GNUnet Messenger API: May 2026

Hi again,

besides a few minor fixes in libgnunetchat that I missed before the last release of version 0.7.0 in March, I worked on the GTK4 interface of the Messenger application again. For example the decryption of files didn’t function properly since my last code abstraction in libgnunetchat and I noticed that while testing the file sharing in the GTK interface. I fixed multiple segmentation faults and synchronization issues inside the application that I noticed during testing and adjusting minor GUI components as well.

Screenshot of the account creation dialog

Big improvements are the following:

  • The messages won’t take too much horizontal space anymore but try to fit as little space in the window as possible (this had to be ported from GTK3 to GTK4).
  • The send and record button will allow short and long press interactions that enable a new context menu for sending delayed messages.
  • The voice recording is much more consistent with toggling logic via button interaction and the recording isn’t cut too early anymore.
  • Search entries in most areas that can be accessed via search buttons will now toggle the button to visualize its state of action more detailed.
  • Chats scroll automatically down to the latest message if the user isn’t manually scrolling elsewhere (this had to be ported from GTK3 to GTK4).
  • The button in the settings to unblock all blocked contacts is implemented.
  • The profile picture can be changed via file dialog (this had to be ported from GTK3 to GTK4 too).
Screenshot of a public chat with emoji picker and active search

So most functionality is ported to GTK4 already and only a few pieces are still missing or broken because of certain changes inside GTK and libadwaita. Also I’m still testing around with the Pinephone Pro that the mobile experience works properly. Desktop experience is typically fine but when you have very limited screen space and the screen keyboard is taking away a lof of space as well, you need to deal with that somehow.

Screenshot of the about dialog on mobile

In certain areas I even get the feeling that libadwaita is a bit of a regression from libhandy honestly. Because with libadwaita you have very fancy looking modal dialogs than can swiped down to close them on mobile. But on desktop they don’t scale with the main window of the application. Because of this content area is very small and I will probably reconsider using a different kind of window class for the contact information dialog.

Screenshot of listening to voice recording on mobile

However I’m confident that I can bring this work to some closure soon and bring a new release leaving GTK3 and libhandy behind. What really motivated me to put in so much effort again is that Cambalache works very smoothly now to design GTK4 interfaces. No crashes so far this month and I can do live CSS adjustments in it without issues. Very awesome tool!

If a new version of messenger-gtk releases you can expect another release of libgnunetchat as well in parallel to bring up those fixes I already pushed upstream. Hopefully next month. I will let you know.

Kind regards,
Jacki

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