LoginSign Up
← Back to all sparks
Rocket.Chat logo

Rocket.Chat

COMMS
Velocity6.3

Open-source team communication platform

rocket.chat ↗

Rocket.Chat finishes the 8.8 calling work while the licence wall for SSO gets a date.

team-chatvoice-callingscreen-sharingself-hostedlicensingsso
◆Current state
The 8.8 candidate line is winding down. rc.2 is a bare Meteor version bump with no user-visible change, following rc.1 which promoted Voice Call Screen Sharing to stable and turned on the in-room call interface for every call, screen sharing available or not, alongside repairs to a message list that could quietly load a whole room's history in the background. The release that still defines the line is rc.0: LDAP and SAML deprecated on non-Premium workspaces with 9.0.0 named as the cutoff, forced end-to-end encryption for new private rooms, classification banners for ABAC-managed rooms, and the apps-engine default runtime moved from Deno to Node.
◆Where it's heading
Two threads run at once and point in different directions. The calling stack keeps maturing on its own — voice, then screen sharing, now a consistent in-room surface for both — which is Rocket.Chat absorbing functions its users would otherwise reach for a separate tool to get. Against that, the 9.0 licence requirement for LDAP and SAML sorts the install base: regulated and government deployments that will pay, and unlicensed self-hosted workspaces that were there for the absence of a per-seat bill. The rc train itself has settled into a familiar shape, one substantive rc.0 followed by bumps and fixes.
◆Prediction
Expect 8.8 to go final once the message-list fixes settle, with the LDAP and SAML licence requirement, not any calling feature, as the story of 9.0. The open question is whether the Deno-to-Node runtime switch surfaces app compatibility reports before then.

◆Recent moves

  1. 15d ago

    8.8.0-rc.2: Meteor version bump only

    A Meteor version bump and dependency updates, with no minor changes and nothing user-visible. It is the tail end of the 8.8 candidate line rather than a release with content of its own.

    View source ↗
  2. 18d ago

    Screen sharing goes stable; in-room call UI for every call

    Voice Call Screen Sharing loses its beta alert and the in-room call interface now applies to every call regardless of whether screen sharing is available, giving calling one consistent surface. The patches matter as much: the message list no longer loads an entire room's history and attachments in the background when a full-width contextual bar hides it, and permalinks to older messages stop looping the room reload.

    View source ↗
  3. 26d ago

    8.8.0-rc.0: LDAP/SAML go Premium in 9.0, forced private-room E2EE

    ⚡ SPARK

    The release that sets the direction for the whole 8.8 line: LDAP and SAML deprecated for non-Premium workspaces with 9.0.0 named as the cutoff, forced end-to-end encryption on new private rooms, classification banners for ABAC-managed rooms, and the apps-engine default runtime switched from Deno to Node. The calling and message-list work in the later candidates sits underneath this.

    View source ↗
  4. 1mo ago

    8.7.0-rc.6: Meteor version bump only

    A Meteor version bump and dependency updates closing out the 8.7 candidate line, with no user-visible change.

    View source ↗
  5. 1mo ago

    8.7.0-rc.5: Meteor version bump only

    Another 8.7 candidate carrying only a Meteor version bump and dependency updates.

    View source ↗
  6. 1mo ago

    8.7.0-rc.4: audio attachments become seekable again

    A Meteor bump plus one fix: audio attachments are seekable with the progress slider again. A repair to existing behaviour rather than a change in what the product does.

    View source ↗