With the new version 7.0, Mattermost updates its chat and collaboration platform. The focus of the update was in particular on features requested by users: among other things, the program has a new thread view for replies, which can be collapsed to provide an overview. Administrators can enable the feature by default for all users if they wish.

Different instances for applications

Additionally, iOS and Android apps can now connect to multiple instances of Mattermost. However, this is still a beta feature that users who want to test it need to explicitly enable. With the applications and desktop clients, in the future it will also be possible to make voice calls in channels, in which the content of the screen can also be shared with the other participants. Chat and other Mattermost features are available in parallel in the background. Officially, this feature is still in a beta phase: cloud clients should receive it automatically, administrators of an on-premises instance should configure it manually.

Also, the developers are expanding the chat text input with new buttons to format the message. It’s aimed at users who can’t or don’t want to write Markdown: the program converts this into the correct syntax. A click on the preview finally shows the message as it will appear in the channel.

More updates are available for playbooks, which are checklists to automate workflows. Now users can also edit them in the overview and see statistics on the actual use of playbooks. Mattermost is also introducing new settings for actions and triggers: they should allow more granular configuration of which people the software should notify when, and which WebHooks should trigger when.

Ready packages for macOS and Linux

Finally, there is also a change in the interface, a panel on the right side of the application will include extensions and applications in the future. Installation of desktop clients should also be easier for system administrators: for one thing, the program can now be found in the macOS App Store, including automatic updates through it, and DEB and RPM packages are now available on Linux.

All information about the update can be found in the project blog. Mattermost is open source software that you can also run yourself. As an option, the developers offer a project-managed cloud variant: it’s free for a small installation, fees for many important features and company support must be paid.

(fo)