If you missed the last one, [check it out here](/posts/month-in-revolt-july-2024)!

## Mobile Development

Our mobile teams have been swiftly implementing various features and polishing the experience.

### ☁️ Push Notifications

We've been hard at work iterating on push notifications for the mobile platforms, including:

-   Fixing Firebase Cloud Messaging issues which means the Android app can now receive notifications ([insert~backend](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/commit/1fb4032d9e8e252f8fd5ae10d7b82dab58f53b86)).
-   Refactoring the push notification code ([tom~backend/pushd](https://github.com/IAmTomahawkx/revolt-backend/tree/feat/pushd)).
-   Continued work on implementing notifications on both the Android and iOS side.

![Screenshots showing push notifications on Android and iOS](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/notif-merged.png)



###### Screenshots showing push notifications on Android and iOS

### 🍎 iOS Teasers

Below are some teasers from the iOS team:

![Screenshots showing Spotify embeds, search functionality, and reactions](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/ios-merged.png)



###### Screenshots showing Spotify embeds, search functionality, and reactions

### 📱 Android Updates

And we've also got some Android updates for you!

A new image picker has been implemented using the new [Android photo picker](https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/photopicker), various stability improvements have been made, and the sidebar has been redesigned to follow Material 3 guidelines.

![Screenshots showcasing the new file picker and sidebar.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/android-merged1.png)



###### Screenshots showcasing the new file picker and sidebar.

A new colour picker has also been shipped to help users wishing to customise their experience to the fullest.

![Screenshots showcasing colour picker in slider, palette, and hex modes.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/android-merged2.png)



###### Screenshots showcasing colour picker in slider, palette, and hex modes.

### 🚧 Beta Reminder

If you're eager to try either app, you can:

-   [Request to join the Android test track here](https://rvlt.gg/jen) or [build it yourself](https://github.com/revoltchat/android).
-   [Join the iOS testlight using link here](https://github.com/revoltchat/ios#--revolt-ios) or [build it yourself](https://github.com/revoltchat/ios).

## Behind The Scenes

Revolt's backend continues to receive regular fixes and improvements, if you'd like to keep up with changes as a developer, you can visit [the releases page on GitHub](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases).

Minor notable changes:

-   Switched to using distroless Docker images for the runtime. ([0.7.16](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240830-1))

    ![Image size halved as a result](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/backend-1.png)

    ###### Docker image size halved as a result!



-   Various fixes for Apple Push Notifications and events. ([0.7.15](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240805-1))
-   Support for message pins has been added by Zomatree. This will likely find its way into clients shortly. ([0.7.15](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240805-1))
-   Created a new package [revolt-nodejs-bindings](https://www.npmjs.com/package/revolt-nodejs-bindings) intended for exposing procedure calls from the Revolt backend to various Node.js projects, notably the admin panel.

### ☁️ Migration to Backblaze B2

We have begun migrating our file server from its previous host to Backblaze B2 and we've taken measures to ensure this data can only ever be read by our servers:

-   All files uploaded to Revolt (and migrated to B2) are encrypted using a pre-shared key and the aes-256-gcm algorithm. This means only Revolt can read files back from B2.
-   All files are additionally encrypted at rest by Backblaze using SSE-B2.

We've also introduced de-duplication within the file service itself which was previously provided by the filesystem and is no longer available. As such, uploading the same file twice will mean we will get charged twice, so instead: all uploaded/processed files are hashed and are matched where appropriate to de-duplicate them internally.

The migration started on the 19th of August and by the 28th of August all files up until that point have been uploaded.

To finish the migration, Autumn needs changes made to use the new system, more information about this is provided below.

### 📦 Moving services into backend

The remaining micro-services which aren't already in the backend monorepo, are being moved into the monorepo and getting some changes in the process!

-   Both january and autumn are being migrated to [services/january](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/tree/main/crates/services/january) and [services/autumn](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/tree/main/crates/services/autumn) respectively.
-   They both now use axum instead of actix as the HTTP framework.
-   They both now generate an OpenAPI specification that is accessible through Scalar.
-   Since they are being moved into the backend repository, they will both gain ARM64 build support. Yippie!

