Fractal 5 is a full rewrite compared to Fractal 4, that now leverages GTK 4, libadwaita, and the Matrix Rust SDK. The two-and-a-half-year effort brings a new interface that fits all screens, big 🖥️ or small 📱, but should still look familiar to users of earlier versions.

It still offers the same old features you know and love, with a few additions. Highlights (italics is new✨ in 5):

• Find rooms to discuss your favorite topics, or talk privately to people, securely thanks to end-to-end encryption
• Send rich formatted messages, files, or your current location
• Reply to specific messages, react with emoji, edit or remove messages
• View images, and play audio and video directly in the conversation
• See who has read messages, and who is typing
• Log into multiple accounts at once (with Single-Sign On support)

This new major release is the result of 10 months of hard work.

New features:

• Videos now have a preview directly in history
• New videos player: click on a preview to open it
• Improved audio file support, with a nicer presentation and seeking
• Redacted messages are removed from history
• Edited messages are replaced with their new content and show a small icon
• Translations have been updated
• Spellcheck language is saved per room
• New swipe-back gesture to go back from room to room list in narrow view
• New swipe left and right gesture to navigate through media in media view
• SOCKS proxy are now also supported

Bugfixes:

• Thumbnail for pasted images have been fixed
• File type detection for uploads is more reliable
• Typing notifications are now only sent when text is actually typed in the message input

Under the hood:

• Code refactor is still going
• Some improvements to logging, including access token removal for privacy

This new minor release is the result of 2 months of hard work.

New features:

• Translation strings have been updated

Bugfixes:

• Newlines now work when markdown is enabled
• Account settings can be accessed again
• Redaction is working again
• Compatibility with HTTP-only (non HTTPS) servers has been restored
• Some crashes fixed

Under the hood:

• Code refactor is still going

This new minor release is the result of 2 months of hard work.

New features:

• Autocompletion popover position fix
• Translation strings have been updated
• Disable the textbox when there are no write permissions

Bugfixes:

• Fix crash on logout and login with wrong credentials

Under the hood:

• Code refactor continues

This new major release is the result of 7 months of hard work by 37 contributors pushing over 200 commits.

New features:

• Adaptive window, mobile friendly
• Window size and position are remembered
• Redesigned login
• Spellcheck
• Network proxy support
• Typing notifications
• Badges are shown for operators and moderators
• Keyboard shortcuts for easier navigation across rooms
• Audio and video files are now tagged correctly
• Image files have a thumbnail
• Various tweaks to the file chooser

Bugfixes:

• Logs actually output something now
• A few issues with invites and direct chats have been resolved
• More reliable scrolling
• Some crashes fixed

Under the hood:

• Code refactor continues
• We’re now using Rust 2018
• Many improvements to the build system and CI

This new major release is the result of 3 months of hard work by 25 contributors pushing over 340 commits.

New features:

• Enhanced history view with adaptive layout, day divider
• Reorganised headerbar, app menu merged with user menu
• Larger display of emoji-only messages
• Some performance improvements
• Opening a room jumps to first unread message

Bugfixes:

• More reliable notifications
• Fixed display bug for avatars

Under the hood:

• Large code refactor
• Logging infrastructure
• Continuous integration
• More informative build output