🟢 [ V E C T O R ] Open Beta v0.3.1


We've just rolled out the latest version of Vector, including a lot of UX optimizations for group chats, performance, file sharing, emojis, and many improvements for Android (notifications fixed).

Check it out on GitHub or read more below:
https://github.com/VectorPrivacy/Vector/releases/tag/v0.3.1


New:

👥 Group Management: multi-admin, edit group info, bulk invites, invite-by-npub, group avatars, and many fixes
🔔 Android Notifications: background message sync with Mark Read and inline Reply actions
📡 Multiplayer Networking Upgrade: faster connections, seamless WiFi + cellular switching, and Android connectivity fixes
🎙️ Voice-to-Text AI: rebuilt speech-to-text with GPU acceleration on Android
📁 File Attachment Overhaul: styled download boxes with progress spinners and retry states
📦 Directory Zip & Send: compress and send entire folders with live progress and file tree preview
🔒 Customizable Encryption: encrypt Vector with a PIN, Password, or go passwordless with instant logins
🔄 Deterministic Sync: Vector now syncs your entire history, including missing messages, at ultrafast speeds (negentropy!)
😀 Emoji Upgrade: Vector supports the very latest Unicode, with a library of over 2,000 emojis
📬 Smarter DM Delivery: messages now route to the recipient's preferred relays, for those with custom relay setups
🤖 32-bit ARM on Android: added support for older Android devices (typically 32-bit ARM)
🎮 Mini App Update Badges: one-tap in-panel updating when newer versions are available


Improvements:

⚡ Performance Overhaul: faster boot, image processing, and audio - up to >15x speedup across the board
🗜️ Smaller & Faster App: >33% smaller install size and ~50% smaller frontend (we shrunk!)
🖼️ New Image Placeholders: sharper, faster (12x) previews while photos load - powered by our custom Thumbhash library
🧠 Memory Optimizations: lower RAM usage across the board (especially for high message & contact counts)
🏗️ Background Sync: restructured backend enables reliable background sync on Android
🎨 UI Polish: updated themes, chat backgrounds, settings layout, popup styling, and profile display


Fixes:

🔄 Group Reliability: improved message delivery with smarter relay handling, retry logic, and safer commit handling
🤙 Emoji Panel Performance: fixed freezing and jitter when opening the emoji panel
🍎 macOS White Flash: no more white flash on app startup (we improved Tauri to do this!)
📱 Android Media: video and audio seeking now works correctly, with stream-based seeking in a custom media backend
🔧 Upgrade Safety: fixed migration bug affecting some users upgrading from v0.2.3, extending backward-compat