![Scalar API documentation for january (dark mode)](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/backend-2.png)

###### Scalar API documentation for january (dark mode)

![Scalar API documentation for autumn (light mode)](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/backend-3.png)

###### Scalar API documentation for autumn (light mode)

## Web Client

_Written by insert._

Unfortunately, client work has stalled due to a lack of time on end, my focus has been shifted over to assisting with the other teams, working on the backend, and also on our moderation tools.

More contributors to the project would be helpful but I think the most important thing the frontend project is missing right now is at least one additional maintainer that can help guide contributions and triage incoming pull requests. I think other areas of the project could also benefit from this but objectively the frontend is suffering the most currently.

Please come talk to me in [#Revolt Discussion](https://rvlt.gg/Testers) if you are interested.

## Admin Panel

If you run your own Revolt instance, we have new and upgraded tools coming in the future for managing your services. The _new_ admin panel is still a heavy work in progress but it's slowly coming together!

> **Note!** Apologies for the lack of updates on the self-hosted repo with the recent configuration changes, work is being done to standardise everything on the code side and setup guides will follow after. Thank you for your patience.

Currently, the focus is on providing the ability to quickly jump to content whether necessary to assist with support tickets or to handle external moderation reports.

The search functionality allows you to quickly jump to users by username, username#discriminator, most objects by ID, channels/servers by invite code, and so forth.

![Admin panel on "search and inspect" page with 'insert' as search query](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/admin-1.png)

###### Example search result for 'insert' listing users matching that name

![Admin panel on "search and inspect" page with 'Testers' as search query](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/admin-2.png)

###### Example search result for 'Testers' listing the 'Revolt' server which matches the code

Only one of these inspect pages has been (partially) implemented so far:

![Inspect user page](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/admin-3.png)

###### Inspect user page

# From The Community

If you have a cool project/art/thing related to Revolt that you've made or otherwise like to share, drop into the [#Month in Revolt](https://rvlt.gg/Testers) channel in the Revolt community server. We'd love to give you the opportunity to have it featured in this series.

![Message by Andre_601: "Since the latest blog post asked about it... Here is art I made like over a year ago... My attempt at a Revolt Logo..." with image of Revolt logo with a slice through it.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/community-1.png)

###### Andre_601's Revolt logo idea, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J42PF103WZ0WYB555P68287V)

![Message by Taroovala: "I use Arch Revolt btw (forming the legs to make an actual arch made it look weird so I went with this version instead)" with image of Revolt logo with 'Arch Linux'-like arches embedded into it and red-blue colour variations.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/community-2.png)

###### Taroovala's Revolt-Arch logo mashup, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J6AR34D176HMHRMM1JMVNMZK)

![Message by Taroovala: "Swapped the brandings without using any fonts to confuse people even more" with image of "Revolt" text in Revolut brand style and "Revolut" text in Revolt brand style.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/community-3.png)

###### Taroovala's Revolt-Revolut branding mashup, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J6D84CXQ15V4DDWW42PEDSTN)

<video src="/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/R.mp4" style="width:50%" controls></video>

###### ive watched this video like 100 times over the past 2 months, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J42QMQAG0M74F5FZASR59JRC)

![Message by Taroovala: "My best redesign of the Revolt logo. This one is in the style of Artix Linux" with image of Revolt logo in style of Artix logo](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/community-4.png)

###### Taroovala's Revolt-Artix branding mashup, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J6M1EDEM5JF4FPMMX3C1VA2F)

![Message by Delta: "49,196,159 microseconds to make", "yes i know it's a masterpiece", "don't ask me to teach you how to become a great artist like me, i will not be responding", with image of R in math style](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-august-2024/community-5.png)

###### Delta's Revolt logo, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J6M8753Q86R6KKT5B6CXWCEZ)

# The Loop

Have any questions or feedback? Go to our [feedback](https://github.com/orgs/revoltchat/discussions/categories/feedback) or [Q&A](https://github.com/orgs/revoltchat/discussions/categories/q-a) discussions on GitHub.

### ⚙️ Organisational changes

As mentioned before, our organisation structure became unsustainable and needed immediate change. The first focus is on our operations, to coordinate this, Jen has been chosen to lead as the COO of Revolt and has been working to put together organisational structures (and generally figure out what everyone should be responsible for).

