Chatto 0.5 is out

Chatto 0.5 shipped this week. It’s the biggest release we’ve done so far, and a lot of it came straight from people telling us what they were missing. Thanks to everyone who ran the previews and sent us bug reports. You made this one a lot better.

Here are the parts we think you’ll care about most.

Chatto on your desktop

There’s now a proper desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It updates itself, sends native notifications, and lets you share your screen in calls. On Linux, screen sharing works on Wayland too. The Mac build is for Apple Silicon.

Download Chatto

Bot accounts and integrations

Bot accounts are here. A bot can post, reply, react, and receive direct messages, just like a person. They wear a BOT badge so nobody gets confused.

If you want to pipe things into Chatto from elsewhere, incoming webhooks let other tools post into a room. Grafana alerts work out of the box. Going the other way, Chatto can send a signed webhook to your own service when someone mentions a bot or messages it directly.

For developers, there’s a new TypeScript package, @chatto/client, that deals with connections, live updates, and reconnects for you, so your bot code can stay about the bot. Bots can also start direct messages on their own and be handed over to a new owner without losing their keys. We’ve also added an experimental MCP server, so AI assistants can work in Chatto. They only get the permissions of the person or bot that connected them.

Finding that one message from last month

Chatto now has search. You can look through a single room, a whole server, or every server you’re connected to at once. On servers hosted with Chatto Cloud, search is always on. If you run your own server, you turn it on in the server configuration.

Writing messages

You can now pick how you write. The Visual Composer shows formatting as you type. If you’d rather see the Markdown, switch to the new Markdown editor, which highlights the syntax as you go. Both have a toolbar for when you don’t remember the syntax.

Messages can also do more than before: tables, footnotes, and Mermaid diagrams. Code blocks can render SVG images and ANSI colors, so a quick sketch or a bot’s colorful terminal output looks the way it’s meant to.

Keeping up without being buried

Notifications now live in a feed that sticks around until you clear it. So if you step away for a day, you can see what happened while you were gone. You can also decide per room how much it’s allowed to interrupt you: the busy off-topic channel and the room where your team ships releases don’t need the same settings.

Threads got some attention too. Each room can pick one of four threading modes, anywhere from “we don’t do threads here” to “everything goes in a thread”. Post as thread starts a new thread with your message as the first post, and threads open in a resizable pane next to the room so you don’t lose your place.

Calls that sound better

Voice boosting makes quiet speakers easier to hear, and an optional noise gate cuts out the keyboard clatter. You can set the volume for each person separately, see who’s talking, and pin someone’s video to keep them in view.

Lots of smaller things

• Pin important messages and post notices to a room.
• Type # to link to another room.
• Drag your servers into the order you want.
• Attachments show upload progress, and images open in a viewer you can zoom and pan. Photos from your iPhone (HEIC) get previews everyone can see.
• Copy a message’s text or link from its menu, and copy code blocks with one click.
• Emoji shortcodes work, skin tones included.
• Wrap a link in angle brackets, like <https://example.com>, to send it without a preview.
• Calls show up in the room timeline, your screen stays awake while you’re in one, and your system’s media controls can mute you or hang up.
• Push notifications now work for every server you’re connected to, and you can send yourself a test notification.
• Pick an accent color, a flat or 3D look, and a contrast level anywhere from soft to pure black and white.
• Chatto now speaks 22 languages.
• Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K to see all keyboard shortcuts.
• If your connection drops for a moment, Chatto picks up where it left off. The installed web app also stops reloading itself while you’re typing, and you stay signed in for as long as you keep using Chatto.

For the people running the server

Admins get a few new tools for keeping a community in shape:

• Admin and moderation powers now need privileged mode, which you switch on when you need it. It turns itself off after 15 minutes, and every activation shows up in the event log.
• Invitation codes let you control who can sign up, whichever way they sign in. You can also invite people directly into private rooms.
• Accounts can be deactivated, which blocks access without deleting anything. You can bring them back later or remove them for good.
• Members can add more than one verified email address. Servers can require single sign-on, limit access by OIDC group, and turn provider groups into Chatto roles.
• Neighbors lets you point your members to other communities you like in the Server Directory.
• Show off your member count on your own website with a Shields.io badge.

Setting up a new server got easier as well. You name it and create the owner account in your browser. No command line and no email setup needed for the first login. Servers with a long history also start faster and use less memory.

Upgrading

0.5 has breaking changes. The new app doesn’t talk to 0.4 servers, permissions work a bit differently, and some settings were renamed. If you run your own server, please read the upgrade guide and make a backup before you start.

Read the upgrade guide

Come say hi

Want to see 0.5 in action before you set anything up? Drop by Chatto HQ, our public community. Tell us what you think, or what you’d like to see next.

Visit Chatto HQ