Cool new features: full navigation history that lets you go back and forward through rooms just like a web browser, swipe gestures to go back (on mobile), support for animated stickers/images, in-app link handling, and more!
We also polished the UI all over the place, from the image viewer and welcome screen to the layout and HTML formatting of messages. Many features were further stabilized in preparation for our full 1.0 release.
Highlights from this release
- Full navigation history: go back and forward through all the rooms, threads, spaces, etc you've visited, just like a web browser
- You can use the new back/forward buttons in the window's title bar, your mouse's back/forward buttons, the back gesture on Android, or the back button in mobile view mode
- Long-press (or click & hold) a back/forward button to show all history and jump to any point
- New gesture: swipe right to go back, just like most mobile apps
- Animated images (GIFs, stickers) now play properly in the timeline
- Robrix properly opens all links in app now: links to rooms, messages in rooms, threads, spaces, etc
- Brand new image viewer design with modern, sleek overlays for metadata and buttons
- A new prettier welcome screen with tips for getting started
- Better, cleaner formatting for messages that wastes less space
Click to see other UI & platform improvements:
* The left column with avatars and timestamps is narrower, which gives messages about 20 more pixels of width. This is nicer on narrower screens like smaller mobile devices * Timestamps always line up perfectly with the first line of each message * Paragraphs, lists, and quotes are now spaced better with redundant whitespace getting combined nicely * Reactions can now take up all the horizontal space in the timeline instead of wrapping prematurely * Hover highlights in lists, menus, and the timeline now use one consistent color, with a hint of blue for better contrast * Loading spinners now animate properly on Android, Linux, and Windows, where they used to freeze whenever nothing else on screen was changing * The `@mention` popup shows up reliably again: in the last release, it never appeared on iOS, and on macOS it often didn't appear until you switched to another app and back * The window title bar properly scales with Robrix's UI zoom level * Jumping to a message consistently highlights it, and for a longer duration so it's more noticeableDownloading and Installing Robrix
macOS
Download and open the .dmg, then drag Robrix to your Applications folder as normal.
- Apple Silicon (M1 and later):
Robrix_1.0.0-beta.3_aarch64.dmg(github.com) - Intel (x86_64):
Robrix_1.0.0-beta.3_x64.dmg(github.com)
iOS and iPadOS
Join the TestFlight beta at https://testflight.apple.com/join/cQPRgdVY.
Android
Download and then sideload Robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-android-aarch64.apk (github.com). You'll need to allow installing from unknown sources.
Windows 10 and 11
Download and run the installer robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-windows-x86_64.exe (github.com).
Linux
Ubuntu or Debian (and similar) distros.
Pick the proper version for your distro and CPU architecture:
| Your system | File |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04+, x86_64 (Intel/AMD) | robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-ubuntu-24.04-x86_64.deb (github.com) |
| Ubuntu 24.04+, aarch64 (ARM) | robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-ubuntu-24.04-arm-aarch64.deb (github.com) |
| Ubuntu 22.04, x86_64 (Intel/AMD) | robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-ubuntu-22.04-x86_64.deb (github.com) |
| Ubuntu 22.04, aarch64 (ARM) | robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-ubuntu-22.04-arm-aarch64.deb (github.com) |
Download and open that file in the Software Center (or App Center), or run this in your terminal:
:::sh
sudo apt install ./robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-ubuntu-24.04-x86_64.deb ## the ./ part is required
Arch Linux.
Download robrix-1.0.0beta.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst (github.com) on x86_64 or robrix-1.0.0beta.3-1-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst (github.com) on ARM, then run:
:::sh
sudo pacman -U robrix-1.0.0beta.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst ## x86_64
sudo pacman -U robrix-1.0.0beta.3-1-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst ## Arch Linux ARM and Asahi
Note that the robrix_1.0.0-beta.3_x86_64.tar.gz and robrix_1.0.0-beta.3_aarch64.tar.gz files are just published for use with community-maintained AUR packages (see robrix-bin and robrix-git in that package manager). We can't guarantee they are correct or up-to-date.
AppImage (for any Linux).