### 🚶 Holiday season (cont.)

We're coming to the tail end of the holiday season, some response times may still be affected but everything has almost come back to normal.

### 🌎 Update on prior post (again)

Licensing updates in no particular order:

-   No changes yet for Discover, although it will be published at the latest when we update our website.
-   The old admin panel and Shield source code have been [released](https://git.is.horse/revolt/legacy) (to the best of my ability).

The monthly blog update for July–August period.

Month in Revolt - August 2024

It's been a minute but we're back and still technically on time! Since our last post, we decided a better approach would be to change the format to roughly cover the past month rather than confine ourselves to a set period. The blog posts will continue to come out every month but will now be named after the month they come out.

If you missed the last one, [check it out here](/posts/month-in-revolt-may-2024)!

## Web Client

The new web client is inching ever closer to completion.

Since the last update, the client received minor updates including:



-   You can now sign up using the new client, as well as reset your password / verify your email.
-   Multi-factor authentication is now required to delete servers to prevent accidental deletion. 
-   Account deletion is blocked until all owned servers are deleted or transferred. 
-   Quickly create or join a server using the '+' icon in the server list.

### 🎨 Upgrading Markdown

![Screenshot showcasing Markdown in the new client, showcasing everything is implemented. It includes text with bold, italics, both, strikethrough, links, spoilers, items, sub-items, inline code, code blocks, quotes, KaTeX, tables, timestamps, mentions, and links.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/web-1.png)

###### Screenshot of Markdown in new client

Markdown has been reimplemented in the new client and comes with a few minor improvements:

-   KaTeX now requires the use of two dollar signs (`$$`) around formulas.
-   All timestamps now show the exact date and time on hover.
-   Relative timestamps are now updated live.
-   Sending links to channels/messages will shorten them to just display the channel name.
-   Spoilers now use two pipe characters (`||`) instead of exclamation marks (`!!`).
-   Spoilers are now much more consistent and can now have rich text inside of them!

### 🚧 New Settings

Bit by bit, the settings are being reimplemented to a much higher standard than before.

<video src="/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/screencast-settings.webm" autoplay muted loop></video>

###### Screencast showcasing the account, profile, and bot pages

## iOS Client

Over the past month, we've been busy chipping away at various features on the iOS client. At this point, we've implemented all the easy stuff, and now we're working on the more difficult features we avoided at first (last mile problem and all that).

### ☁️ Push notifications

Push notifications have now been properly implemented in both the frontend and backend, which allowed us to ~~ping each other relentlessly~~ get each other's attention when needed.

![Basic push notifications are being sent to an iOS device.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/ios-push-1.png)

###### Don't worry about all the IDs in the header and whatnot, this is just a picture from when we first got them working.

We thought we could do better though, and we set about to implement avatars into the notifications. Turns out this is quite complicated and involves creating a whole separate background app.
So that's exactly what we did.

![Upgraded push notifications sent to an iOS device.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/ios-push-2.png)

###### You can reply to messages directly from the notification by long pressing on it

These aren't final designs, but getting this far has been quite the adventure.

### ⚙️ Settings

Any good mobile app needs to have settings, so we've done just that! You can now manage your account settings, your sessions, and your appearance from the settings page. Soon to come: managing your profile!

## Behind The Scenes

Revolt's backend continues to receive regular fixes and improvements, if you'd like to keep up with changes as a developer, you can visit [the releases page on GitHub](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases).

Minor notable changes:

-   Add a limit to the number of outgoing friend requests users may have at once ([0.7.9](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240623-1)) and set lower limits for new users ([0.7.10](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240625-1)).
-   Message events now include user/member information so apps and bots don't have to fetch additional information about users if it's missing ([0.7.11](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240625-2)).
-   Added support for 'silent' messages that suppress push/desktop notifications ([0.7.12](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240626-1)).
-   Server member leave events now include whether the leave was due to a kick or ban ([0.7.14](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240710-1)).
-   Fix users being unable to leave/be kicked from group chats ([0.7.14](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/releases/tag/20240710-1)).

### 🔧 End of Refactoring

About one year ago, work started to [improve the backend](https://github.com/revoltchat/backend/issues/239) and put it in a more reasonable state. This finally came to an end on the 11th of June when the old backend was put out of production.

