Mattermost 4.6: Faster channels, enhanced 508 compliance

Happy New Year!

We just shipped our January 2018 update and there’s a lot to be excited about.

Mattermost 4.6 includes several web app performance improvements, including channels that switch faster than ever before. Plus faster loading of images, thanks to higher compression, and less memory used to manage channels, thanks to optimizations.

In response to feedback from our community and our customers, we’ve also changed the default notifications settings for new users to ensure a more flexible onboarding process. New users who prefer different notification settings can update them at any time.

Download Mattermost 4.6 to try out these new features.

Here are a few other announcements we have:

• Improved 508 Compliance and Accessibility: Rolling out Mattermost at a U.S. government agency? See our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template to find the information you need about how Mattermost complies with Section 508.

• APIv4 Has Officially Replaced APIv3: Last July, we released APIv4 and announced that it would officially replace APIv3 and this is now official as of 4.6. All of the APIv3 endpoints will continue to be available until Mattermost 5.0, but we highly advise users to migrate to APIv4.

• Mattermost vs. Microsoft: Many users are asking the differences between Mattermost and the three messaging products in Microsoft Office 365 (Yammer, Teams and Skype for Business). We’ve prepared a comparison guide that shows how Mattermost is focused on the needs of technology teams.

• Top 100 Community Contributions to Mattermost: Mattermost wouldn’t be what it is without the support and contributions of our amazing open source community. Take a look at the 100 most popular features that were suggested, voted on, and implemented by our community.

Thanks for all community contributions this month and in particular our 4.6 MVP, Yusuke Nemoto, for adding paging to server logs as well as for his 25 lifetime contributions and Japanese translations.

And we’d also like to thank our community for adding more new integrations to Mattermost since our last update!

Web App Performance Improvements

Those who use our web app on a regular basis will notice that it moves much faster thanks to several performance improvements that shipped with Mattermost 4.6:

• You can now switch between channels faster. We’ve reduced post mounting time, which means that channels will load up to 45% quicker when you jump from one channel to another within the same team.
• We’ve optimized memory management in the web app. Now, up to 85% less memory will be retained when you switch channels—allowing for a smoother, faster Mattermost experience.
• We also decreased the size of most icons and logos by 70–80% by removing unnecessary metadata from PNGs, accelerating load times that much more.

Please try it out to see these improvements in action and tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

Updated Default Notifications Settings

To make sure that new users have a productive and enjoyable onboarding experience with Mattermost, we’ve made some changes to the default notifications settings based on recommendations from our users and community:

• Desktop notifications are only sent for mentions and direct messages.
• Mobile push notifications are only sent when the user is away or offline, not when they’re online.
• Mentions of the user’s first name don’t trigger notifications.

All of these can be configured in Account Settings, enabling each user to set up Mattermost whichever way works best for them.

508 Compliance and Accessibility

If you’re a government agency that’s wondering how Mattermost complies with Section 508 guidelines, head over to our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template to see how our platform meets the various standards.

Included in this update are several improvements that make Mattermost even more accessible:

• For Mattermost webpages, the default language is now declared in HTML.
• When no CSS is rendered, the position of status indicators and reply icons is updated.
• You can now use programmatically identifiable headings for team and channel names.

We strive to continue making Mattermost more and more accessible and user-friendly for everyone.

APIv4 Officially Replaces APIv3

When we released APIv4 on June 16, 2017, we announced that APIv3 would be deprecated on January 16, 2018. That day has arrived and our extensibility is more flexible and simple than ever before.

APIv3 is no longer supported. Any integrations using it should migrate over to APIv4. All APIv3 endpoints are scheduled for removal in Mattermost 5.0.

Need tips on how to migrate from APIv3 to APIv4? Please see our API documentation with guidance on migration.

We’d also like to announce one upcoming deprecation:

• The APIv4 endpoint for permanently deleting a team is scheduled to be removed in Mattermost 4.7.

Mattermost vs. Microsoft

Curious about how Mattermost stacks up against Microsoft’s three messaging products: Yammer, Skype for Business and Teams?

We put together a comparison guide that showcases the similarities and highlights the many differences between the products. Check it out to learn why Mattermost is the right choice for high-performance teams.

100 Popular Features Contributed by Our Community

The Mattermost open source project has grown tremendously since its inception in June 2015.

That growth wouldn’t be possible without the help of our amazing community of users and developers who freely contribute to Mattermost.

To honour and recognize the commitment of these incredible people, we’ve put together a list of the 100 most popular features that have been proposed by, voted on, and implemented by the Mattermost community. Head over here to see the list and learn how you can get involved.

New Open Source Projects

The holiday season didn’t slow our community down! Here are new community integrations of note that have been shared since our last update:

1. Mattermost Poll Integration with Firebase

You now don’t have to leave Mattermost to launch an interactive poll. This integration provides the backend code for powering a slash command that creates a poll directly in the Mattermost interface.

The integration contains Firebase Cloud Functions that connect Mattermost Interactive Buttons with the Firebase Realtime Database.

To learn more about this integration, head over to the GitHub repository. Thank you Jed Fonner for your great work!

2. CloudApp Integration

You can now use CloudApp to record your screen or generate a GIF, create and annotate a screenshot, and then share it in Mattermost by dragging and dropping it in.

For more information on the integration, click here. Thanks to the CloudApp team for the awesome contribution! Sharing visuals with your team has never been easier.

Thank You to Our Contributors

amyblais, AndersonWebStudio, asaadmahmood, ccbrown, coreyhulen, cpanato, crspeller, csduarte, cvitter, dlahn, enahum, esethna, g3d, grundleborg, hmhealey, it33, james-mm, jarredwitt, jespino, jwilander, kaakaa, letsila, lfbrock, lieut-data, lindalumitchell, lindy65, lisakycho, liusy182, LordVeovis, Matterchen, mkraft, MusikPolice, panditsavitags, pichouk, pixelbrackets, pruthvip, R-Wang97, saturninoabril, skvale, stephenkiers, sudheerDev, sumantro93, tayre, tborg, tejasbubane, watadarkstar, yuya-oc

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