Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots

Changelog

Important — please read before updating to 3.0

3.0 is a full redesign. Your conversations, settings and integrations carry across untouched — including the colors and sizes you set in the Customizer — but three things need your attention:

• Custom CSS needs rewriting: the messenger’s classes are now prefixed bm- instead of bpbm- and bp-messages-
• Update the exclusion lists of any caching or optimisation plugin: the script and style files were renamed (bp-messages* → better-messages*, bpbm-worker.js → bm-worker.js)
• The WordPress Customizer integration is gone — colors and sizes now live in the Appearance tab, and snippets calling Better_Messages()->customize stop working

Noticed something wrong after updating to 3.0? Please tell us. A redesign this large can behave differently on a theme or plugin combination we have not seen. If anything looks broken, missing or out of place, email us at support@better-messages.com — or open a topic on the support forum if you are can not contact email for some reason — and we will get it fixed. Please do not leave it unreported, every report speeds up a fix for everyone.

Thank you to everyone who sent feedback and bug reports on the 3.0 release.

3.0.13

• Fixed a block made with Block, Suspend, Report for BuddyPress stopping only the blocked member: the member who blocked can no longer write to them either, and neither of them can start a new conversation with the other
• Fixed “Block user” staying in a conversation’s menu after user blocking was switched off, in a browser that had opened the conversation before
• Fixed the guest name field stretching across the whole messenger on themes that restyle every form field on the page, such as ProRadio
• Fixed a chat room or the messenger staying empty when its page is opened on a theme that loads pages without a full reload, such as ProRadio
• Fixed the Chat Rooms list leaving out a guest or member who joined a room after the list was opened from that room’s member and online counts until the page was reloaded
• Fixed a message coming back into the reply box as a draft after it was sent, when the page was left straight after sending, so it looked unsent and was easy to send twice
• Fixed a notification popping up for every unread conversation, however old, the first time the site was opened in a browser, after the browser’s site data was cleared, or on coming back after more than a week: only messages that arrived since the browser last checked raise one
• Fixed a message showing twice in the conversation until the page was reloaded, for the other members and sometimes for the sender, when the sender’s connection to the WebSocket server dropped or slowed just as it was sent
• Hardened script and style versioning for caches, so old cached files cannot break anything during updates
• Improved group calls connecting on networks that block most ports: they now get the same relay servers and ports as one-to-one calls
• Added the attribution GIPHY and KLIPY require: the GIF search reads “Search GIPHY…” or “Search KLIPY…”, the picker shows the provider’s “Powered by” mark and sent GIFs carry its watermark
• Added revoking a member’s real-time access: the new better_messages_revoke_user and better_messages_restore_user actions close every open session of a user on the WebSocket server and refuse new ones until the user is restored, and the new better_messages_user_can_connect filter decides who may connect — see Revoke a user’s access
• Security improvement: an Ultimate Member member whose account status changes from approved to inactive, rejected or back to review is cut off the WebSocket server at once, and let back when approved again
• Security improvement: a ban in a chat room whose participants are only who is present now takes the member’s open browser or app out of the room at once, instead of only on their next page load
• Security improvement: profile updates, fast messages, call rings and call screens, conversation names and images, and message details (attachments, link previews, translations, transcriptions, locations, replies) now cross the WebSocket server encrypted with your site’s key
• Security improvement: a group call no longer sends the visitor’s IP address to the call server
• Other minor bugfixes and improvements