In essence, changes were made that:

-   Decouple the database from the API, allowing us to change the database or the API without breaking one or the other.
-   Split off API models, allowing developers to easily pull them in under an MIT license.
-   Start work towards implementing testing throughout the whole project.

Some issues did arise that were promptly fixed except for a non-obvious bug with how user connections were being cleaned up: users started reporting sudden reconnects while server load was nominal, investigation into the issue proceeded as follows:

-   KeyDB (used as the message broker, a component that handles sending messages to the right places) was identified as not being able to handle the inflated load (more on this later)
-   It was replaced by Dragonfly which pushed server resources much further but as a result server load was much higher, see graph below. On the plus side, users were now able to use the platform as normal.

![Graph showing internal network usage would slowly climb and overwhelm the server.](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/internal-network-traffic.png)

###### Network traffic graph for 19–21 June

-   Assuming the issue had to do with the vast amount of user update events being fanned out, a change was made to the backend which meant Revolt clients must manually subscribe to user updates in servers. (not affecting bots)
-   This didn't help the situation and now Dragonfly was also suddenly dropping events seemingly at random.
-   After a bit more investigation, it was found that the root issue was actually that connections to KeyDB/Dragonfly were not being cleaned up when users disconnected.
-   A patch was created and pushed out that solved this issue.

Some takeaways from this situation:

-   The bug caused about a 50-80x increase in internal traffic, which does bode well for potential future growth, it indicates there is overhead to spare.
-   We should replace Redis(/KeyDB/Dragonfly) with a proper message broker such as RabbitMQ.

# From The Community

If you have a cool project/art/thing related to Revolt that you've made or otherwise like to share, drop into the [#Month in Revolt](https://rvlt.gg/Testers) channel in the Revolt community server. We'd love to give you the opportunity to have it featured in this series.

![ms paint drawing by doru](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-july-2024/community-1.png)

###### 2 second drawing by Doru, [permalink](https://app.revolt.chat/server/01F7ZSBSFHQ8TA81725KQCSDDP/channel/01HXKSABKSDC3WMR1AVC67TEN1/01J0P2EQP5C9W16PXNZ24W1SKQ)

# The Loop

In our continued effort to increase transparency around the Revolt project, we'll now be publishing an additional section here detailing (if any) relevant information to everyone.

Have any questions or feedback? Go to our [feedback](https://github.com/orgs/revoltchat/discussions/categories/feedback) or [Q&A](https://github.com/orgs/revoltchat/discussions/categories/q-a) discussions on GitHub.

### 📱 iOS source release

The upcoming iOS app is now open source, accompanying statement by Zomatree:

> This is both to hopefully aid in its development by allowing others to contribute (i don't have loads of free time to work on revolt with my full-time job), and to also help with the on-going transparency issues in revolt.
>
> Although the app was always planned to be open sourced i wanted to do it when it in more of a polished state, however i've decided to open source it now instead to help address the concerned the community has brought up.

You can check it out now at [github.com/revoltchat/ios](https://github.com/revoltchat/ios)!

### ⚙️ Coming organisational changes

Revolt's current organisational structure has proven unsustainable and we are working to rebuild it from the ground up. We don't currently have any more information to share since we are currently in the process of drafting up a new operating structure.

### 🚶 Holiday season

It's officially the holiday season and we'll be going a bit slower through to August, please be patient with us regarding issues and support tickets.

### 🌎 Update on prior post

Unfortunately, we do not have any licensing update to provide for Shield / Discover just yet. Both are likely to be published soon, they are currently blocking on developer time but we are trying to schedule it.

The monthly blog update for June–July period.

Month in Revolt - July 2024


We often see people come and ask how Revolt is progressing, and often people are quite dismayed to not see any sort of major progress updates.

We're happy to announce that will now be changing as we start publishing a new monthly blog series detailing what we've been up to so that you don't miss out!

## Android App

Announced [October last year](/posts/revolt-on-the-go), the Android app has come a long way since and aims to provide the best possible Revolt experience on Android.

###### Preview of current app design

![Preview of current app design](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-may-2024/android-1.png)

We're happy to announce the next phase of beta testing ~~will commence soon~~ has commenced, which means you are now able to see the app's [source code](https://github.com/revoltchat/android) while the testers try out the exciting new features to the best of their ability. You can join our Google Play beta ring by asking in [the Android development server](https://rvlt.gg/PYDppbnD).

