It’s taking a bit longer to get the new chat feature out the door because we’re rolling it out as a part of new photo, video and music flash players for BaristaExchange. All of these will come out in a release currently scheduled for February 26th and we’ll have more information on the new players shortly. But first, the new chat feature!
New Chat Features
We’ve retained all the great features you have on chat today, such as private chats, and are adding the following new features in this next version:
* Chat will be persistent on every page of Barista Exchange. With this new release, chat will become a bar across the bottom of every page of bX. It will start in “bar mode” and will expand into “window mode”.
* You will be able to pop chat out of your network and keep it open as its own window. This is something many of you asked for and we’re happy to provide it in this next version.
* Sound notifications when messages are received. Notifications start OFF by default, but can be turned on through the options menu.
* Members will appear online more accurately. Because chat is now persistent across all pages on your social network, members will be displayed as online more accurately. However, there will still be the option for a member to make themselves invisible, if they choose.
* Chat will now load the entire scrollable list of people online. No more clicking on ‘More’!. As a result, search will now be faster too.
* There will be local message history. Your chat client will now remember the last ten messages sent and allows to look at them by pressing Ctrl+UP and Ctrl+DOWN (arrow keys).
* Chat will now be in Flash. This means that you need to have a minimum of Flash 9 on your computer. You likely already have Flash 9 and, if not, we’ll have instructions for how to add it.
Hope the new changes will be well received, and will improve the overall chat experience for all members. Everyone should remember to log in this weekend and try it out.
- Matt
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