
It's time to come clean. We've been working on a secret project for a while now, and we're finally ready to share it with you. We're excited to announce that we're launching a mobile app for Android users!

## Current state of Android

For years now, our Android app has simply been a [TWA](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/android/trusted-web-activity/) wrapper around the web version of Revolt. While this was a good start, it had its limitations.

For instance, it depended on your current default browser, so we couldn't control all of the experience. Some Firefox users even reported seeing a navigation bar, which we absolutely want to avoid! This approach also limited us to the features that are available to a web app. We couldn't use any native features, such as push notifications, and we couldn't use any of the native UI elements.

All-in-all, it was a subpar experience, and we wanted to improve it. So we did.

## Introducing: Revolt on Android

A year of hard work in the making, here it is: Revolt on Android. It's a native app, built from the ground up in Kotlin, with all the features you know and love from the web version. It's fast, it's smooth, and it's beautiful.

![Three screenshots of the app next to each other.](/content/blog/revolt-on-the-go/showcase.png)

## When can I get it?

It's still cooking in the oven, but we're planning to release it in the coming months. We'll be releasing it as a beta first, so you'll be able to try it out before it's released to the public.

## What about iOS?

There's not much to say about this yet, but we're working on it. We'll share more info when we have it!

## Where can I get more info?

I'll be posting more updates, infos and builds on [**Jenvolt**](https://rvlt.gg/jen), so make sure to join if you want to stay up-to-date with everything related to Revolt on Android.

With that being said, I hope you're as excited as we all are. See you on Revolt!


Android users, listen up!


> Image credits: [Thor Alvis](https://unsplash.com/photos/sgrCLKYdw5g) on Unsplash

We have some exciting news to share with all of you today. Revolt has hit 100,000 users (and counting). Your eyes don't deceive you. That is 5 zeros after that 1. How crazy is that? 

It's been an incredible journey, and we couldn't have done it without all of you. We want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for your continued support and enthusiasm. 

## Getting to 100K 
It's not been an instantaneous process, far from it. Revolt first launched at the start of 2021 in a private beta, and it wasn't until we entered public beta in August of that year that we started increasing in user count. We got our first real public exposure in September of 2021 when we became featured on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28434012) and [It's FOSS](https://itsfoss.com/revolt/). 

This year has been the biggest year in growth though. We've received mentions on the YouTube channels of both [SomeOrdinaryGamers](https://youtu.be/1yUj_Jdis6E?t=271) and [No Text To Speech](https://youtu.be/47EjvPIhAOU). That really sent us skyrocketing and was our biggest user boost until we introduced discriminators. Apparently, you guys really like them because 10,000 of you have joined since we [announced them a mere 2 days ago](evolving-usernames). 

If you're interested in the full story of our path to this point, then you should check out the [timeline on our wiki](https://wiki.rvlt.gg/index.php/Revolt_Timeline). 

Once again, thank you very much everyone for the continued support. We will see you again at 3 morbillion users. #revoltsweep

![](https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/iGyPHBkGC73oMohRLhYwSncbhZ1G7AzdrNMcL2TLzO/image.png)


100K Users


We're changing the way usernames work on Revolt. After our initial implememtation with unique username handles, we are now replacing it with brand-new display names and usernames with a four-digit number tag. We worked alongside our community in the making of this transition. Read on to learn what's coming now for Revolt, and a very special feature announcement.

## So, how does the new system work?

Your number tag is an extra part of your username, which differentiate you from people with the same name. Internally, your number tag is referred to as a **discriminator**. The term "discriminator" comes from the concept of distinguishing between users with similar usernames. Since the discriminator is unique to each user, it serves as an identifier to differentiate users who share the same username.

We settled on using a 4-digit number tag: It will be more than enough for Revolt and we are leaving the door open to expand this in the future. The transition over to discriminator-style usernames is automatic and requires _no additional work on your part!_. Once you update your client, you should see a new pop up with your new display name, along with your username and new four-digit number tag. If you don't end up liking your display name or username, you can update them in your Profile and My Account settings pages respectively at any time.

