crmne/zapfast v0.21.0

ZapFast v0.21.0

on GitHub

ZapFast 0.21.0 adds chat export, link previews on the messages you send, contact blocking, disappearing-message controls, progress and cancel for attachments, and full-size review before sending. Screen readers and the keyboard can move through messages, voice messages you have not heard are marked, downloads sort into folders, and the Linux packages install on Debian 12 again. It also fixes a crash when sound plays on some Linux systems, a link that stayed down until a restart, an update that could stop ZapFast from starting, videos that never arrived, edits and stars that went missing, and stickers that stayed blank.

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

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

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

New

• Screen readers and the keyboard can move through messages. Alt+2 (Control+2 on a Mac) goes to the message list, and the arrows, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down move through it. Each message is read as one item, with its sender, text and time. By @a2hsh. (#504, #434)
• Voice messages you have not heard yet show a dot beside their length, until you play them here or on another device. By @bruno-costanzo. (#538)
• Downloads are sorted into folders inside the download folder you chose: one for each account, named by its number, and one for each chat, named after it. By @eternalwaitt. (#616)
• Clear chat is in the chat list's right-click menu. By @bogusyogi; thanks @Raposoraptor. (#607, #557)
• Mute is one submenu in the chat list's right-click menu, with 8 hours, 1 week and Always. By @crmne.
• You can write in a locked chat once it is open, instead of only reading it. By @jeffersongoncalves. (#610)
• New installs follow the system's light or dark mode. A theme you already chose stays. By @bogusyogi; thanks @manuelmeurer. (#611, #551)
• The Linux packages install on Debian 12 again, and on Ubuntu 22.10 and Fedora 37 and newer. By @crmne; thanks @UllashMishra. (#600)
• Links you send carry a preview, made on your own machine, with nothing in between. Turning previews off on your phone turns them off here. By @chiefdfo. (#763, #567)
• Block and unblock contacts, and see who is blocked. By @ArthurWillers. (#625)
• Turn disappearing messages on or off and change the timer, in one-to-one chats and groups. By @fgrehm. (#531, #191)
• See how far an attachment has got, and cancel one going out. By @joaodutra88. (#511, #411)
• Animated Lottie stickers play. By @danielfeelz-backup. (#615)
• Edit a group's description from its info panel. By @crmne. (#629)
• Look at a contact's profile picture full size. By @crmne. (#640)
• Keep the voice message controls in view after switching chats. By @crmne. (#602)
• The sticker picker stays open after sending a sticker. By @crmne. (#635)
• Photos sent in a row show as one album. By @crmne. (#733)
• The tray icon shows your unread count, and on Linux and Windows follows the panel's light or dark style. By @crmne. (#375, #518)
• Notifications name the account when several are linked. By @crmne. (#731)
• Scroll the wheel over your picture to switch accounts. By @crmne. (#739)
• Export a chat from its menu, as text with or without its attachments. By @eternalwaitt. (#664)
• Review attachments at full size before sending, with a caption and a way to add or remove files. By @simonbbby. (#752, #698)
• Reactions take less room: a few on the bubble, and a click shows who reacted with what. By @simonbbby. (#760, #450, #561)
• Bold, italic, strikethrough and monospace are in the message field's right-click menu. By @simonbbby; thanks @Raposoraptor. (#762, #575)
• The GIF picker loads more as you scroll, and its results animate. By @simonbbby and @ayoubdya. (#759, #514, #623, #513)
• Forward sits beside every message, with React and Reply. By @edsonboldrini. (#700)
• A Home Manager module declares settings on NixOS. By @augustocdias. (#637)
• Reach a message's actions from the keyboard. Shift+F10 opens the current message's menu, and single keys reply, react, copy, forward and more. By @a2hsh. (#634)
• Mute one account's notifications from the account switcher. By @rodolfomichetti. (#628)
• Paste as plain text with Ctrl+Shift+V also from a clipboard that holds a picture, such as cells copied from a spreadsheet. By @simonbbby; thanks @DaveMcGlashan. (#738, #711)
• New chat finds people by the start of each word, so "j d" finds John Doe. By @Mayank-Bhatasana. (#767)
• Forwarding your own message no longer marks it as forwarded, as on the phone. By @crmne; thanks @Raposoraptor. (#554)
• Someone recording a voice message shows as recording, not typing. By @eternalwaitt. (#726)
• Group call history says how many people were on the call. By @alitura1. (#735)
• Cameras that only offer YU12, such as Iriun Webcam, work on Linux. By @demostenex. (#720)
• French phone numbers are grouped in pairs. By @AlexandreAgrn. (#632)

