Dev

This week was a little more chilled on the Session team, with the user config release we finished an assortment of tasks which had been put off temporarily, like upgrading the Electron and Node versions used by Session desktop, or trying to clean up some of the Session android start-up flow. We also released a bug fix release on iOS to fix up a few crashes with our QR code scanning and attachments systems. On the Lokinet team we finished datagram support for libQUIC and are now moving on to libQUIC integration into Lokinet proper. We looked at the best strategy to integrate libQUIC into Lokinet and it looks like it might be slightly less complicated than we initially thought, although the devil is always in the details, we will have a much better understanding of the timelines involved once we begin the work. 

Session

Session iOS

Fix a number of crashes associated with user config release: One, Two

• Added a method to determine if the database is probably suspended (not 100% accurate)

• Prevented a crash which could occur in rare cases when accessing the Seed via the home screen prompt (direct user to share logs with session - db locked or device in an invalid state)

• Prevented a crash which could occur when trying to send a message due to failing to retrieve the mnemonic (db locked or device in an invalid state)

• Fixed a crash with the QRCode scanner

• Fixed a crash when trying to take a video attachment

• Fixed a crash where the image picker grid could go out of bounds when selecting elements

• Fixed a crash which could occur when a user provides a recovery password with a word that contains less than 3 characters

• Fixed a bug where optimistic outgoing messages wouldn't show the "Failed" state if sending a message fails due to a suspended database

• Fixed a potential issue where the dependency injection could result in a stale date being used in some places (removing the DI here, proper fix requires larger changes in another branch)

• Note: A proper fix will be included in [WIP] JobRunner unit tests #813

• Fixed a bug where optimistic messages could end up appearing multiple times

Session Desktop

•  Add download link to readme

• Update Node and Electron dependencies

• Fix integration test issues on macOS

Session Android 

• Fix message selection clipping issues

• Add group and community icons to distinguish conversation types

• More fixes to message details screen

• Updates to add Huawei push notifications endpoints

• Enable ability to reply with voice note and fix layout issues

Lokinet

• Additional readme dependency/build instruction updates

• Final touches and merging of Datagram support for libQUIC

• Lots of design work on how to integrate libQUIC into Lokinet, with the integration process kicking off this week. 

Marketing

This week Session’s long awaited syncing update arrived! This has been in the works for a while, and it was a marathon effort from the devs — so if you see any devs around, make sure to give them a pat on the back and a high-five. On the marketing side, we produced all our usual materials for the update, including Release Roundup #17 and this video with Kee. 

This update has a special quirk — the changes won’t actually ‘activate’ in-app until the 31st. We’ll be running an extended period of update comms to accommodate for this and make sure that people don’t run into unexpected changes when everything flips over. If you haven’t noticed improvements in-app yet, hold tight until the 31st. 

On the video side of things, we recorded and edited a video with Cam offering introductory insights into what metadata is. Keep an eye out for that one to drop soon. Overall, we are reviewing how we create and manage our video content. We want to make sure we are getting as much value for our time investment on video content, and making sure that what we create is relevant cross-platform. We might be mixing up the kinds of videos we make in Q3 to accommodate this — but expect to see more video content popping up in your feeds (whatever they may be).

We are also in a review period for the Session Tapes. While Cam and Alex have a lot of fun producing the podcast, and the addition of Spaces to the show has been successful, we are currently looking into bringing guests onto the show to take things to the next level in terms of audience growth and cross-audience engagement. 

That’s it from us this week, see you next time.