## Why is this a valuable solution?

During our recent RFC, we engaged the Revolt community in a discussion regarding a significant change to our username system. We carefully considered the advantages and disadvantages of implementing this new system, which include, but are not limited to:

### User empowerment through personalized usernames.

Selecting an available username that truly reflects one's identity has become increasingly challenging. Our number tag system allows users to choose their desired username, as long as it meets the minimum requirement of being two letters long. This feature benefits individuals such as content creators, who value their privacy and prefer to maintain a lower profile, ensuring that their usernames remain less discoverable.

### Combating unauthorised account activities.

With this change, we aim to address issues related to account selling, trading, and instances of attempted theft, which have unfortunately led to threats and bullying in some cases. Our new system aims to prevent such incidents, promoting a safer and more secure environment for all users.

### Ensuring fairness and equal opportunities.

Our revamped number tag system employs a fully randomized approach, ensuring fairness for everyone involved. To prevent the exploitation of "rare" or "desirable" number combinations, we have implemented a blacklist. This approach aims to discourage account selling or theft, particularly with regard to usernames possessing sought-after four-digit combinations.

## What else is cooking at Revolt?

We're almost ready to bring you WebHooks, which allow you to set up real-time notifications and triggers between Revolt and other platforms. Imagine receiving instant updates from your favourite social media, project management tool or timed events, directly within your Revolt community. With WebHooks, you'll always be in the loop.

The Revolt team is also working on bringing a brand new experience for the web, along with the development of new native apps for both Android and iOS. **The current web client** (called `revite` for you super-🤓s) **enters maintenance mode** and only receives necessary (like security-related) updates, in favour of a new all-around web and desktop client with improvements both to speed and performance, and a brand new coat of paint added on top.

We'd like to thank everyone for your continuous support for Revolt and hope to see you at our next blog post.


Usernames are Evolving


The Revolt team is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. As such, we are rolling out new features to help ensure users stay safe while on the platform, primarily tackling spam and abuse on the platform. We've also been working hard to improve Revolt behind the scenes, and we're excited to share some of the news in the next few months.  
In the meantime, here's what we've been working on:

# In-App Reporting

To streamline reports to the moderation team, and to allow us to respond quickly and reliably to reports, we're introducing a new way to report content on the platform. You can now report any message, user or server directly from the app. Once a report has been actioned on, you'll receive an in-app notification.

<img style="margin: auto; display: block;" src="https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/ZuDVIjGiCl61Pk9XGk5qfc8-idN9EnFAk55DUQp713/the.png" alt="Screenshot of In-App Reporting Modal" />

In the future, we'll be adding more features to the reporting system, such as the ability to view pending and resolved reports right from the app.

# Updating Guidelines for Revolt Discover

We have updated our guidelines on servers which may be listed on Revolt Discover:

-   Your server must have adequate moderation, in the sense that content that breaks platform rules must be reported and deleted within a reasonable timeframe (this depends on the size of your server but ideally within 24 hours)
-   You may not list servers for the sole purpose of promoting an external service or website, this degrades the user experience
-   You may not intentionally manipulate your listing position

In addition to this we would also like to clarify that you must send at least one message every week to keep your server listed. This is to ensure that servers are active and not abandoned.

# rAuth is now Authifier

The authentication component used in Revolt (formerly rAuth) is now called [Authifier](https://github.com/Authifier) and will be used to contain other related projects going forwards.

# Introducing Authifier Shield

To help us more effectively combat spam, we have introduced additional checks during account registration to block malicious actors.

While we can't share all the details of these checks, we can share some of the things we're looking for:

-   Disposable emails are no longer permissible on Revolt. Almost all accounts originating from such services are used to spam the platform. These also provide no ability for the user to recover their account. Aliasing services are not affected by this change.
-   Emails hosted on Freenom domains are also automatically blocked due to the high volume of abuse originating from these domains. However, this isn't a blanket ban and you can contact support for an exception.

These checks, along with other measures, are performed by a service called Authifier Shield, a new part of the Authifier project. So far since deployment, Shield has helped block three separate waves of spam registrations, in all cases causing the parties involved to cease their attacks. Shield can adapt to a variety of situations due to its modular nature, and will likely be used to help protect other services and websites in the future.

Below is a snippet of data regarding the number of accounts that were banned at any given time, compared to the number of registrations that were blocked against time.

