A fresh version of the secure Jami messenger has been released under the code name "Together" (which means "together"). In this big update, a huge number of bugs have been fixed, serious work has been done to improve stability, and new features have been added.
The pandemic that has hit the world has forced developers to rethink the meaning of Jami, his goals and what he should become. It was decided to transform Jami from a simple P2P system into a complete group communication software that would allow large groups to communicate while maintaining individual privacy and security while remaining completely free.
Major fixes:
- Noticeable increase in stability.
- Significant performance improvement on low bandwidth networks. Now Jami needs only 50 KB/s in audio/video combined mode, and 10 KB/s in audio call mode.
- Mobile versions of Jami (Android and iOS) are now much less demanding on smartphone resources, which significantly reduces battery consumption. The wake-up function of the smartphone has been improved, and calls have become more efficient.
- The Windows version of Jami has been rewritten almost from the ground up, and now runs great on Windows 8, 10, and Microsoft Surface tablets.
New opportunities:
- A more efficient and advanced video conferencing system.
Let's be honest - until now, the video conferencing system in Jami did not work. Now we are quietly connecting dozens of participants and do not experience any problems. In theory, there are no restrictions on the number of participants - only the bandwidth of your network and the load on the hardware.
- Ability to dynamically change the layout of conferences. You can select the participant you want to highlight, share the presentation, or stream the media in full screen. And all this at the touch of a button.
- Rendezvous Points is one of the most innovative features. With just one button, Jami turns into a conference server. "Meeting Points" appear like any other account created in the Create Account Wizard. Each point may be permanent or temporary, may have its own name, which can be registered in a public directory.
Once created, the users you invite can meet, see and chat with each other at any time - even if you're away or talking on another phone! All you need is to connect your account to the internet.
For example, if you are a teacher and you are engaged in remote learning, create a “meeting point” and share an ID remotely with your students. Call from your account to the "meeting point" and you are there! As with video conferencing, you can control the video layout by clicking on the users you want to highlight. You can create any number of meeting points. This feature will be further developed in the coming months.
- JAMS (Jami Account Management Server) is an account management server. Jami implements a free distributed network for everyone. But some organizations need a greater level of control over their network users.
JAMS allows you to manage your own Jami community, taking advantage of Jami's distributed network architecture. You can create your own Jami user community either directly on the server or by connecting it to your LDAP authentication server or Active Directory. You can manage user contact lists or distribute specific configurations to user groups.
This new feature of the Jami ecosystem will be especially useful for companies or organizations such as schools. The alpha version has been available for the past few months, but now JAMS has moved into the beta category. A full production release is due in November, with full commercial support for JAMS scheduled for later this year.
- The plugin system and the first Jami plugin appeared. Programmers can now add their own plugins, expanding the basic functionality of Jami.
The first official plugin is called "GreenScreen", and is based on TensorFlow, Google's famous neural network framework. The introduction of artificial intelligence into Jami opens up an unlimited number of new possibilities and use cases.
The GreenScreen plugin allows you to change the background of an image during a video call. What makes it so special? All processing happens locally on your device. "GreenScreen" can be downloaded here - (supports Linux, Windows and Android). An Apple version will be coming soon. This first version of "GreenScreen" requires significant machine resources. In fact, an Nvidia graphics card is highly recommended, and only phones with a dedicated AI chip will do for Android.
- What's next? In the near future, the developers promise to develop and stabilize the above innovations, as well as adding the “Swarm Chat” function, which will allow you to synchronize conversations between several devices and communication between private and public groups.
Developers expect active feedback from Jami users.
Send your comments and wishes here.
Bugs can be sent here.
Source: linux.org.ru