3.0.12

• The formatting buttons also make bulleted and numbered lists, headings and links, and the bar over selected text now looks like the messenger’s other menus
• Appearance → Conversation → Message field chooses which formatting buttons are offered and where they show — over selected text, behind a button, always or not at all — with rows of their own under Mini widgets and Mobile
• The reply area in the Appearance preview takes typing, so the formatting buttons can be tried there
• Email and app notifications show a message’s headings, links and bold as plain words instead of Markdown symbols
• A list in a message is no longer followed by an empty line it was not written with
• Fixed a message with a list or a heading changing its layout a moment after it was sent
• Fixed a heading in a message taking the theme’s heading colour, which left it dark on your own messages and in dark mode
• Fixed lists, headings, tables and code blocks in end-to-end encrypted conversations showing as plain lines instead of being drawn as in other conversations
• Security improvement: a crafted message in an end-to-end encrypted conversation could run a script in the browsers of the other members
• A chat room with Allow guests off can still be listed for guests with Show to guests in its Role Based Access settings — clicking it asks them to log in, in the room’s own words
• Fixed guests being offered Join on, joining or being added automatically to a chat room with Allow guests off, when Guests was left ticked under Can join or Auto Add
• A chat room with Allow guests off and Auto exclude users on takes out the guests who are still its members
• A closed chat room can stay in the Chat Rooms list marked Closed, with Keep in the Chat Rooms list in its settings — opening it shows the room’s closed message
• Tidy up joins and leaves under Settings → Messaging → System Messages can be switched off to give every join and leave a line of its own
• Fixed a chat room joined from the Chat Rooms list not counting you online there until the page was reloaded
• Fixed the Chat Rooms list still offering Join for a room joined with the Join button inside it or automatically, and still counting you online in a room you had left
• Fixed the Chat Rooms list showing anyone but a room’s moderators its members with Hide participants list on, and its member and online counts with Hide participants count on
• Fixed opening a chat room not adding everyone whose role is ticked under Auto Add, and leaving empty conversations behind in the database
• Fixed Auto Add missing new members of a role with many users, and people whose ban in the room had run out
• Fixed Hide Tab When Empty hiding the Chat Rooms tab from guests even when rooms are open to them
• The favorites star sits in the conversations list, so it can be reached with a conversation open — Appearance → Layout → Interface elements → Favorites button puts it back on the screen with no conversation open
• Fixed a message starred in a chat room you read without joining, presence-based ones included, missing from the favorites page and losing its star there
• Fixed your star not being saved on a message someone else had already starred
• Fixed a message waiting for moderation reaching other members through the favorites page or a search
• Security improvement: opening the favorites page with no starred messages downloaded the messages an administrator had previewed in Bulk Messages
• Fixed a minimized mini chat only blinking when its conversation was picked in the mini widget or its notification was clicked, instead of opening
• Fixed picking a conversation in the mini widget doing nothing while the messages page was writing a new message with that conversation open behind it
• Fixed a notification clicked on the messages page replacing the open conversation after the full screen view had been opened and closed there
• Fixed the BuddyPress import placing every message several hours off, on sites whose database server is not set to UTC
• Fixed Reply on a message leaving the cursor outside the reply box on desktop, so the answer could not be typed until the box was clicked
• Fixed clicking Send, or closing the emoji picker without picking one, taking the cursor out of the reply box on desktop, so what was typed next was lost
• Escape in the reply box cancels a reply or an edit again, as it did in 2.0
• Fixed picking a person in New Conversation taking the cursor out of the To field on desktop, so a second name could not be typed straight away
• Fixed typing after a click at the end of a reply box that ends in a mention going nowhere in Firefox, as in a restored draft or a message being edited
• Fixed a call showing The other side lost connection while both sides could still see and hear each other, when the other person’s connection to the site dropped for a moment
• Tools → Database shows the character set of the database connection and warns when it would turn emoji into question marks
• Fixed saving any setting turning Messaging → User Search back on, and WebSocket features staying off after an upgrade or renewal when settings were saved without an active license
• Fixed the settings button in the mini widget sitting beside the new conversation button instead of at the right, for visitors who are not logged in and with Account row off
• Fixed the full screen messenger having no close button until a conversation was opened while its conversations list was collapsed, as in a desktop window narrower than 800px
• Fixed Enter sending the message, or picking a name from the mention list, when it only confirmed a character in a Chinese, Japanese or Korean input method
• Fixed the same Enter, and the Escape that drops a character, submitting or closing other fields too — the guest name, subject, file name, link and chat room fields, the searches, the emoji picker and dialogs
• Fixed “Start of conversation” fading in a moment after the messages when a conversation too short to scroll is opened