> **Jennifer** says "Making an app for a feature-rich platform like Revolt can take quite a while, especially if your goal is to write code that is both sturdy and can be expanded upon years into the future. It's actually quite an iterative process to get everything to feel 'just right', considering both the obvious parts, such as how the user may behave, as well as smaller details, like users on larger screens or optimal thumb placement on phones. For example, I can show you some screenshots made during the development of the upcoming attachment preview. I hoped to get it to feel just right in the end, and I think I may have done it!"

###### Design iteration of attachment previews in file picker

![Design iteration of attachment previews in file picker](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-may-2024/android-2.png)

## Voice/video calling

We've started preliminary work on replacing our old voice server with a completely new, battle-tested real-time media server. It's based on the same technology that powers the [Zed](https://zed.dev/) code editor among other things.

This means that video calls, screen sharing, and proper calls are all monumentally closer, albeit we still need some time to cook. We'll share more as soon as we have more to say, but for now enjoy this exclusive peek at a tech demo we were experimenting with for the new real-time media server:

###### Proof of concept implementation in new Revolt for Web

![Proof of concept implementation in new Revolt for Web](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-may-2024/rtc-1.png)

## New developers website

Our developers website has gotten a refresh and has been designed to be as easy as possible for anyone to contribute to its improvement. You can check it out now at [developers.revolt.chat](https://developers.revolt.chat).

###### The new developer website

![The new developer website](/content/blog/month-in-revolt-may-2024/dev-1.png)

## Tidbits

Here are some things that don't deserve their own section but are worth mentioning:

-   Development of the new web frontend is now back on track, so look out for the coming monthly updates as things will be changing fast!

## Addendum

Section added **7th June 2024**.

Written by insert.

While I was initially intending to leave this until all commitments were met, the overwhelming response says this should've been acknowledged. I personally did not see this as a huge deal to cover here, and that's my own fault, I think I just became out of touch with the situation after being completely burnt out from the whole thing.

So what am I talking about? The licensing controversy addressed [in this post](http://affine.revolt.wtf/share/5e2dc870-4d69-4986-be52-3d51788d59bb/OoC7aqieazghQqM1CPhT-) (includes definitions), please go read that for the full context on the situation.

And, what has been done since?

-   We've dropped the Contributor License Agreement (CLA) in favour of the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO).
-   The Android app has been released libre.
-   Admin panel has been released libre.

What still needs doing?

-   Auxiliary projects still need to be open sourced, namely Shield and Discover.
-   We should introduce a Fiduciary License Agreement (FLA) down the line to still allow contributors to protect their contributions.

# From The Community

If you have something you've made or otherwise like to share, please get in contact and we'd love to give you an opportunity to have it featured in this series.

You can drop into [#Month in Revolt](https://rvlt.gg/Testers) in the Revolt community server or [reach us another way](https://support.revolt.chat/contact).


Find out what we've been up to in our monthly blog series.

Month in Revolt - May 2024


Early Christmas present for you all, we're finally ready to reveal the new web experience.

Over the past year we've rebuilt the Revolt web client from the ground up with a strong focus on stability, performance, and style. While we are certainly not ready for a general release yet, we want to gather feedback and ensure the app is robust and accessible throughout before we think about pushing this out to all users.

## Bringing Material 3 to the Web

As part of the new web client, we've completely overhauled the user interface and adopted the [Material 3 design system](https://m3.material.io/). Not only that, but we're also bringing dynamic colour and other great features from Material You.

**Give us a colour and we'll make it happen.**

![Screenshot of multiple colour themes in a grid.](/content/blog/refreshing-revolt-web/material-you-grid.png)

**Dark mode? No problem.**

![Screenshot of light and dark schemes.](/content/blog/refreshing-revolt-web/material-you-triangle.png)

And for seasoned theme designers, you'll have even more control than ever over every single aspect of the client. Themes can now not only change colours but typography, layouts, transitions, and more!

### Limited Demo Release

You can try this out right now at [revolt.chat/app](https://revolt.chat/app).

This will give you access to play around with the new colour engine and try out the new client within the Revolt server. (we'll be releasing a more general alpha test soon so stay tuned!)

