We've released a lot of updates to Bitrix24 chats. The changes affected notifications, chat lists, screen sharing, conferences, disk synchronization in the Bitrix24 for Windows and Mac app. We increased the number of video call participants, and improved chats and calls in the Bitrix24 mobile app.

Notifications

The notifications section has been completely redesigned: filter and search fields by type of notification, by text and by date were added. Click the Open Filter button.

Now the notifications don't scroll up when a new one appear. You do not need to press buttons to read the notifications, all of them upload automatically. Auto-reading happens only for those notifications that you saw on the screen. If you want to read all the notifications, press a special Mark all as read button.

We've also added the option for changing the notification status manually: double-click on the notification makes the notification read or unread.

Chat list

Previously, we downloaded all chats for the last 30 days. Now you can get to very old chats.

We also added a display of message delivery status. It is displayed in the right corner of the chat list. One tick means "the message is delivered to the server", two ticks means "the message is read" (for group chats: read by at least one user.

If the message is sent by you, an arrow is shown. In group chats, if the message is sent by another user, his/her avatar is shown.

There is also a special menu for invited users:

• Invite again - if the email didn't reach the user, you can send the invitation again.
• Cancel invitation- this option allows you to revoke an invitation sent by mistake.

We also added a display of invited users in real time, as it was previously done in the Bitrix24 mobile app. There will be a special notification next to the user who accepted the invitation.

Visual themes

If you have the Bitrix24 app for Windows and Mac, a light or dark theme will be automatically set depending on the theme you have installed. You can enable this option in the Bitrix24 settings.

Do Not Disturb and Focus Assist

The Bitrix24 app supports Do Not Disturb for macOS and Focus Assist for Windows. When you enable these modes, all Bitrix24 notifications will be blocked. If you explicitly mention an employee in the chat, such notification will be shown.

Keyboard shortcuts

In the chat settings, a new tab with Keyboard shortcuts has appeared.

In the Bitrix24 app for Windows or Mac version 12 and higher, keyboard shortcuts are available for chats and calls and only when it is in focus. In the web version, hotkeys are available only for chats. They are disabled for calls, because most of these combinations are system combinations for the browser.

Number of call participants

Finally, we increased the maximum number of call and conference participants to 48 people for both Bitrix24 On-Premise and Cloud version.

Now we show as many participants as fits into the current size of the browser window or the Bitrix24 app window. The other participants are displayed on the next page. You can switch between screens using special navigation buttons.

Screen sharing

We've updated the screen sharing panel in the Bitrix24 app. New buttons have appeared and added the ability to change the source of the broadcast during the screen sharing without completing the previous one.

A button to stop screen sharing during the call has appeared.

Camera disconnection indicator

In group calls and conferences,camera disconnection indicator was added.

Conference participants list

In the conferences, there is a list of participants and a menu for users. Through the menu, the creator of the conference (the chat owner) can exclude participants from the conference and rename guests. Other users can insert a name into the chat. 

Mobile chat and call updates

Synchronization of the chat list has become faster. We worked on the counters - now they always show the correct values. We updated the invited users interface.

A call to an employee (or chat room) is now available as soon as it is opened. Previously, you had to wait for the message list to fully load.

The call button connects you immediately via Bitrix24. If you need to call an employee on mobile phone, use a number from the employee profile.

Previously, when you received a call from Bitrix24, a push message was sent and the call dialog was opened. Now the mobile app supports iOS CallKit and Android calls. It means that you can answer Bitrix24 calls as a mobile call.