Snappier Chat & Smoother User List
Chat now loads more than twice as fast on first visit, with smaller downloads, smarter loading, and a few small UI polish items.
What's new
This release focuses on performance and a handful of small UI fixes.
Faster first load
- The main chat page now downloads about 57% less JavaScript on first visit. That's a meaningful difference on slow networks.
- Heavy features like the camera viewer, profile editor, and message screenshot now load only when you actually use them, instead of being downloaded upfront.
- Country flags now use crisper SVG icons that cover all 250+ countries — no more missing or pixelated flags.
Smoother chat
- Sending a message no longer waits on background checks — your messages appear instantly even if our spam-protection service is slow.
- The chat room list and the rooms-all menu load faster across the board.
- The user-list panel on the right was getting tangled when "Active Birthday" cards appeared — it now resizes cleanly on every screen and theme.
Active Birthday & anniversary cards
- Users celebrating a birthday or their chat anniversary now appear with a little card at the top of the user list, and a 🎂 or 🎉 emoji next to their name in chat.
- A small "ⓘ" icon next to the card explains who's eligible and how to opt out (Profile → Privacy → "Greet me on special days").
- Visible everywhere your name shows up: chat, profile cards, user list.
Private messages
- The PM list now sorts by unread first — pending conversations always bubble to the top, even if the last message is older.
- Fixed an edge case where the unread counter could get stuck on
1after reading a message from a guest. - Re-opening a conversation now correctly fetches anything you missed.
Polish & fixes
- Removed a duplicate 🎂 emoji that sometimes appeared in profile celebration subtitles.
- Cleaned up the celebrations info icon to a softer neutral gray so it stops shouting from the sidebar.
Behind the scenes
A few large optimisations went in to keep the app responsive when the chat room is busy or the database is under load. You shouldn't notice anything different except things being a bit snappier—especially on mobile.