_PS. you can select colour schemes by clicking on different colours in the server list!_


Bringing a new, leaner experience for web users.

Refreshing Revolt for Web


It's time to come clean. We've been working on a secret project for a while now, and we're finally ready to share it with you. We're excited to announce that we're launching a mobile app for Android users!

## Current state of Android

For years now, our Android app has simply been a [TWA](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/android/trusted-web-activity/) wrapper around the web version of Revolt. While this was a good start, it had its limitations.

For instance, it depended on your current default browser, so we couldn't control all of the experience. Some Firefox users even reported seeing a navigation bar, which we absolutely want to avoid! This approach also limited us to the features that are available to a web app. We couldn't use any native features, such as push notifications, and we couldn't use any of the native UI elements.

All-in-all, it was a subpar experience, and we wanted to improve it. So we did.

## Introducing: Revolt on Android

A year of hard work in the making, here it is: Revolt on Android. It's a native app, built from the ground up in Kotlin, with all the features you know and love from the web version. It's fast, it's smooth, and it's beautiful.

![Three screenshots of the app next to each other.](/content/blog/revolt-on-the-go/showcase.png)

## When can I get it?

It's still cooking in the oven, but we're planning to release it in the coming months. We'll be releasing it as a beta first, so you'll be able to try it out before it's released to the public.

## What about iOS?

There's not much to say about this yet, but we're working on it. We'll share more info when we have it!

## Where can I get more info?

I'll be posting more updates, infos and builds on [**Jenvolt**](https://rvlt.gg/jen), so make sure to join if you want to stay up-to-date with everything related to Revolt on Android.

With that being said, I hope you're as excited as we all are. See you on Revolt!


Android users, listen up!


> Image credits: [Thor Alvis](https://unsplash.com/photos/sgrCLKYdw5g) on Unsplash

We have some exciting news to share with all of you today. Revolt has hit 100,000 users (and counting). Your eyes don't deceive you. That is 5 zeros after that 1. How crazy is that? 

It's been an incredible journey, and we couldn't have done it without all of you. We want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for your continued support and enthusiasm. 

## Getting to 100K 
It's not been an instantaneous process, far from it. Revolt first launched at the start of 2021 in a private beta, and it wasn't until we entered public beta in August of that year that we started increasing in user count. We got our first real public exposure in September of 2021 when we became featured on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28434012) and [It's FOSS](https://itsfoss.com/revolt/). 

This year has been the biggest year in growth though. We've received mentions on the YouTube channels of both [SomeOrdinaryGamers](https://youtu.be/1yUj_Jdis6E?t=271) and [No Text To Speech](https://youtu.be/47EjvPIhAOU). That really sent us skyrocketing and was our biggest user boost until we introduced discriminators. Apparently, you guys really like them because 10,000 of you have joined since we [announced them a mere 2 days ago](evolving-usernames). 

If you're interested in the full story of our path to this point, then you should check out the [timeline on our wiki](https://wiki.rvlt.gg/index.php/Revolt_Timeline). 

Once again, thank you very much everyone for the continued support. We will see you again at 3 morbillion users. #revoltsweep

![](https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/iGyPHBkGC73oMohRLhYwSncbhZ1G7AzdrNMcL2TLzO/image.png)


100K Users


We're changing the way usernames work on Revolt. After our initial implememtation with unique username handles, we are now replacing it with brand-new display names and usernames with a four-digit number tag. We worked alongside our community in the making of this transition. Read on to learn what's coming now for Revolt, and a very special feature announcement.

## So, how does the new system work?

Your number tag is an extra part of your username, which differentiate you from people with the same name. Internally, your number tag is referred to as a **discriminator**. The term "discriminator" comes from the concept of distinguishing between users with similar usernames. Since the discriminator is unique to each user, it serves as an identifier to differentiate users who share the same username.

We settled on using a 4-digit number tag: It will be more than enough for Revolt and we are leaving the door open to expand this in the future. The transition over to discriminator-style usernames is automatic and requires _no additional work on your part!_. Once you update your client, you should see a new pop up with your new display name, along with your username and new four-digit number tag. If you don't end up liking your display name or username, you can update them in your Profile and My Account settings pages respectively at any time.

