This fall we released Convos 0.8, with the latest update 0.83 hitting CPAN today. As we’re inching closer to 1.0, we’ve been focusing on polishing the user interface, fixing bugs and other rough patches in the user experience. One of the most important improvements in this round is how you switch between conversations.
Previously, when you pressed shift+enter, we shifted focus to the conversation list on the top, to let you tab through your most recent conversations . Now, shift enter will open up a panel on your right hand, where you can tab through all known channels and usernames, or you can start typing to filter the list. You can even join a new channel by typing in a unknown channel name and selecting the server to join on (if you have more than one).
The same list is available by hitting the hamburger menu to the right of the channel list, and of course this works just as well on mobile.
We’ve also replaced the dropdowns on the top with slide in panels that works more smoothly both on the desktop and mobile.
Another new feature in the 0.8 series that I really enjoy is the recent activity line. We now track whenever a channel goes out of focus, either because you switch to another tab, or to another channel. When you return, there’s a line showing you what’s new since you switching away.
Desktop notifications, which was broken in 0.7, has been fixed and improved a lot as well. Now, we ask you if you want desktop notifications like this - it works in all major browsers.
We’ve also changed the way web sockets are handled, now we always load new messages on web socket connect, significantly improving stability and performance. We’ve also added some more irc commands. You can now /kick people, and /names will show you who’s op and voiced in the current channel at any time.
There’s a lot of other bugfixes and improvements as well, if you’re interested in learning more you can check out the full changelog, try our demo or follow our Installation instructions to run your own.
Our main focus for the next release is cleaning up the Connection Manager, and there’s already solid progress on this work. I’ll leave you with this sneak peak of the new channel join dialog.