Pachli 3.0.0 is now available. This release supports a new type of filter that can hide attachments on posts while still showing the text, improves accessibility features, extends post scheduling support to GoToSocial servers, and more.
New features and other improvements #
Support filters that hide media attachments #
Mastodon 4.4.0 allows you to configure a filter to show the content of the post while obscuring any media attached to the post.
This feature is also supported in the upcoming GoToSocial 0.20.0 release.
So you could create a filter that hides photos if “spider” is mentioned in a post without hiding the text of the post.
To enable this – if your server supports it – edit or create a filter and set the action to “Show content, hide attachments with a warning”.
The option will not be present if your server doesn’t support this feature.
Attachments on posts matching this filter will not be displayed, and are either replaced with a flat colour or a blurred version of the attachment depending on your other settings.
The filter is applied to all the attachments on a post.
If posts match multiple filters the names of the first two matching filters are shown.
New accessible actions to show attachments matching filters or to hide attachments in general have been added for users who use TalkBack or other accessibility aids.
Improve accessibility of account name, handle, and roles #
Pachli 2.15.0 added new UX to combat phishing by showing roles associated with accounts.
@dhamlinmusic@dragonscave.space sent feedback that this added an extra unnecessary focus point when navigating using TalkBack. This has been removed.
While working on this I noticed TalkBack was having difficulty reading account names with “.” in them.
For example, the account @staff@mastodon.social has the name “Mastodon.social Staff”. TalkBack was reading that as “Mastodon [pause] Social Staff”.
Now, names with dots in them make the dot explicit for TalkBack, so it will read back as “Mastodon dot social Staff”.
I also noticed TalkBack had problems reading back the “.xyz” top-level domain in usernames, reading it back as “dot zizz”, rather than “dot ex why zed”, so “.xyz” is handled specially now.
Please let me know if you are aware of similar problems with other top-level domains.
This was also an opportunity to ensure an account’s name, handle, and any roles are read out consistently throughout the app, whether you are seeing the account information as part of a post, in a search result, autocompleting a handle when writing a new post, and so on. This might get further adjustments in the future based on user feedback.
Support scheduled posts on GoToSocial 0.20.0 and above #
Pachli allows you to schedule posts to send in the future if it detects your server supports this feature.
GoToSocial 0.20.0 will support this, so it has been added to the list of supported servers in Pachli 3.0.0.
Updates to translations #
Languages with updated translations are:
- Estonian by Priit Jõerüüt
- German by Thomas Cloer
- Irish by Aindriú Mac Giolla Eoin
- Latvian by Edgars Andersons
- Polish by Łukasz Horodecki
- Russian by Yurt Page
- Slovak by Russssty
- Spanish by Juan M Sevilla
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 #
Show if a post is a boost on timelines #
A change in Pachli 2.16.0 inadvertently prevented some timelines, such as lists, from showing whether or not the post was boosted in to the timeline.
@untilted@social.lol, @jandi@mastodon.social, @biggata@mastodon.social, and Juan M Sevilla all reported this, with Juan filing #1797.
This was fixed in #1820
Show source language name if translation is not supported #
If the on-device translation feature did not support translating from the language the error message showed the language’s two-letter code. For example:
Translation failed: cannot translate from eu
This is not very helpful, so now the name of the language is shown:
Translation failed: cannot translate from Basque
Work around Android bug where editable text disappears #
@Jener@bolha.one reported (#1795) that when writing a long post the text of the post could disappear after typing a large number of characters. The precise number varies on your device.
This turned out to be an Android bug triggered by the emoji display changes in Pachli 2.16.0. The Android bug has been reported as https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/446220461.
Meanwhile, I’ve worked around the bug in Pachli (#1795) and you can enter long messages again.
Periodically update timestamps in threads, search results #
If your preferences are set to show a “relative” time display for posts (e.g,. “4m”) instead of the actual time, Pachli is supposed to periodically update the display if you leave the timeline open. So “4m” becomes “5m”, then “6m”, then eventually “1h”, and so on.
A bug meant this wasn’t happening when viewing threads or search results. This was fixed in #1769.
Thank you #
Thank you to everyone who took the time to report issues and provide additional followup information and screenshots.
Download Pachli 3.0.0 from Google Play, F-Droid, or the GitHub release page.