We’re back home from TechCrunch where we had a great time arguing the pros and cons of Matrix versus XMPP with anyone and everyone – thanks to all who came to talk to us!

Meanwhile, Synapse v0.2.3 was released yesterday: the emphasis this week has been on improving stability issues on the server, and lots of cosmetic and functionality fixes on the webclient.

If you’re running a homeserver, please upgrade asap – upgrading has never been easier – assuming you’ve checked out the master branch, simply:

git pull
./synctl restart

…and you will be up and running on 0.2.3. We keep the master branch tracking the latest release.  http://matrix.org/alpha is already on the latest release should you wish to experiment first!

Alternatively, if you’re installing from scratch, try:

git clone https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse.git
python setup.py develop --user
./synctl start # to generate a default config
./synctl start # to actually set it running

and then head over to http://localhost:8008 to play with your very own Matrix homeserver!

Changes in synapse 0.2.3 (2014-09-12)
=====================================

Homeserver:
* Fix bug where we stopped sending events to remote home servers if a
user from that home server left, even if there were some still in the
room.
* Fix bugs in the state conflict resolution where it was incorrectly
rejecting events.
* Many stability fixes

Webclient:
* Display room names and topics.
* Allow setting/editing of room names and topics.
* Display information about rooms on the main page.
* Handle ban and kick events in real time.
* VoIP UI and reliability improvements.
* Add glare support for VoIP.
* Improvements to initial startup speed.
* Don’t display duplicate join events.
* Show message sent/sending state via opacity
* Multiline message sending support
* Many other bug & stability fixes