crmne/zapfast v0.17.0

ZapFast v0.17.0

on GitHub

ZapFast 0.17 has a softer new look, with bubbles that lift off the chat and carry WhatsApp's tails. The chat wallpaper now follows your theme or shows a picture of your own, and you can rename a group and change its photo where WhatsApp allows it. You can clear a chat, page through one with the keyboard, zoom a previewed image around the pointer, and pick stickers people sent you. ZapFast now speaks Simplified Chinese and shows unread messages on the Windows taskbar. It also fixes a Linux crash after a day of notifications, linking on networks with broken IPv6, and windows that bounced between Windows monitors of different scale.

Download ZapFast: Mac · Windows · Windows ARM · Linux · Linux ARM · Flatpak · Debian/Ubuntu · Fedora

On a Mac, brew install --cask crmne/tap/zapfast. On Arch, yay -S zapfast-bin.

All screenshots use ZapFast's built-in demo content.

New

• A softer new look. Message bubbles and date chips lift off the wallpaper with a soft shadow, and the first message of a run gets WhatsApp's tail. The chat list is one surface with rounded highlights, the composer and the reply, edit and voice strips sit raised on the chat, and the reply strip now rests right on the composer. It works the same in light and dark themes. By @crmne.
• The wallpaper follows your theme. A new Theme colour, now the default in light and dark, paints the chat in your theme's own chat colour, so a custom or Omarchy theme no longer sits on WhatsApp's beige or black. It changes with the theme at once, and the doodles adjust to stay visible. If you had kept the old default beige or black, you get Theme once; any other colour you chose stays. By @crmne.
• Use your own picture as the wallpaper. Settings → Appearance → Wallpaper → Choose image… fills the chat with a picture of your choice, in light and dark mode, and Remove image goes back to the colour. ZapFast keeps its own copy, scaled down when it is very large, so the original can move. By @crmne.
• Rename a group and change its photo. The group dialog has a pencil beside the name and a menu on the photo to change or remove it. They appear only when WhatsApp lets you edit the group's info, and a name changes only once WhatsApp accepts it. By @crmne.
• Clear a chat. Clear chat in the menu at the top of a chat empties it on this computer and on your phone after asking, and keeps the chat in your list. By @LisandroNahuelH; thanks @sreeaksharas for asking. (#224, #200)
• Zoom a previewed image around the pointer. Over the picture, the wheel (or Ctrl+wheel and a pinch) zooms where you point, a zoomed picture can be dragged, and a double-click switches between fit and full size. By @joaodutra88. (#218, #217)
• Stickers people send you. A Received tab in the sticker picker lists the stickers others sent you, newest first and without duplicates, so you can reuse or favourite one without scrolling back to it. Recent still holds only the stickers you sent. By @joaodutra88. (#214, #213)
• Move through a chat with the keyboard. PgUp and PgDn scroll the open chat by about a page, Home goes to the top of what is loaded and End to the newest message. By @pulgueta. (#228)
• Unread messages on the Windows taskbar. The unread count shows as a badge on ZapFast's taskbar button, as it already did on the Linux launcher. By @caumeira. (#235)
• ZapFast speaks Simplified Chinese. It is picked automatically for Chinese in Simplified script, or from Settings → Appearance → Language. Traditional Chinese systems stay in English rather than show the wrong script. By @LisandroNahuelH. (#233)
• Themes are easier to make and have more contrast. How to make a theme, under Open themes folder, opens a new guide to the theme format and every colour. The bundled palettes are now written into your themes folder once as ordinary files to read or change, a deleted one stays deleted, and the picker lists them without .json. The chat, its bubbles and the panels now stand further apart, and an Omarchy template you never changed is upgraded to the new colours on the next start. By @crmne.
• A change of theme opens from the middle of the window, as Omarchy does it, instead of switching at once. By @crmne.
• Deleting a message asks first. Delete for me and Delete for everyone confirm and say what happens, as WhatsApp does. By @tobymarks. (#206)
• A source build gets a launcher entry. packaging/install-user.sh installs the binary, the icon and a desktop entry for your user, so a build from source shows up in your application menu. By @alitura1. (#222)
• Smaller touches:
  • The settings gear and your profile picture close Settings when clicked again (@LisandroNahuelH, #231).
  • Typing dots move at your display's frame rate instead of ten frames a second.
  • Typed text sits centred on the composer's buttons at fractional scales such as 133%, and starts closer to the emoji button.
  • Rows in the chat list touch, so there is no dead gap between chats to click.
  • Screen readers name buttons such as Open themes folder and the wallpaper row, and the drop-downs in Settings scroll into view when Tab reaches them.

Fixed

• ZapFast no longer crashes on Linux after a day of notifications. Each notification waiting for a click held some resources, and KDE Plasma does not always say when one is gone (for example during Do Not Disturb), so ZapFast eventually ran out and quit. At most 32 notifications now wait; older ones stay on your desktop but no longer open their chat when clicked. By @jzadir. (#238)
• ZapFast links on networks with broken IPv6. When WhatsApp's IPv6 address does not answer, as on some hotspots, VPNs and routers, ZapFast now tries IPv4 instead of retrying IPv6 forever. By @LisandroNahuelH; thanks @edmooredop for the precise report. (#226, #212)
• Downloaded files stay when a message arrives twice. A redelivered message or a history replay no longer makes a downloaded file ask to be downloaded again. By @LisandroNahuelH. (#205)
• Dragging the window between Windows monitors of different scale works. It no longer bounces back to the first monitor and grows each time. By @crmne, with the winit fix by @LunaticGhoulPiano (rust-windowing/winit#4694); thanks @caumeira, whose #216 found the same cause.
• Arabic on Windows is drawn in Segoe UI. Windows could pick a print face that drew Arabic at about two thirds the size of the text around it. By @crmne; thanks @BruceUK. (#72)
• Updating a copy still named FastsApp works. On Windows the installer keeps a fastsapp.exe for older updaters until ZapFast starts under its own name, and installations under the old name move onto ZapFast's as they update. By @crmne.

Known limitations

• Renaming a group and changing its photo, the Windows taskbar badge, and the Arabic font change on Windows are covered by tests but have not yet been tried by the maintainer on a real group or a Windows machine. Please report anything that looks wrong. #72 stays open until someone confirms Arabic looks right on Windows.
• On Linux, a notification older than the 32 most recent no longer opens its chat when clicked, and reading that chat no longer dismisses it.

Thanks

@joaodutra88, @LisandroNahuelH, @pulgueta, @caumeira, @tobymarks, @alitura1 and @jzadir for the pull requests in this release, @LunaticGhoulPiano for the winit fix, @edmooredop, @sreeaksharas and @BruceUK for their reports, and everyone who reported problems and tried the new look.

Full changelog: v0.16.5...v0.17.0