On May 3, 2016, Kibana 5.0.0-alpha2 was released, marking a significant milestone for the software and its development community. This alpha version, specifically compatible with Elasticsearch 5.0.0-alpha2, introduced several new features and bug fixes, including the renaming of Sense to Console, which now supports the ES 5.0 APIs, and improvements like configurable header whitelists for requests, millisecond support for interval durations, and persistent UUID generation for cluster instance distinction. Additionally, various bugs were addressed, such as fixing extraneous bounds on tilemaps, honoring custom labels on metrics, and enhancing dark theme support. The announcement hinted at the upcoming Kibana 5.0.0-beta1 release, inviting users to test the alpha version and provide feedback through forums, IRC, or social media channels.