Citizens,

Chat is perhaps Torn's most important feature, which made it especially disappointing for us when October 2023's release failed to meet our expectations. Shortly after launch, we realized that a completely different direction was necessary. We replaced the team and immediately began working on a brand-new version from the ground up, incorporating all the lessons we'd learned during the development of 2.0.

We are now ready to launch the open beta of Chat 3.0, and I am exceptionally proud of what we have created. It is everything we wanted Chat 2.0 to be - and much, much more.

This time, we're handling the release a little differently since there are no urgent factors forcing our hand as there were last time. If you open your Chat Settings panel, you'll see a new button at the top called 'TRY CHAT 3.0'. Clicking this will reload the page, and you'll find yourself on Chat 3.0.

Chat 3.0 has been built with backwards compatibility, so during the open beta, you'll be able to chat with others who are still on 2.0. In case you run into any issues, you'll be able to switch back and forth between the two versions as you please. The only feature that doesn't have backwards compatibility is the new group chats system. For this reason, it has been disabled until the full release.

There are some significant style/scaling changes which may be uncomfortable at first, but they are fully intentional. As our closed beta participants have discovered, everyone will get used to these over time.

I want to thank the committee for helping us iron out the issues over the last six months of closed beta testing.

A breakdown of Chat 3.0's advancements has been provided below…

Extended chat history

Older chat messages are now visible through lazy loading by simply scrolling up.

Message styling options

Based on popular community demand, we have introduced the ability to turn off player avatars and bubbles in the chat view. Turning off both options will turn the chat window into much requested Chat 1.0 style.

Close all & Mark all as read

Chat settings now has two dedicated buttons to mark all chat messages as Read and to close all open Private chats. 

Tab and windows re-ordering

Chats can now be dragged and dropped to customize the ordering per your preference, this is synced across all of your devices. Group chats and private chats still maintain their reserved space and can no longer be mixed together. 

Collapsible section for P2P Chats

Personal chats now get a collapsible section on the left to maintain synchronicity across desktop and mobile devices.

Revamped People section

Lists under People tab show the reason/description field that you can filter by:

Chat animations

Lots of little animations have been added, including ones for minimizing and maximizing chats, indicating the location from where the chat header originated.

Chat indicators

New message indicator has been added that takes you straight to the last unread message.

 Typing indicators have been added. These only work if both the sender and the receiver are on the Chat 3.0 system.

Minimized chat tabs will gently pulse when new messages are received.

Updates to joining/leaving official channels

Official channels can now be left from the respective chat headers. You can also toggle the notification settings from here. Channels can be rejoined from the Chat settings.

Dozens of other fixes and improvements

Fixed low contrast icons 🐞

Fixed auto re-ordering of minimized chats 🐞

Fixed chat bubbles to clearly show the sender 🐞

Fixed missing chat ban duration information 🐞

Fixed missing mini profiles in chats 🐞

Fixed inconsistent chat time labelling 🐞

Fixed player avatars being copied and pasted in editor 🐞

Fixed Trade chat syntax error 🐞

Fixed friend list only displaying first page 🐞

Fixed system selecting whole chat when trying to copy paste a few messages 🐞

Fixed tab key bypassing input box block 🐞

Fixed Hospital chat not updating sometimes 🐞

Fixed group chats repositioning to the left of personal chats 🐞

Fixed player status not showing when a new chat is initiated 🐞

Fixed scroll not working in chat in desktop view on mobile devices 🐞

Fixed unequal chat header sizes 🐞

Fixed messages not being sent in chat 🐞

Fixed overlapping vertical scrollbar 🐞

Fixed duplicating messages in group chats 🐞

Fixed missing messages in group chats 🐞

Fixed delay in opening private chats from profile 🐞

Fixed aggressive filtering of "<" character 🐞

Fixed disappearing global/trade chat upon changing Travel/Hospital state 🐞

Fixed messages not being displayed under People tab 🐞

Fixed chat briefly reverting to old state when navigating away from Messages page 🐞

Fixed chat sync between mobile and desktop devices 🐞

Fixed ghost notification for new chats 🐞

Thanks.