3.0.9 – 3.0.11

• Fixed New Conversation showing a reply box instead of the Recover button for a conversation you had deleted, when Messaging → Deleted Conversations is set to offer restoring it
• Fixed a conversation you had deleted with a message still unread sending you back to the inbox a moment after you opened it, before you could press Recover
• Fixed the floating chat button on phones opening an empty screen instead of the messenger on some themes
• Fixed the To and Subject fields and the searches taking the theme’s own font and size instead of the messenger’s, on themes and plugins that restyle form fields
• Fixed the messenger’s text turning thin on themes that set a light body weight, such as Twenty Twenty-Five
• Clear messages, Erase conversation, Leave conversation, Pin Message and Unpin Message show that they are under way and then that they are done, as in 2.0
• Fixed Delete conversation, and the Restore link after it, spinning without end when the site could not be reached
• Over the length limit, Send stays in place and says the message is too long when pressed, for a new message and an edit alike, as in 2.0
• Saving an edit with all of its text removed says the message is empty, as in 2.0, instead of doing nothing
• A call a site’s own rules refuse between two members stays in the conversation header, greyed, and says why when pressed, as in 2.0
• The Messages tab of the corner widget says why when older conversations cannot be loaded, as in 2.0
• Enter in a guest’s name field continues, as in 2.0
• Fixed a status picked on a phone’s settings screen being saved twice
• Fixed the encryption error showing twice when an edit, or a message sent from New Conversation, could not be encrypted
• Fixed the Message status dialog marking Delivered with a single check, which on a message means sent, instead of the double check
• Fixed opening a conversation briefly showing an earlier day’s date label at the top and fading other date labels in, with nothing being scrolled
• The ⋯ button is back on every conversation in the list, as in 2.0, opening the same menu as a right click — it shows on hover on desktop and always on phones, with a switch for each in Appearance → Layout and Appearance → Mobile
• Fixed search results, on-site message notifications and the reply box’s quote showing a broken character (�) or part of an HTML code such as &# where a long message was cut short
• Fixed the search highlight landing one letter off the matched word in a message with a Turkish İ before it
• Fixed the conversation info panel listing no members in a course conversation, or in a private conversation an administrator opened without being in it
• A conversation among the search results has its menu again, as in 2.0 — a right click, a long press or its ⋯ pins, mutes or deletes it where it was found
• A conversation among the search results goes by its name in the conversations list again, as in 2.0, instead of by whoever wrote the matching message
• A conversation among the search results shows who wrote the match again, as in 2.0 — the writer’s picture in a group, and the delivery tick on your own message
• Fixed a reply or edit being written getting cancelled when the unread filter was switched on with its conversation open
• Mark all as read is offered whenever a conversation is unread, as in 2.0, not only while that conversation is among the ones the list has loaded
• The Users and Friends tabs mark the person of the open conversation again when the conversations list has not loaded it or the unread filter is on
• On a phone, a conversation the list has not loaded no longer empties before it slides away on Back
• Fixed a guest in Do not disturb still hearing the message sound and the ringtone
• Fixed a guest’s drafts and unsent messages being cleared on the next page load after the messenger reset its local database
• The forward dialog shows the badges a site adds to a member’s name, as the conversations list does and as 2.0 did
• An administrator reading someone else’s conversation sees it named by its subject, as in 2.0, instead of after one of the two people in it
• The favorites page shows 2.0’s star on every message again, and a click on it takes the message off the list
• A reaction shows a number only once two or more people have picked the same emoji, so reactions in a private conversation show just the emoji
• The tick of a seen message is the accent color inside a conversation again, as in the conversations list and in 2.0 — on bubbles painted in the accent it keeps the message’s text color
• The Appearance preview shows delivery ticks as delivered and seen, and a click on one opens who saw it instead of breaking the preview
• Choose the color of links in messages in Appearance → Colors — for your own and other people’s messages on bubbles, and one for the Outlined and Classic designs
• Choose the outline color of your own and other people’s messages for the Outlined design in Appearance → Colors, and each message color says what it still paints under Outlined and Classic
• Appearance opens on the Conversation tab, where the message design is chosen, ahead of Colors
• Fixed a blocked member’s messages offering no menu — they can be reported again, and deleted by a moderator
• Fixed an encrypted message this device cannot decrypt offering no menu — its sender can delete it, and it can be answered, pinned, starred or reported
• On a phone, a conversation picked from the header Messages dropdown of BuddyBoss, PeepSo or Ultimate Member opens over the page again, as in 2.0, instead of loading the messages page
• Fixed the BuddyBoss header’s Messages dropdown staying open after a conversation was picked from it
