Labs, edit an agent, pick a model then save and test. The HighLevel feature breakdown shows where this sits beside the rest of the platform AI tooling.

A Rebuilt Conversation Engine

A new engine sits underneath that model choice. Multi-part requests, such as asking a question and booking in the same message, now get one complete reply. Median response time is near 2.1 seconds, with per turn limits and automatic fallbacks so a stall does not leave a lead waiting. Action selection is restricted to the workflows you configured, and capabilities you switched off are enforced by the engine rather than by prompt wording. Relative dates like tomorrow afternoon are checked against the real date, customer input is isolated from agent instructions to block prompt injection and unanswerable questions trigger a human handover by rule.

Five New Custom Field Types for Contacts

Custom fields are no longer a plain text dumping ground. Contacts support URL fields that open with one tap, Date and Time fields shown in the sub-account time zone, Time fields for a preferred call window, User fields that pick teammates from a searchable list and Rich Text fields that keep bold text, lists and links.

Validation is the quieter win. Set the rules on web and the mobile app enforces them during editing: approved domains only, dates limited to the past, the future or a range, blocked weekdays and times held to a window. A broken rule shows a clear error instead of saving bad data. Radio and checkbox options can also carry an image or an icon. This is in production from September 2026 and needs app version 4.23.0 (857) or higher.

The Same Field Types Land on Opportunities

Those types now work on deals too, so a proposal link, a contract start date, a deal summary and the deal team live on the opportunity instead of in a note or on the contact. URL fields enforce a domain policy, date and time fields take future only, past only or range limits with selectable weekdays, and assigned users get follower level access. All of it can become a list view column or a condition in Advanced filters. Build them under Settings, Custom Fields, Opportunity, Create field. Allow multiple users cannot be changed later, and Future dates only excludes today. This sits in the Opportunity-First private beta, so track it on the HighLevel beta watch before promising it to clients.

Booking Forms on Bookings Your Team Creates

Intake forms used to arrive only when a customer booked themselves. A service or rental booking created from the in-app modal now has a Booking form section, so your team can attach a form and complete it on the customer's behalf. The configured form is preselected, other forms sit in a dropdown, and contact details prefill automatically. CAPTCHA, product selling and payment elements stay hidden. For a clinic or a rental business that takes half its bookings by phone, every booking finally carries the same intake answers. A form can only be attached while the booking is created, not edited later.

QR Codes Built Into the Website Builder

QR codes now work in Websites the way they already did in Funnels. A QR icon sits next to the page URL in the Website Builder, and one click creates, downloads or customizes a code for the page you are editing. The QR Code Builder gained a Website type, so you pick a site then a page with no URL copying. Crucially the code points at the page itself rather than a fixed address, so printed flyers, menus and window decals survive a slug or domain change. Downloads come as PNG, SVG or PDF, and Website codes support Add to Wallet. The old plain link type labeled Website is now called URL and existing codes still work.

Developer Docs Built for AI Assistants

App Marketplace documentation is now machine readable. Every API version and guide page is available as plain Markdown through /docs/llms.txt, per version indexes, per service files such as /docs/llms/v3/contacts.md and a Markdown version of any page, listing method, auth, scopes, parameters and schemas per endpoint. The Marketplace CLI also includes a local MCP server that connects a coding assistant to your developer account through eighteen tools for app creation, publish readiness, scope discovery, workflow actions, media and releases. It needs CLI 1.1.0 or later with Node.js 20.12 or later.

Smaller Improvements Worth Noting

• Grok Bot platform integration is entering Labs as an App Marketplace enhancement.
• Offline docs search keeps working because the docs index caches locally after first use.
• Standalone mode runs the Marketplace MCP server through npx where global npm installs are blocked.
• Opportunity filtering now covers URL, Rich Text, Date and Time and User fields.
• Email spam score is packed for an upcoming release.
• A revamped Websites order form is on the coming soon list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to move my Conversation AI agents to Claude or Gemini?

No. Every OpenAI model stays available and existing agents keep running as they are. The new providers appear only after you enable the Labs setting, and the choice is made per agent, so you can test one before touching the rest.

Can I use the new opportunity custom fields right now?

Not everywhere. The opportunity field types belong to the Opportunity-First private beta, so only enabled locations can create them. The contact versions are in production and need only a current mobile app version.

Will a printed QR code break if I change a page URL?

Website QR codes made through the new integration point at the page itself rather than a fixed address, so a slug or domain change does not break them. Older codes built with the plain link type, now labeled URL, still point at a fixed address.

Try These Features Yourself

Every one of these updates ships in the same subscription, so the fastest way to judge them is inside an account of your own. Start a free 30-day GoHighLevel trial, then set up one agent, one validated field and one website QR code before deciding what to roll out to clients.

To weigh which tier fits an agency, compare the current plans and pricing. If you are still running a separate CRM, the HubSpot comparison is a sensible starting point for migration. For the full month in one place, read the October 2026 HighLevel updates roundup.