Session Release Roundup #7: Translations, notifications, and more!

With the last of the big code refactors out of the way, you might think it was time for us to take a moment to rest on our laurels and catch our breath, but…

Hell no it ain’t. That’s not how the Session team rolls.

In this round of releases, we’re making some sweeping changes to improve the user experience — most notably, taking multi-device back into the shop for some love and attention (more on that below). We’re also implementing some new language localisations, making some big improvements to message notifications, and ironing out the onboarding experience on mobile — and that’s just the start. 

Read on for a rundown of all the latest and greatest changes in today’s releases of Session!

What’s new, doc?

Session’s multi-device implementation introduced a large number of bugs which have had some pretty bad impacts on user experience. We’ve decided to temporarily remove multi-device linking and sync support to resolve these issues. This release disables new device linking, and existing secondary clients will be erased later this week. But never fear, multi-device will return in future! Note: For more information on the removal of multi-device, check out our article.

• Disabled multi-device linking in preparation for temporary removal of multi-device (iOS, Android, Desktop)

Even though multi-device is temporarily being taken back into the shop for some work, we want to make sure it’s running as smoothly as possible before then. Blocked contact lists weren’t syncing properly between mobile and desktop clients — this should fix that right up. 

• Fixed blocked contact syncing (Desktop)

Onion routing is Session’s special security sauce, and now we’ve slathered that onion-routing goodness on file uploads and open group traffic across all three platforms.

• File uploads and open groups are now fully onion routed (iOS, Android, Desktop)

Sending onion-routed file attachments is one of Session’s killer features — but there were a couple kinks in the attachment-sharing experience on Android and Desktop. Photos should now download more reliably on Android, and photo captions will now show up properly on Desktop.

• Fixed an issue that could prevent photos from downloading (Android)

• Fixed attachment caption display (Desktop)

Session has growing communities of international users, and we’re hard at work adding more languages to make Session more accessible. In this update, we’re bringing Chinese (simplified), Brazilian Portuguese, and Italian translations to iOS and Android, along with some improvements to our existing French translation. 

• Chinese (simplified), Portuguese (Brazil), and Italian translations (iOS, Android)

• Improved French translation (iOS, Android)

Session’s onboarding experience for new users was a little overwhelming — so we slimmed it down and made it a little more cuddly.

• Simplified the onboarding process for new users (iOS, Android)

We also ironed out a bunch of tiny interface niggles that have been bugging us and our users for a while now. Thanks to all our users who pointed out these minor improvements that’ll make a major difference for Session’s usability!

• Various minor UI improvements (iOS, Android)

It’s pretty tricky to nail message notifications while preserving your privacy — but these changes will significantly improve the notification experience on iOS and Desktop.

• Fixed a common crash that could occur after tapping a push notification (iOS)

• Fixed an issue that could prevent push notifications from appearing (iOS)

• When you tap a push notification to open the app, all your messages are now visible right away (iOS)

• Fixed message TTL for push notification server (Desktop)

Desktop users were running into some issues deleting messages in open groups, but that should be much more reliable now.

• Fixed open group message deletion (Desktop)

There were a few miscellaneous issues popping up here and there on Desktop — but after a little game of Whack-a-Bug, we’ve got them fixed up.

• Various other bug fixes (Desktop)

And speaking of Whack-a-Bug, we’ve made some improvements to error logging on Desktop to help us nail down bugs faster and more efficiently, so you can look forward to rapid-fire bug fixes in future.

• Improved error logging (Desktop)

Up next: Whack-a-Bug, shared sender keys, and more

We’ll be pushing out another few cross-platform updates over the next couple weeks, aiming to iron out some of the remaining wrinkles and bugs. We’re also planning to enable shared sender keys across all platforms as soon as we have the Android implementation finished up, so you can look forward to increased closed group sizes on every platform in the near future! 

Looking further into the crystal ball, after the next few rounds of bug fixes we’ll be embarking on a major UX overhaul across all three platforms — after laying the groundwork with the recent refactors, we’re almost ready to start reaping the benefits by making some significant improvements to Session’s user experience. We’ve got some exciting concepts in the works, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

Thank you!

Many of the bug fixes and improvements in this round of releases wouldn’t have been possible without the valuable feedback and input from you — Session’s users. It’s comments and suggestions from users like you that help us build the app you want to use, so keep the feedback coming, and we’ll keep hammering away to make Session the best private messenger we can. As always, thank you for your feedback and your support!

The Session team

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