Fixed

• ZapFast no longer gets killed when sound plays on some Linux systems. With no real-time budget left, it now asks for a raised priority instead. By @simonbbby, in fastframe; thanks @sanotsroger. (#677)
• A connection that lost its socket reconnects by itself, instead of refusing to send until a restart. By @OmarGonD. (#764, #724)
• An update no longer stops ZapFast from starting when an older copy left files beside your linked account. They stay where they are, and your account starts. By @crmne. (#620)
• Videos in formats other than MP4, such as a .mov, arrive. They used to go out as video messages WhatsApp never delivered; they now go as documents, as the original file. By @crmne; thanks @Raposoraptor. (#553)
• A message edited before you linked ZapFast shows up after history sync, with its edit, instead of missing entirely. By @crmne; thanks @NomaDigitalAds, who traced it. (#582)
• Messages you starred before 0.20 show up in Starred. ZapFast fetches your stars from WhatsApp once more. By @crmne; thanks @itszux. (#604)
• Your phone marks a voice message you played here as heard, also with read receipts off in your privacy settings, as the phone does. By @crmne; thanks @itszux. (#501)
• Messages to a broadcast list stay in the contact's chat, and ones already filed under "Unknown" move there. By @victorblino. (#753, #537)
• The chat filter row has no scroll bar lying over its chips. The wheel and touchpad still scroll it. By @crmne; thanks @Raposoraptor. (#642)
• Pasting pictures with Ctrl+V works on Wayland and in the Flatpak. By @simonbbby. (#695, #687)
• Holding a letter on a Mac shows the accent picker. By @merlinkraemer. (#262)
• Hebrew sentences wrap in reading order, and the caret stays beside mixed text. By @GruperTal. (#496)
• Parts of the window no longer draw over the chat list after reopening from the tray. By @crmne. (#638)
• Profile pictures on disk show while a newer one is fetched, instead of initials. By @crmne. (#661)
• You can reply to view-once messages. By @crmne. (#563)
• A missing file says so and offers Download, instead of opening a folder. By @eternalwaitt. (#617, #662)
• Fetching older history wakes your phone far less often. By @crmne. (#737)
• ZapFast takes focus when it opens. By @crmne. (#755)
• Clicking the Windows tray icon hides a window that is in front. By @crmne. (#541)
• With Keep running in background off, no tray item appears. By @crmne. (#457)
• Full phone numbers show wherever ZapFast knows them. Numbers WhatsApp hides still show dots. By @crmne. (#627, #408)
• Idle macOS windows use less GPU. By @ezariago. (#768)
• Header buttons no longer overlap the name or the window controls, and panel dividers line up. By @crmne. (#622, #626, #639)
• Button labels in right-to-left languages read in order. By @3bdullah-CYS. (#757)
• Typing in the chat search no longer slows the window. By @edsonboldrini. (#701)
• Connection notices sit below the chat header on every platform, so the chat list stays put. By @simonbbby. (#761, #309)
• The media viewer shows downloaded pictures in its strip when the message had no thumbnail, and a click beside the picture closes it. By @simonbbby and @edsonboldrini. (#751, #736, #699)
• A sticker whose file holds a single animation frame shows up. By @Goodly58. (#702)
• Attachments go out in the order you staged them. By @thize. (#747)
• The linking screen keeps asking for new QR codes instead of stopping. By @hikari-work. (#756)
• Paused audio no longer keeps Windows awake. By @simonbbby. (#750, #732)
• An archive change that WhatsApp did not accept leaves the chat in place. Archiving now needs a connection. By @marijnbent. (#708)
• Selecting text in long chats stays steady and responsive. By @eternalwaitt. (#719)
• Replies to an album show their quote once. By @simonbbby. (#715, #681)
• Text starting with > and no space stays as typed, so >.< is not a quote. By @simonbbby. (#730, #722)
• The emoji picker closes when you send text. By @simonbbby. (#652, #613)
• Media viewer thumbnails fill their tiles, and its arrows stay at the window's edges. By @simonbbby. (#659, #608, #758, #605)
• More tooltips and titles are translated. By @crmne. (#555)
• Stickers no longer stay blank. One whose file has gone missing downloads again, and one that cannot be shown offers "click to retry". By @crmne; thanks @itszux. (#603)
• Ctrl+End moves the cursor to the end of what you are typing, and jumps to the newest message only from an empty composer. By @crmne; thanks @KeronCyst. (#456)
• One chat that never answers no longer holds up older history for the others. By @eternalwaitt. (#612)
• A download is reported as saved only once ZapFast has recorded it, so it is not forgotten after a restart. By @eternalwaitt. (#618)

Changed

• On Windows, the installer is now the .msi. The older setup program (-setup.exe) is gone. ZapFast 0.20.0 and later move over by themselves when they update. If you have 0.19 or older, its updater won't find this release: download the .msi once and run it. It installs over your copy, and your chats and settings stay.

Known limitations

• About 200 of the interface's words are new or newly translatable and still show in English in other languages. Translations are welcome.
• Calls are still a work in progress, as described in 0.20.0: video calls are in alpha, and in group calls your video stops for a moment every few seconds (#592).

Thanks

@a2hsh, @bruno-costanzo, @eternalwaitt, @bogusyogi, @jeffersongoncalves, @simonbbby, @OmarGonD, @rodolfomichetti, @AlexandreAgrn, @Mayank-Bhatasana, @alitura1, @demostenex, @Goodly58, @thize, @hikari-work, @marijnbent, @ayoubdya, @edsonboldrini, @victorblino, @augustocdias, @chiefdfo, @ArthurWillers, @fgrehm, @joaodutra88, @danielfeelz-backup, @GruperTal, @merlinkraemer, @ezariago, @3bdullah-CYS and @Yoryoboy for the pull requests in this release, and @Raposoraptor, @NomaDigitalAds, @itszux, @KeronCyst, @manuelmeurer, @UllashMishra, @DaveMcGlashan and @sanotsroger for their reports.

Full changelog: v0.20.1...v0.21.0