<img style="margin: auto; display: block;" src="https://autumn.revolt.chat/attachments/RRB2ob0R2FJFsvQTY1NvEaQyTCvHgTHLzJ2J9xg4XL/chart.png" alt="Bar graph of banned accounts compared to blocked registrations" />


Introducing in-app reporting, updated guidelines for Revolt Discover and built-in anti-spam measures.

Three new ways Revolt will be improving user safety


# It's finally here!

After [4 months of development](https://github.com/revoltchat/delta/commit/0fdb7491996e11e6e4aae189d6fc3a1f2d2a25c3), and several weeks of teasers and hype, the old server is out and the new back-end is in.

The new architecture brings a host of major improvements:

-   Re-designed permissions system
-   Private channels
-   Fully distributed
-   Abstracted from the ground up
-   Automation for API specifications
-   ... and honestly way too much stuff to mention

We now have a really solid base to build more features on top of, the workflow has never been faster and iterating on Revolt is getting better by the day. I can only hope that this will help us develop and ship more features faster than ever before.

Stay Tuned 🎉

---

## Permissions System

The old permission system was in dire need of a rework, it was pretty much just a early solution.

It had some really serious issues:

-   No effective ranking between roles: lower ranking roles were treated the same as higher ranking roles
-   No fine-grained overrides on roles and channels
-   No private channels

This was definitely a blocking factor for communities to adopt the platform, because really nobody should be expected to operate a community with such conditions. This update is in part meant to address this problem.

### So how do they work?

Our system departs slightly from more conventional permissions systems used on other platforms but hopefully it'll be worth it for the finer control you have over your roles and channels.

> Roles are currently given an absolute ranking, with smaller numbers taking precedence or otherwise have more priority over greater numbers. For example, **-5** will win out on **5**. We hope to build a more intuitive UI in the future.

To calculate a user's permissions in a server:

-   Apply allows given by the `Default` role.
-   For each role the user has: (from lowest to highest)
    -   Apply denies given by the role.
    -   Apply allows given by the role.

In essence, this means you can do stuff like create a "muted" or "restricted" role which removes permissions granted earlier down the role hierarchy. For example, the user below has a role which restricts their ability to view channels:

![](/content/blog/architecture-overhaul/example1.png)

Then to calculate a user's permissions in a channel:

-   Take the known server permissions.
-   Apply denies given by `Default` role on channel.
-   Apply allows given by `Default` role on channel.
-   For each role the user has: (from lowest to highest)
    -   Apply denies given by the role.
    -   Apply allows given by the role.

For a flow chart and more information, please see [the developer documentation](https://developers.revolt.chat/stack/delta/permissions).

---

## Abstraction

Let's discuss a bit about how the entire architecture has changed...

-   [delta](https://github.com/revoltchat/delta) is no longer a combined API / WebSocket server, its sole job is to provide the REST API now
-   [quark](https://github.com/revoltchat/quark) is a brand new project which allows us to better structure the development of Revolt's back-end
-   [bonfire](https://github.com/revoltchat/bonfire) is a brand new events service which replaces delta's WebSocket server
-   In terms of Revolt's database models, **quark** is split up into several layers:
    -   `models`: each model is defined separately from any logic
    -   `traits`: each model is given a set of traits that need to be implemented by some database
    -   `impl`: implementation layer for databases (we currently support a mock database and MongoDB)
    -   `generic`: additional generic methods which use the traits to build more complex queries and to generate events
-   As mentioned before, everything is fully distributed by now fully relying on Redis for both PubSub and presence information across the network, components are now almost entirely plug-and-play.
-   An API specification is now generated [directly from the API](https://api.revolt.chat/openapi.json) and can be viewed using [Swagger](https://api.revolt.chat/swagger).
-   [revolt-api](https://github.com/revoltchat/api) is a new JavaScript library which takes this OpenAPI specification and generates TypeScript types and provides us with a fully typed query builder.
-   [revolt.js](https://github.com/revoltchat/revolt.js) now also relies on **revolt-api** to provide typings and for strongly typed queries.


How Revolt's back-end was rebuilt from the ground up along with a brand new permissions system.

Blog

Android users, listen up!

100K Users

Usernames are Evolving

Three new ways Revolt will be improving user safety

0.5.3 Release: Architecture Overhaul