DOC-3209: Users without avatars now display avatar placeholders in the mentions dropdown.

Author: kemister85

modules/ROOT/pages/8.1.0-release-notes.adoc

@@ -54,6 +54,21 @@ The following premium plugin updates were released alongside {productname} {rele
 
 // For information on the **<Premium plugin name 1>** plugin, see: xref:<plugincode>.adoc[<Premium plugin name 1>].
 
+=== Mentions
+
+The {productname} {release-version} release includes an accompanying release of the **Mentions** premium plugin.
+
+**Mentions** Premium plugin includes the following improvement.
+
+==== Users without avatars now display avatar placeholders in the mentions dropdown
+// #TINY-12473
+
+Previously, the mentions dropdown did not properly handle cases where users lacked profile avatars, resulting in a visually inconsistent and unclear user interface. This impacted usability by making it harder to distinguish between users without avatars and those with incomplete or broken profile information.
+
+In {release-version}, {productname} now provides a default avatar placeholder for users without avatars, ensuring a consistent and polished experience when using the mentions dropdown.
+
+For information on the **Mentions** plugin, see: xref:mentions.adoc[Mentions].
+
 
 [[improvements]]
 == Improvements