Changelog

Notable changes to Operator. Versions follow major.minor.patch.

0.3.4-beta (13 October 2026)

Fixed: no push notifications on Beeper since the 0.3.0 upgrade. Beeper's bridged-chat server kept pushing to the registration left behind by the pre-0.3.0 app ID and never to the new one. That leftover is now removed automatically.
Several phones on one account now share one push topic, stored in the account's own settings on the homeserver, because Beeper pushes to a single registration per account. Every phone listens to the same wake-up topic and keeps the registration alive.
The problem report now lists the account's push registrations and rules, and runs a push round-trip test.

Fixed: two phones on one account knocked each other's notifications out. Each start of Operator removed every other Operator pusher on the account, so only the phone started most recently got pushes. Now only this install's own old addresses are cleaned up.
Fixed: if registering for push failed at start-up (no network yet), Operator never tried again. It now retries with backoff.
Fixed: the background check ran on a clock that stops in deep sleep, so "every 15 minutes" became about an hour on a sleeping phone. It now runs on the phone's alarm clock, and a push stream that has gone silent is reconnected at each check.

The Options and Back chips at the bottom of the screen can now be tapped on phones with a touchscreen. Reported by a Dumber Mini user, whose keypad has no key that opens Options.
Holding the centre key opens Options on any keypad, for phones without a Menu key.

Fixed: after approving the phone with a recovery key, the key-backup restore could give up once and never retry, leaving chats encrypted until the app was restarted. It now retries on a schedule.
Build hygiene for F-Droid: pinned Gradle wrapper checksum, en-US listing metadata.

First public beta.

The local database and the signed-in session are now encrypted at rest (SQLCipher, key in the Android keystore).
Settings → Report a problem drafts an email with device and version details and recent technical log lines, never message content.
Settings → Donate rows for Ko-fi and GitHub Sponsors.
The push relay server can be changed in Settings → Notifications → Push for people running their own ntfy.
"Open file" on an app package now saves it to Downloads instead of launching the installer; Operator no longer requests the install-packages permission.
Privacy policy, FAQ, user guide, contributing guide and release process added.
Application ID changed to io.github.operatorchat.operator before the first public release.
Licence: GPL-3.0-or-later.
New chat accepts a full Matrix ID on any server and starts an encrypted direct chat; the non-Beeper path is tested against matrix.org.
Recovery screen soft key reads "Approve" so it fits the chip.

A redesign and a long list of features, all tested on keypad phones.

New look: Inter typeface, one-surface window bars, no outlines, initials avatars, flat bubbles with status colours, grouped settings with glyphs, options as a sheet over the dimmed screen, soft-key chips, light motion with an off switch. Four themes, light and dark, three text sizes.
Clearer message focus: a band across the row plus a soft ring; pinned chats grouped at the top of the list.
Emoji reactions in a five-wide grid of fifteen; selecting one you've sent removes it.
Links listed in a message's options and opened only when chosen.
Files: Open file and Save to Downloads for any attachment; photo rows gain Save.
Mentions: highlighted names, an "@ you" tag, "Mute, except mentions", a Mentions notification channel, an "@" badge in the chat list, a member picker when typing "@" or from "Mention someone". "Message " rows for people mentioned in a message.
Turn to preview: on phones that rotate, landscape on the chat list previews the highlighted chat without marking it read; the D-pad follows the rotation.
Options menus block the D-pad from reaching the screen beneath.

First working build.

Sign in with a Beeper username and password; set a password by email for accounts that have none; approve the phone with the recovery key.
Chat list and chat screen driven by the keypad; send, reply, edit, delete for everyone, react, copy.
Photos on demand with thumbnails; send photos from the gallery or camera; voice-note playback.
Notifications through the built-in ntfy channel with a Matrix pusher, screen wake option, UnifiedPush as an opt-in alternative.
Onboarding: syncing screen, phone setup checklist (notifications, battery, pause-if-unused, DuraSpeed, duplicate notifications).