Dev

This update is covering the last two weeks of development. On the Session team there has been lots of movement with releases on Android and iOS; the Android release primarily targeted performance improvements and fixed a number of crashes, while the iOS release targeted mostly quality of life improvements and a few bug fixes here and there. The Session team is continuing its focus on three main tasks: disappearing message overhaul, closed group overhaul, and updating our strategy for Session user config message management. Session user config message management is progressing quickly on all platforms. The Oxen core team has been continuing their work on wallet3 but has been slightly side-tracked with completing some required financial reporting for the OPTF, this should be resolved as the paperwork is filed and we move our resources back from the Lokinet team to Oxen core. The Lokinet team is working hard on a internal code refactor which should make it much easier to contribute new code in the future. The Lokinet team is also working on liblokinet, particularly focusing on issues present when integrating into iOS, which is very relevant for Session integration.    

Oxen Core

• Wallet3 Subaddress support

Session

Session Android

We released a new version of Session Android, which aims to resolve a number of common crashes and improve in app performance as well as patching some some quality of life bugs patch notes and .APK download links can be found here

• Ongoing work to integrate libsession-util

• Prevent some old call related messages from being processed to fix endless crash 

• Fix issue where message bubble may be incorrectly sized

• Accessibility ID changes

•  Fix a number of issues with unread message indicators

• Prevent dropping self-sent new closed group messages

• Add updated delivery status indicators

• Ongoing work on various performance improvements

• Ongoing work on closed group refactor

• Ongoing work on disappearing messages

Session iOS

We released a new version of Session iOS which fixes a number of QoL issues and resolves a number of bugs, the full patch notes can be found here

• Add updated delivery status indicators

• Fix issues with JobRunner

• Ongoing work to update configuration message handling

• Ongoing work on disappearing messages

• Ongoing work on closed group refactor 

Session Desktop

• Fix open group reactions and resolve Windows build issues

• Fix macOS build issues

• Ongoing work on closed groups refactor

• Fix link preview settings issues

• Implement SOGS server wide banning (Allowed for global administrators of the specific SOGS)

Lokinet

• Internal code layout refactor

• Significant RPC code cleanups

• Debugging/fixing/testing of embedded lokinet (aka “liblokinet”)

• Add support for encrypted/authenticated remote RPC interactions

• Fix oxend error log message about invalid pubkey 0000… from Lokinet on initial startup

• Ongoing internal code refactor and cleanups for better approachability and maintainability (no PR yet)

Marketing

Welcome back for week 2 (and 3) everyone! We have had another week of a lot of meetings and planning the last couple weeks — but don’t you worry darling, there is news on the way. 

First up — MERCH! That’s right, that sexy, sexy Session merch is finally available. Now you can be fully dripped out in our new line of hoodies and tees, plus there is an extra goodie in the package for all the early orders. Get in while stocks last — and remember, you can pay with OXEN. 😉 Connor and Wes teamed up for the promotion and launch of our new e-store. If you’re a true fan, you’ll notice that I am modelling in some of the promotional photos as well. 💅

Wes and Alex have been hard at work on the customer support side of things, they are working on streamlining macros for the Help Desk to make sure we can reply quickly and accurately to any Session users who need help. On a similar note, Cam has been doing an audit of the Session FAQs and Help Desk items as well. 

The team is getting the ball rolling on the next edition of The Session Tapes — which will have a slightly different flavour to them in 2023. We are doing some experimenting and making some changes to how we produce not only the Tapes but other video content, too. Episode 6 of the Tapes will not only be a video, but it’ll also be livestreamed on Twitter Spaces. Not only will this help expose our (large) Twitter audience to The Session Tapes, it’ll also make it an easy and appealing show for people to make guest appearances on. 😉 There will be some other changes coming to our videos — but we will let you know more about that very soon. 

Cam and Connor have been working together to finish off some App Store and Play Store localisations for Session — this week was work for Germany. 

We’ve made plans to re-jig the way we handle our Official community channels. You might see us popping into a channel near you to add some extra magic sparkles (or at least tell you where we’re keeping all the magic sparkles). 

We have also released some content about Session versus Wickr. In case you hadn’t heard, Wickr Me is closing down at the end of the year — and we anticipate that a lot of (former) Wickr users will find Session to be a perfect replacement. 

On top of all that, we continued comms rollout for the Mandatory Service Node Upgrade.  

On top of that, there have been meetings. A lot of meetings. We’ve been getting our business and marketing goals aligned, plotting out strategies for Q1 and beyond, and syncing with the rest of the team about what we’re doing and how we’re gonna do it. Chris has some super aggressive goals for this year, so he and I have been working closely to figure out the most efficient and effective path towards glory for Oxen, Session, Lokinet, and everyone that is along for the ride. 

As I said earlier, there will be more information coming out about this very soon — or more so you’ll just start seeing some of the changes that we are working on. In the meantime, sit tight and get ready — we’re gonna have a big year.