Pachli 2.10.0 is now available. This release adds anti-harassment controls for Conversations (Private Mentions), improves the UI when replying, updates the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, and more.
New features and other improvements #
Anti-harassment controls for Conversations (Private Mentions) #
The work to add anti-harassment controls continues.
You can now choose how Conversations started by certain accounts are displayed, in “Account preferences > Conversation filters”.
When you select that option a new dialog – very similar to the “Notification filters” dialog – will open, allowing you to choose how to display conversations started by these three types of account.
For each type you can choose whether to show the conversation as normal, hide it behind a warning, or hide it completely.
If you choose to hide it behind a warning the conversation is replaced with a warning that shows the domain of the account and the reason for the warning.
Caveats #
The filter is applied to the account that started the conversation, not the entirety of the conversation.
For example, suppose you have set the filter to hide conversations from accounts you don’t follow behind a warning. Then:
- If you start a conversation with an account you don’t follow the filter is ignored. You started the conversation, Pachli assumes you want to see the replies.
- If you received the first messages in the conversation, clicked through the warning, and then replied to the conversation, subsequent messages – in this conversation – will not be filtered. You have replied to them, Pachli assumes you want to continue the conversation.
- If account A (which you follow) starts a conversation with you and also @-mentions account B, who you do not follow, the conversation is not filtered. We assume you trust A to introduce new people to the conversation.
Also, at the moment this feature only works on servers running Mastodon 4.3.0 or above. The Mastodon API does not provide enough information to implement this feature without making additional requests to your server. Mastodon 4.3.0 introduced an API allowing Pachli to fetch the necessary information in one request. Older Mastodon servers do not implement this, and Pachli would potentially need to send many more requests.
In this case the “Conversation filters” item in the preferences menu will be disabled.
It’s also possible for the API calls to fail. If it fails Pachli (currently) “fails open”, and behaves as though no filters are configured. This might not be the best default, feedback on this is welcomed.
Show the post you’re replying to #
The UI for replying to posts has changed to always show the content of the post you are replying to.
Here’s how it used to be.
If you (a) notice the tiny triangle next to the name of the account you’re replying to, and (b) manage to tap it, given it’s so small, then the display changed to show the text of the post you were replying to, like this:
This is very unintuitive. Also, you couldn’t copy any text from the original post, and it wasn’t very clear where their text ended and your text started.
This is now fixed. The post you’re replying to is always shown, the text can be copied using standard Android long-press-to-select, and there’s clear deliniation between their post and yours.
As you type your reply their post will scroll out of the way to ensure you can always see as much of your reply as possible.
Add Atkinson Hyperlegible Next font #
Pachli 1.0 launched with a range of accessible fonts. One of these was “Atkinson Hyperlegible” from the Braille Institute.
Earlier this month the Braille Institute launched an updated version called Atkinson Hyperlegible Next. To quote from their press release:
Building upon the original Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface that was introduced in 2019, the new version is designed to improve legibility for readers with low vision. Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, the world’s only hyperlegible font, includes many new characters to enable support of over 150 languages (up from 27). It also offers seven font weights (up from two)
This can now be selected in Pachli.
Atkinson Hyperlegible will be removed from the next release (unless there’s strong feedback against).
Show lists sorted by title #
Tobias Zeumer noted (#1168) it could be difficult to find lists because some parts of the UI were not sorting them by title. This has been fixed, and now lists are also sorted in the main drawer (the left-hand-side navigation menu), and when adding or removing an account from a list.
Remember notification filtering decisions #
Previously if you clicked through a filtered notification hidden behind a warning Pachli would forget this the next time notifications were loaded. Now your decision to view the notification is remembered.
Updates to translations #
Languages with updated translations are:
- Burmese by –//–
- German by Björn Bause-Engel (their first contribution to Pachli)
- Indonesian by Doctorredits_here (their first contribution to Pachli)
- Irish by Aindriú Mac Giolla Eoin
- Kabyle by ButterflyOfFire
- Lithuanian by Vaclovas Intas
- Norwegian Nynorsk by Sunniva Løvstad
- Polish by Łukasz Horodecki (their first contribution to Pachli)
- Slovak by Russssty (their first contribution to Pachli)
- Spanish by Juan M Sevilla
- Swedish by jens persson
- Tamil by தமிழ்நேரம்
If you would like to help improve Pachli’s translation in to your language there’s information on how you can contribute.
Significant bug fixes #
Ensure UI size slider can’t go out of bounds and crash #
Juan M Sevilla reported (#1239) if you used the plus/minus buttons to push the UI size slider value out of bounds. This is fixed.
Remove “dummy.placeholder” from network error messages #
@Aakerbeere@mastodon.social and @nick@mammuthus.de both noted Pachli network error messages were now mentioning a domain called dummy.placeholder.
To be extremely clear about this:
- This is not a real domain
- Pachli only ever connects to your account’s server
It’s an artifact of internal Pachli code that switches your authentication credentials when you are signed in with multiple accounts (see here and here).
However it is – understandably – confusing in an error message, and has been removed.
Clarify multiple “Refresh” menus when viewing an account #
@Russssty@mastodon.social opened #1295 (their first Pachli issue) reporting two “Refresh” menu items when viewing an account.
This has been clarified. One of them, now called “Refresh account”, refreshes the account information displayed; the avatar, account description, and so on. The other, still called “Refresh”, refreshes whichever of the account timelines is currently displayed in the bottom half of the screen.
Highlight modified hashtags and mentions when viewing post edits #
If you were viewing the edits to a post there were some circumstances where the changes to the posts’s hashtags or mentions would not have been highlighted. This is now fixed.
Assorted crashes #
Various crashes caused by trying to use information about your account before it has been fully fetched from your server have been fixed.
Thank you #
Thank you to everyone who took the time to report issues and provide additional followup information and screenshots.
Download Pachli 2.10.0 from Google Play, F-Droid, or the GitHub release page.