## Why is this a valuable solution?

During our recent RFC, we engaged the Revolt community in a discussion regarding a significant change to our username system. We carefully considered the advantages and disadvantages of implementing this new system, which include, but are not limited to:

### User empowerment through personalized usernames.

Selecting an available username that truly reflects one's identity has become increasingly challenging. Our number tag system allows users to choose their desired username, as long as it meets the minimum requirement of being two letters long. This feature benefits individuals such as content creators, who value their privacy and prefer to maintain a lower profile, ensuring that their usernames remain less discoverable.

### Combating unauthorised account activities.

With this change, we aim to address issues related to account selling, trading, and instances of attempted theft, which have unfortunately led to threats and bullying in some cases. Our new system aims to prevent such incidents, promoting a safer and more secure environment for all users.

### Ensuring fairness and equal opportunities.

Our revamped number tag system employs a fully randomized approach, ensuring fairness for everyone involved. To prevent the exploitation of "rare" or "desirable" number combinations, we have implemented a blacklist. This approach aims to discourage account selling or theft, particularly with regard to usernames possessing sought-after four-digit combinations.

## What else is cooking at Revolt?

We're almost ready to bring you WebHooks, which allow you to set up real-time notifications and triggers between Revolt and other platforms. Imagine receiving instant updates from your favourite social media, project management tool or timed events, directly within your Revolt community. With WebHooks, you'll always be in the loop.

The Revolt team is also working on bringing a brand new experience for the web, along with the development of new native apps for both Android and iOS. **The current web client** (called `revite` for you super-🤓s) **enters maintenance mode** and only receives necessary (like security-related) updates, in favour of a new all-around web and desktop client with improvements both to speed and performance, and a brand new coat of paint added on top.

We'd like to thank everyone for your continuous support for Revolt and hope to see you at our next blog post.


Usernames are Evolving


The Revolt team is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. As such, we are rolling out new features to help ensure users stay safe while on the platform, primarily tackling spam and abuse on the platform. We've also been working hard to improve Revolt behind the scenes, and we're excited to share some of the news in the next few months.  
In the meantime, here's what we've been working on:

# In-App Reporting

To streamline reports to the moderation team, and to allow us to respond quickly and reliably to reports, we're introducing a new way to report content on the platform. You can now report any message, user or server directly from the app. Once a report has been actioned on, you'll receive an in-app notification.

<img style="margin: auto; display: block;" src="https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/ZuDVIjGiCl61Pk9XGk5qfc8-idN9EnFAk55DUQp713/the.png" alt="Screenshot of In-App Reporting Modal" />

In the future, we'll be adding more features to the reporting system, such as the ability to view pending and resolved reports right from the app.

# Updating Guidelines for Revolt Discover

We have updated our guidelines on servers which may be listed on Revolt Discover:

-   Your server must have adequate moderation, in the sense that content that breaks platform rules must be reported and deleted within a reasonable timeframe (this depends on the size of your server but ideally within 24 hours)
-   You may not list servers for the sole purpose of promoting an external service or website, this degrades the user experience
-   You may not intentionally manipulate your listing position

In addition to this we would also like to clarify that you must send at least one message every week to keep your server listed. This is to ensure that servers are active and not abandoned.

# rAuth is now Authifier

The authentication component used in Revolt (formerly rAuth) is now called [Authifier](https://github.com/Authifier) and will be used to contain other related projects going forwards.

# Introducing Authifier Shield

To help us more effectively combat spam, we have introduced additional checks during account registration to block malicious actors.

While we can't share all the details of these checks, we can share some of the things we're looking for:

-   Disposable emails are no longer permissible on Revolt. Almost all accounts originating from such services are used to spam the platform. These also provide no ability for the user to recover their account. Aliasing services are not affected by this change.
-   Emails hosted on Freenom domains are also automatically blocked due to the high volume of abuse originating from these domains. However, this isn't a blanket ban and you can contact support for an exception.

These checks, along with other measures, are performed by a service called Authifier Shield, a new part of the Authifier project. So far since deployment, Shield has helped block three separate waves of spam registrations, in all cases causing the parties involved to cease their attacks. Shield can adapt to a variety of situations due to its modular nature, and will likely be used to help protect other services and websites in the future.

