Zulip 10.0 is here: Free Slack alternative brings flexible rights management

Version 10.0 of the open-source collaboration software Zulip has been released. Similar to its proprietary competitors Microsoft Teams and Slack, it includes the exchange of messages and files in different channels, as well as video conferences and voice calls. The new features include enhanced rights management, which allows more flexible assignment of authorizations. In addition, there are now themes for a general chat and revisions to the user interface for direct messages and links.

New group permissions in Zulip 10.0

With the new rights management, authorizations can be assigned to roles, groups and individual users. In addition, groups can now contain other groups as well as individual users. To create a group for managers, for example, it is no longer necessary to add all users individually. Instead, administrators can select the groups of the respective heads of programming or design teams and thus take over their members. It is also possible to specify whether rights management in channels is carried out by channel members themselves or centrally.

Zulip 10.0 also includes new permissions for managing groups. They can be used to set which users can create or manage a group. Administrators can also adjust the rights of an entire group. It is no longer possible to delete groups so that all permission changes can be tracked retrospectively. Instead, they are now deactivated. Administrators can also delegate the management of channels to members. Messages in archived channels are now also searchable by default. This function can be deactivated.

Permanent links for topics

With the update, Zulip users can create new posts without a heading. This automatically changes the topic of the chat to "general", e.g. for short inquiries and informal exchanges. Administrators can disable this function. In addition, new topics and direct messages can be created via the sidebar and incoming messages can be forwarded to other users. Animated ellipses indicate to users in direct messages that the chat partner is writing a reply.

Links to topics are permanent, so they work even if it has been renamed, moved to another channel or marked as solved. Previously, this only applied to links to messages and channels. Zulip now formats internal news links automatically. Fewer entries are now required to enter links via the breadcrumb selection. Users no longer have to enter the current channel name, but can type in a topic directly. The tool automatically transfers external links that support HTML formatting into its own breadcrumb display.

Zulip 10.0 includes integrations for Zoom via server-to-server OAuth and voice calls via BigBlueButton. The developers also promise up to 22 percent faster loading times for the web app, as well as lower CPU and network utilization, but point out that the update will take longer due to 700 database migrations. All new features of the open source tool, which is available under the Apache license, can be found in the changelog. Most recently, Nextcloud Hub 10 also received an update for open source AI agents.

(sfe)