• On a phone, Private Message on a member or a message of a chat room embedded in a page opens over that page again, as in 2.0, instead of loading the messages page
• Fixed Private Message in the messenger taking a phone off the page when a chat room is embedded in it
• Fixed a person or conversation picked in the corner widget without mini chats opening the profile owner’s messages page on someone else’s BuddyPress profile, instead of your own
• On a phone, Back leaves the page at the first press again after the messenger was opened over it, as in 2.0
• Links carrying openFullScreen open the messages page maximized again
• A message notification clicked on the messages page opens the conversation in that messenger instead of a mini chat over it, unless another conversation is open there
• Private Message on a participant or on a message can open the new conversation in a mini chat, so a chat room it was started from stays open — switch on Private messages from a conversation in Appearance → Mini widgets
• Message buttons still carrying 2.0’s bpbm-pm-button class — copied into a page or kept in a page cache — work again
• A mention in a message opens the profile in the same tab again, as in 2.0, and passes the click to the better_messages_before_avatar_click filter first, as an avatar does
• Fixed a long name in a mention spilling out of its pill in mini chats, or out of the message on a phone
• Fixed notifications covering the bottom menu of MasterStudy account pages narrower than 1280px
• FluentNotify shows its own card for a new message again where the messenger’s on-site notifications are turned off
• Fixed a swipe through a conversation on iPhone and iPad stopping dead and jumping back, in Safari and in apps that show the messenger in a web view
• Fixed the conversation scrolling to the bottom a second time a moment after sending a message, pulling you back down if you had scrolled up again
• Older messages load further ahead of the scroll, and on iPhone and iPad while a swipe is still moving, instead of stopping it at the top of what was loaded
• Loading older messages no longer redraws every message already in the conversation, which made long conversations stutter more the further back they were scrolled
• A conversation too short to scroll shows “Start of conversation” above its first message again, as in 2.0
• Fixed a new message flashing once before it fades in, in a conversation too short to scroll
• On a phone, the slide between the conversations list and a conversation no longer stutters while the conversation opens, and a swipe back no longer jumps as it starts to follow the finger
• In a web app installed to a phone’s home screen, the tab bar and the reply area stand clear of the bottom edge again, as in 2.0
• Fixed a gap between the tab bar and FluentCommunity’s bottom menu when the community is installed as an app on iPhone or iPad
• Fixed the messenger on iPhone and iPad staying stuck until Safari was restarted — phones and tablets now keep the local database in each tab’s own worker
• Fixed a “Database not opened” error, and a messenger that never finished loading, after another tab closed or reset the local database
• Fixed a new message, or another change made in one browser tab, sometimes not showing in the site’s other open tabs
• The messenger keeps working on a device that has run out of storage, and keeps its local copy on sites that serve plugin files from a CDN
• The conversation list and arriving messages show sooner, and a large local history no longer freezes the page while it loads, in the browser and in the apps
• Fixed conversations staying on the loading placeholder on a slow phone with a large local history
• Fixed a one-to-one conversation’s header showing your own name after the site’s data was cleared in the browser with the messenger open
• Fixed a message that arrived while another tab was loading its local copy, or while encrypted conversations were being read, not showing until the conversation changed again
• Fixed a message on a site without WebSocket sometimes never reaching the other person when it took a few seconds to send, or went out once the connection was back
• Fixed older end-to-end encrypted messages reading as undecryptable until a reload, after the encryption module once failed to load
• With end-to-end encryption on, closing a tab in a chat room that shows who is present leaves the room while other tabs stay open
• A call pressed before the messenger has connected opens at once, says it is connecting and goes out once connected, as in 2.0, instead of doing nothing or saying the connection is not established
• The Android app says when full-screen notifications are off, which keeps incoming calls off a locked screen, and opens the setting that allows them — at start, after a call missed that way and in its Settings (rebuild the app to get it)
• A deleted message disappears as soon as the delete is confirmed — or shows “This message was deleted” where the site replaces deleted messages — and comes back if the delete fails
• Fixed the loading placeholder showing instead of an empty conversation when its only message was deleted while the conversation was still loading
• Fixed pictures not filling their frame on some themes, which left an empty band below a wide picture — in messages, reply quotes, the reply box and the info panel’s photos
• Fixed the AI moderation, pre-moderation, voice transcription and translation switches getting stuck on after the OpenAI API key, license or Messages Viewer they need was gone
• Fixed a link to a chat room landing on the Messages tab when the conversations list is collapsed, and collapsing the list switching it back to Messages
• Fixed an empty dot on the Users tab of the collapsed conversations list while nobody else is online — its online count is green again, as in 2.0

