bitchat 1.8.0 makes busy location channels fast. It also collects the features and security hardening that landed since 1.7.1.

Performance

• Busy geochats are fast again. In a room of 100 people, the people list opens in about 60 ms (it took 1.5 s) and stays at 60 fps. At 300 people it opens in about 180 ms (it took 4–12 s) (#1788).
• Presence traffic no longer rebuilds the roster on every event. The timeline at 300 people goes from 3.5–7 dropped frames per second to none (#1789).
• The timeline no longer fights you.
  • It no longer snaps back while you scroll during a burst.
  • It no longer cascades to the oldest message when you reach the top.
  • It keeps following at the 1,337-message cap.
  • Channel and DM switches land at the newest message (#1790).
• Geochat scaling is now gated by CI's performance floors (#1791).

Fixes

• Your own messages are recognized by sender ID, not nickname. Someone who shares your name no longer pulls you to the bottom, hides their message actions, or gets your threads folded into theirs (#1793).
• No more dark-gray band at the bottom of sheets in dark mode with the Matrix theme (#1794).
• Builds with Xcode 27. swift-secp256k1 0.24.0 brings byte-identical crypto output, verified across versions (#1782). String catalog keys and Swift 6.4 warnings are fixed (#1795).

New since 1.7.1

• Drafts survive switching between mesh, location channels and private chats (#1569).
• Location channels:
  • one-tap quick join for nearby channels (#1444);
  • share channel invites from the share sheet (#1513).
• Identity and verification:
  • a local alias on the fingerprint sheet (#1507);
  • a verification seal in private chats (#1573).
• Chat list and safety:
  • a recent chats section (#1598);
  • a persistent connectivity banner (#1597);
  • a panic wipe that confirms first (#1588).
• Mac: camera QR scanning for verification (#1477).
• Keyboard: navigation for @-mention suggestions (#1542).
• Localization: the remaining UI strings are localized in all 30 languages (#1654, #1656, #1657).

Security

• Noise and identity: sessions rekey on absolute age (#1675), and unverifiable handshake peer IDs fail closed (#1645).
• Timestamps: sanity windows for QR codes, Nostr DM rumors and sync replies (#1647, #1717).
• Size bounds: per-type packet payload caps and byte-bounded sync stores (#1719).
• Groups and DMs:
  • private-group creator pinning (#1720);
  • the mesh peer ID is kept out of geohash DMs (#1718).
• Input handling: ambiguous nicknames are refused instead of guessed (#1689), and Data(hexString:) rejects signed byte pairs (#1687).
• Privacy: the public-channel screenshot broadcast is removed (#1596), and privacy claims are corrected (#1595).

Every tagged release ships a SOURCE-MANIFEST.txt; see docs/VERIFYING-A-BUILD.md.

What's Changed

• Peer ID rotation: working primitives + spec for iOS/Android review by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1487
• Add macOS camera QR scanning for peer verification by @Ayush7614 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1477
• Localize hardcoded macOS image picker copy by @Ayush7614 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1478
• Location channels: locale-derived one-tap quick join by @RodsF1 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1444
• feat: local alias field on the fingerprint sheet by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1507
• feat: share location channel invites via the system share sheet by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1513
• feat: verification seal on private message sender rows by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1573
• Keyboard navigation for @-mention suggestions by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1542
• Fail closed on unverifiable handshake peer IDs; check SecRandomCopyBytes results by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1645
• Make SwiftLint blocking in CI now that the violation backlog is zero by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1646
• Timestamp sanity windows: future-dated QR codes and implausible Nostr DM rumors by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1647
• Make the Periphery scan blocking by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1648
• Deflake gift-wrap tests: settle deadlines, not latency budgets by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1651
• Stop claiming encryption and privacy properties that aren't live by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1595
• Remove the public-channel screenshot broadcast by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1596
• Add a recent-chats section so DM conversations can't become unreachable by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1598
• Make the panic wipe confirmable and its outcome visible by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1588
• Add a persistent connectivity banner and stop the radar lying by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1597
• Deflake AppArchitectureTests: raise the local waitUntil to settleTimeout by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1653
• Localization: add 26 code-referenced keys and a test that closes the coverage blind spot by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1654
• Localize CommandProcessor: all 48 command strings, 30 locales by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1657
• Localize the last hardcoded UI strings; wire up two dead translations by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1656
• Keep the mesh peer ID out of geohash DMs; ack only after block checks by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1718
• Pin the stored creator on incoming private-group state by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1720
• Bound future timestamps on sync replies and in the gossip store by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1717
• Cap packet payload size per type and bound sync stores by bytes by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1719
• fix: refuse an ambiguous nickname instead of picking the first peer by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1689
• Trigger Noise session rekey on absolute age, not just idle time by @krishrathi1 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1675
• fix: reject a signed byte pair in Data(hexString:) by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1687
• fix: evict fully-aged-out geohashes from activity tracker by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1642
• Compile mention autocomplete regex through SafeRegex by @Ayush7614 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1604
• test(l10n): per-catalog attribution and file:line output for the coverage guard by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1679
• Add golden test vectors for the courier wire format by @ecgang in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1472
• Validate relay-directory changes in PR CI by @jozanek in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1711
• ci: prevent manual source manifests from overwriting releases by @vekovius in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1636
• docs: why rotating the service UUID does not work by @RodsF1 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1704
• Keep composer drafts across mesh, geohash, and DM switches by @Chessing234 in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1569
• build(deps): bump swift-secp256k1 from 0.21.1 to 0.24.0 by @csjones in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1782
• Make the geochat people list linear in the participant count by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1788
• Stop rebuilding the geochat roster on every inbound event by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1789
• Fix geochat timeline scrolling and cut per-row render work by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1790
• Gate geochat scaling regressions in the performance floor check by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1791
• Tell my own messages apart by sender ID, not nickname by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1793
• Fix dark-gray band at the bottom of Matrix sheets in dark mode by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1794
• Fix swift build on Xcode 27 and clear its Swift 6.4 warnings by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1795
• Bump version to 1.8.0 by @jackjackbits in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1796

New Contributors

• @Ayush7614 made their first contribution in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1477
• @vekovius made their first contribution in https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/pull/1636

Full Changelog: https://github.com/permissionlesstech/bitchat/compare/v1.7.1...v1.8.0