Download robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-x86_64.AppImage (github.com) on x86_64 or robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-aarch64.AppImage (github.com) on ARM, and then run:
:::sh
chmod +x robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-x86_64.AppImage
./robrix-1.0.0-beta.3-x86_64.AppImage
What changed in Robrix since the last release
Click here to view the full list
* Fix regression in makepad that prevents mention popup from showing by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1126 * Open links to rooms, aliases, spaces, and specific events within Robrix by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1128 * Redesign ImageViewer overlay layout to be more modern/sleek by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1130 * Allow reactions to take the full horizontal width of the timeline by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1131 * more visual improvements to the ImageViewer floating overlays by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1132 * Play animated images in the timeline, decode images at their drawn size by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1133 * use sleeker icons with thinner strokes for the imageviewer by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1134 * Shrink/condense the layout of the left column in the timeline by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1135 * Use one consistent hover highlight color everywhere by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1136 * Tweak message layout for alignment perfection! by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1137 * Full navigational history: go back/forward through rooms by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1138 * Makepad fix to properly center and layout title/caption bar by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1139 * Enable the bounce effect for SpacesBar and the main timeline by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1140 * keep macOS linker plist in the Cargo output by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1141 * Fix title bar nav buttons disappearing in a narrow window by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1142 * redesign the welcome screen with a nice responsive layout by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1143 * makepad: properly scale the macOS title bar with the UI by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1144 * Show a popup menu for nav history when long pressing a nav button by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1145 * Allow dragging and releasing to select an item in the nav history menu by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1146 * makepad: fix `LoadingSpinner` not properly animating on android, linux, windows by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1147 * Swipe right to go back on mobile by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1148 * adjust spacing and ordering of content in the settings screen by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1149 * Bump version to 1.0.0-beta.3 by @kevinaboos in https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/pull/1150Changes we made to Makepad since the last release
As always, a significant amount of our effort is spent upstreaming improvements & fixes into Makepad, such that Robrix and everyone else benefits from them.
Click here to expand the full list of Makepad changes that are relevant to Robrix
* On phones, you can now swipe right anywhere on a screen to go back. The screen follows your finger and reveals the one beneath it, and when you let go, it either finishes going back or springs back into place, depending on how far you dragged it and how fast you flicked it, like on iOS. Android's predictive back gesture drives the same animation. A drag that already means something else, like selecting text in the message box or resizing a pane, stays with that widget instead of turning into a swipe. ([makepad#1308](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1308)) * Animated GIF, WebP, and APNG images now play at their proper speed, with each frame shown for its own delay, instead of at a fixed 25 frames per second that played each animation forward and then backward. Animations also only wake Robrix up when their next frame is due rather than on every display frame, they all step on one shared clock so frames that are due together share a single repaint, and they pause while they're off screen, like in a hidden tab. The image viewer no longer stretches animated images either, since it was sizing them by the sprite sheet that holds all of their frames, and animated WebP and APNG frames are now drawn correctly. ([makepad#1296](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1296)) * Makepad can now decode an image at the size it's drawn at instead of its full size, so a big image shown small doesn't keep all of its full-size pixels around (on both the CPU and the GPU), and it's only decoded again if it's later drawn bigger. Robrix turns this on for timeline images, which saves the most on images shown from their full-size original, like animated images (which Robrix now downloads in full) and photos in encrypted rooms that were sent without a thumbnail. ([makepad#1296](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1296)) * Messages written in HTML are now spaced like they are on the web: no stray space at the top or bottom of a message, a single gap between neighboring paragraphs, lists, and quotes instead of both of their margins stacked together, and a list item's text sits right next to its bullet instead of below it. Makepad's HTML widget now collapses the margins between blocks the same way CSS does. ([makepad#1297](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1297)) * Loading spinners now spin on their own on Android, Linux, and Windows. Makepad only noticed that a shader animates over time when it was compiled for Metal (Apple platforms), so everywhere else, a spinner froze whenever nothing else on screen was changing. Makepad also now repaints only the window or cached view that a spinner is drawn in, rather than all of them, so on macOS and iOS, a spinner can't make Robrix's cached reply previews re-render on every frame anymore. ([makepad#1305](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1305)) * Once you've scrolled all the way back to the start of a room's history, the timeline now bounces at the top like any other list, so you can tell there's nothing left to load. It couldn't bounce there before, since scrolling up to the top is how older messages get loaded, so Makepad now lets Robrix turn on that bounce once the whole history is loaded. ([makepad#1299](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1299)) * The new back and forward buttons in the title bar work like normal buttons: clicking or dragging one never moves the window, they keep their hand cursor, and they stay clear of the window's minimize, maximize, and close buttons at any zoom level. In a narrow window, the window title moves out of their way or gets cut off with "…" instead of overlapping them. You can also press and hold one, then drag onto a place in its history menu and let go to jump there. ([makepad#1298](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1298), [makepad#1300](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1300), [makepad#1301](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1301), [makepad#1304](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1304)) * macOS: the title bar now grows when you zoom in on Robrix's UI, and the traffic lights move down to stay vertically centered in it, like in VS Code. Before, the title bar stayed the same height at every zoom level, since it was sized around the traffic lights, which don't zoom. ([makepad#1301](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1301)) * Windows: clicking on Robrix's window to bring it to the front no longer breaks Escape or the `@mention` popup. Makepad mistook that click for the window losing focus, so until you switched to Robrix some other way, like with Alt-Tab, Escape did nothing and the mention popup never showed up. ([makepad#1293](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1293)) * iOS: long-pressing a message opens its context menu again. A long press on iOS always came with a touch ID of 0 instead of the ID of the finger that made it, so Robrix couldn't match it up with the finger pressing on the message. ([makepad#1308](https://github.com/makepad/makepad/pull/1308))Full Changelog: https://github.com/project-robius/robrix/compare/v1.0.0-beta.2...v1.0.0-beta.3