3.0.7 – 3.0.8

• Text pasted into the reply box keeps its bold, italics, underline and strikethrough, whether it was copied from a message or from another page — fonts, colours and everything else stay behind
• Fixed quotes, ampersands and angle brackets showing as HTML codes in the mobile app’s message notifications and the conversation title above them
• Fixed the messenger’s loading placeholder jumping on phones and in narrow page columns — it now shows the same single-column layout the messenger opens in
• Fixed an iPhone placing or answering a video call in Chrome still showing its own picture at half its width in a black frame
• Fixed the reply box losing its focus and cursor about a second after a new conversation was opened from a link, which closed the keyboard on a phone
• Fixed an emoji from a phone’s keyboard or a paste appearing in the reply box as WordPress’s emoji image, with the cursor jumped in front of it and the emoji missing from the sent message
• Fixed presence-based chat rooms offering Pin to top, which pinned nothing because those rooms never appear in the conversations list
• Fixed the conversation going blank for a moment between the loading placeholder and a conversation opened from a link
• Fixed a message sent just as the reply box saved its draft coming back into the reply box after sending, and staying there as the conversation’s draft
• Fixed text typed just before reloading the page or closing the tab missing from the conversation’s draft
• Fixed a long press on a conversation in the list selecting the list’s text on a phone instead of opening the conversation’s menu, and no list of conversations, people, groups or chat rooms selects its text on a long press or a mouse drag any more
• Fixed a long message filling the search results and the favourites list with its whole text — a search result now shows the words around the match on two lines
• Fixed the text of a message not being selectable with a mouse on a Windows 2-in-1 or tablet the browser treats as a touch screen — a long press with a finger still opens the message menu
• Fixed Copy message text losing the message’s line breaks and formatting — a copied message pastes back into a conversation as it was written, and into other editors with its bold, italics and links
• Members keep their end-to-end encryption keys in the browser while encryption is switched off, so switching it back on no longer asks them for their backup password
• Audio Call and Video Call are offered for guests too in the users list, search results, a chat room’s online users and a conversation’s participants, as they already were inside a conversation with a guest
• Fixed the Minimize button still appearing on the BuddyBoss Messages page with Hide Mini Widget on Messages Page turned on, where pressing it sent the conversation into a mini chat that setting had already hidden
• Phones and mini chats can show every button beside a message, the ⋯ menu alone or none, at Appearance → Mobile → Buttons beside a message and Appearance → Mini widgets → Mini chat windows → Buttons beside a message, which take the place of Tap a message to show its actions and Message actions in mini chats
• Messages on a phone and in a mini chat take all the width their buttons leave, in every message design, instead of stopping at the Maximum bubble width
• A favorited message shows its star beside the time where the buttons beside it carry none
• Fixed turning Tap a message to show its actions off in 3.0.6 also taking reactions away on a phone — a tap brings up the reactions picker whatever the buttons beside a message are set to
• No bubbles is now Classic, laid out as 2.0’s Standard template was: every message on one side, its buttons and time on its first line and no room kept beside it, with Message side applying to the bubble designs only
• Fixed Pointing tail toward the avatar moving the sender name away from the avatar along with the bubble
• Reactions are now at the top of the message menu as well, which is what makes them reachable on a picture at last — long press the image, or open the same menu from the image viewer’s own button
• Fixed the reactions picker sliding away the moment a reaction was picked, which put a different emoji under a cursor that had not moved
• Fixed the message menu sliding in from the side of the screen on a phone instead of opening where the message was pressed
• Fixed Escape closing the image viewer together with the message menu opened over it
• A sticker, a GIF or a picture carrying reactions now shows its time on the same row as the pills, the way a message with text already did, instead of spending a line on each
• Fixed a landscape GIF or sticker leaving its bubble wider than the picture, with the time and ticks beside it instead of on it
• Fixed the messenger being pushed sideways and squeezed into a narrow strip by a theme’s floated element, most visibly on a BuddyPress group’s Messages tab on a phone
• Fixed the messenger, and the page around it, being stretched to the width of the longest conversation preview on a theme that sizes its layout from its own content
• Fixed a theme’s text color taking over the messenger’s search and picker fields, which could leave their text unreadable on a dark palette
• Fixed opening the conversation menu during a call taking the conversation off screen and closing the menu again, with the call stretched across the whole messenger in its place
• Fixed the call controls drawing, and taking clicks, over the conversation information panel opened beside a call
• Fixed a GIF or sticker being cut off at the edge of the conversation a call squeezes, instead of shrinking to the room it has
• The conversation beside a call can be made wider or narrower, at Appearance → Layout → During a call, where its width had always been fixed at 350px
• The other messages’ text color at Appearance → Colors now says …