Below is a snippet of data regarding the number of accounts that were banned at any given time, compared to the number of registrations that were blocked against time.

<img style="margin: auto; display: block;" src="https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/RRB2ob0R2FJFsvQTY1NvEaQyTCvHgTHLzJ2J9xg4XL/chart.png" alt="Bar graph of banned accounts compared to blocked registrations" />


Introducing in-app reporting, updated guidelines for Revolt Discover and built-in anti-spam measures.

Three new ways Revolt will be improving user safety


# It's finally here!

After [4 months of development](https://github.com/revoltchat/delta/commit/0fdb7491996e11e6e4aae189d6fc3a1f2d2a25c3), and several weeks of teasers and hype, the old server is out and the new back-end is in.

The new architecture brings a host of major improvements:

-   Re-designed permissions system
-   Private channels
-   Fully distributed
-   Abstracted from the ground up
-   Automation for API specifications
-   ... and honestly way too much stuff to mention

We now have a really solid base to build more features on top of, the workflow has never been faster and iterating on Revolt is getting better by the day. I can only hope that this will help us develop and ship more features faster than ever before.

Stay Tuned 🎉

---

## Permissions System

The old permission system was in dire need of a rework, it was pretty much just a early solution.

It had some really serious issues:

-   No effective ranking between roles: lower ranking roles were treated the same as higher ranking roles
-   No fine-grained overrides on roles and channels
-   No private channels

This was definitely a blocking factor for communities to adopt the platform, because really nobody should be expected to operate a community with such conditions. This update is in part meant to address this problem.

### So how do they work?

Our system departs slightly from more conventional permissions systems used on other platforms but hopefully it'll be worth it for the finer control you have over your roles and channels.

> Roles are currently given an absolute ranking, with smaller numbers taking precedence or otherwise have more priority over greater numbers. For example, **-5** will win out on **5**. We hope to build a more intuitive UI in the future.

To calculate a user's permissions in a server:

-   Apply allows given by the `Default` role.
-   For each role the user has: (from lowest to highest)
    -   Apply denies given by the role.
    -   Apply allows given by the role.

In essence, this means you can do stuff like create a "muted" or "restricted" role which removes permissions granted earlier down the role hierarchy. For example, the user below has a role which restricts their ability to view channels:

![](/content/blog/architecture-overhaul/example1.png)

Then to calculate a user's permissions in a channel:

-   Take the known server permissions.
-   Apply denies given by `Default` role on channel.
-   Apply allows given by `Default` role on channel.
-   For each role the user has: (from lowest to highest)
    -   Apply denies given by the role.
    -   Apply allows given by the role.

For a flow chart and more information, please see [the developer documentation](https://developers.revolt.chat/stack/delta/permissions).

---

## Abstraction

Let's discuss a bit about how the entire architecture has changed...

-   [delta](https://github.com/revoltchat/delta) is no longer a combined API / WebSocket server, its sole job is to provide the REST API now
-   [quark](https://github.com/revoltchat/quark) is a brand new project which allows us to better structure the development of Revolt's back-end
-   [bonfire](https://github.com/revoltchat/bonfire) is a brand new events service which replaces delta's WebSocket server
-   In terms of Revolt's database models, **quark** is split up into several layers:
    -   `models`: each model is defined separately from any logic
    -   `traits`: each model is given a set of traits that need to be implemented by some database
    -   `impl`: implementation layer for databases (we currently support a mock database and MongoDB)
    -   `generic`: additional generic methods which use the traits to build more complex queries and to generate events
-   As mentioned before, everything is fully distributed by now fully relying on Redis for both PubSub and presence information across the network, components are now almost entirely plug-and-play.
-   An API specification is now generated [directly from the API](https://api.revolt.chat/openapi.json) and can be viewed using [Swagger](https://api.revolt.chat/swagger).
-   [revolt-api](https://github.com/revoltchat/api) is a new JavaScript library which takes this OpenAPI specification and generates TypeScript types and provides us with a fully typed query builder.
-   [revolt.js](https://github.com/revoltchat/revolt.js) now also relies on **revolt-api** to provide typings and for strongly typed queries.


How Revolt's back-end was rebuilt from the ground up along with a brand new permissions system.

Blog