Session Pro Beta update: December 2025

This has been a landmark month for Session, with the announcement of designs for Session Protocol V2, support from Vitalik Buterin, and continued work towards the release of the Session Pro Beta.

As 2025 comes to a close, many doors are opening for Session.

Because of the recent news and announcements surrounding the project, Session has received a large amount of new interest, new users, and new supporters. To make the most of this opportunity, some development and operational resources have been rerouted from Session Pro to other work areas. While there is still significant work being completed on Session Pro, the release of Session Pro Beta is being moved into the new year.

This article will shed some light on what the Session Pro rollout will look like, as well as cover some of the new and emerging priorities for 2026.

Session Pro Beta Rollout

As was mentioned in the previous development update, Pro Beta features have been completed and are now progressing through quality assurance processes. However, practically speaking the Pro Beta rollout will actually require two distinct releases.

Release one: Support

The support release will contain all of the code required for clients to recognize other users as Pro, as well as all of the code required to recognize that a linked device has upgraded to Pro. 

This release will also include support for all of the initial Session Pro Beta features, such as badges, increased message pinning limits, animated profile images, and the ability for Pro users to send longer messages. Technically, these features are already released — but they are behind feature flags. With this release, these feature flags will be removed, and the features will effectively be ‘in’ the Session. 

Importantly, this release will not provide any way for a user to upgrade to Pro Beta.

For example, the user menus allowing you to purchase Session Pro Beta will not be present in the release. It is important that a significant portion of the overall user base upgrade to this release before fully launching Pro Beta (explanation below).

Release two: Launch

The launch release is the ‘proper’ release of Pro Beta. Once this release goes live, users will immediately be able to purchase Session Pro and utilize its additional features. 

Importantly, even clients which do not have the latest release (in essence, they are still on the support release) will still be able to process and show Pro Beta features used by others. For example, if another user with Pro sends a message, their Pro badge would appear in chats or profiles as appropriate. The Pro Beta support release can also recognize when a linked device upgrades to Pro (and enable Pro features and Pro management when this occurs).

This is essential to the release of Pro Beta, otherwise users may, for example, install the latest update (launch release) on their Android device, use it to purchase Pro Beta, but not see their Pro status reflected on a different linked device (if it did not have the latest version of Session installed). Obviously, this could create a confusing and inconsistent experience for users — but it is avoidable using the two-stage release.

This two-stage release will ensure that there is a smooth and seamless rollout of Session Pro Beta. Although this may push back the ‘proper’ Pro release, it is a small delay in return for a significant upgrade in user experience.

Other work

As mentioned, other work areas arose over the course of November. Some of these will continue into 2026, while others have already concluded.

Donations

All platforms have now released a new version containing a prompt to donate to the Session Technology Foundation. The Session Technology Foundation is the steward of the project, and supports ongoing development and the operation of certain infrastructure for Session. Notably, the foundation received a significant donation from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin last month.

File server upgrades

Upgrades were made to the file server in order to resolve bandwidth issues. This should greatly improve the reliability of sending attachments on Session.

Session Protocol v2

Designs for Session Protocol v2 were also announced in November. These designs were very well received by the Session community and broader cybersecurity and privacy community.

As a result, work will now continue on refining and implementing the proposal. Expect more v2 progress updates in 2026.

Notifications

There have been some reports of decreased notification reliability, specifically on Apple devices running iOS 26. Contributors are currently investigating and implementing fixes for this issue.

Message Sending

There have also been reports that message sending has been degraded in recent Android releases, with some messages becoming stuck in the sending state (thus causing long sending times). Contributors are already investigating this and working on fixes.

The Plan 

The past month has been one of Session’s best — there has been a spike in media attention, support for the project, and usage of Session itself.

We’re shifting our priorities in the short-term to capitalize on this massive wave of support and put the app in the best possible state before the holiday period — where development may temporarily slow, but interest in the app and Session ecosystem will remain high.

Coming into the new year, our priority will shift back to the release of Pro Beta. Release One: Support should be delivered mid-to-late January, with the proper Release Two: Launch coming a few weeks later. 

There is a lot of excitement for what's to come in the following months for Session and the Session Ecosystem, including Session Token — the reasons for this short term refocus are positive, and community support during this phase is extremely important. Thank you for your support!