If you have used collaboration tools, you know that the ones offered by Big Tech are quite user-data-hungry, with those organizations taking advantage of the data as they please.
That is where decentralized, open solutions like Nextcloud come in. It is a platform that is estimated to have over 20 million users all over the globe, with Nextcloud Hub as its flagship product.
Since its first release, it has been receiving a steady flow of updates, with past releases always having plenty to offer. Fast-forward to the present day, and at this year's Nextcloud Community Conference, the developers have introduced Nextcloud Hub 9, which is the latest iteration of the suite.
Nextcloud Hub 9: Packed With Improvements
This time around, Nextcloud Hub is focusing on delivering some important design updates, advanced automation, improvements to the various applications, and refinements to its AI-powered features.
We will be taking a look at some key highlights of this release:
- Nextcloud Flow
- Complete Federation
- Improved User Experience
- Nextcloud Assistant Upgrades
Nextcloud Flow
Based on Windmill, Nextcloud Flow is meant to aid in automation by taking in data from both internal and external sources.
It can be used to automate a wide range of tasks on Nextcloud, such as creating flows to manage payment confirmations, generating new documents from a filled-out form, approve/reject vacation requests for employees, and more.
The possibilities are endless, and all that is thanks to tight integration with the Nextcloud ecosystem and third-party applications.
Complete Federation
Nextcloud Hub had already decentralized chats that allowed users across the federated Talk instances on the various Nextcloud Hubs to communicate with each other, with most Talk features being available.
But, something was missing back then. Thankfully, that has been taken care of with this release. 😃
With Nextcloud Hub 9, users can make or receive audio and video calls across the federated network, just like they could inside their Hub. It will be a familiar experience for you if you have taken calls with users on the same Nextcloud Hub instance.
Improved User Experience
In the spirit of improving collaboration, Nextcloud Hub now has a powerful Whiteboard application that will let you express your thoughts onto a blank canvas, with many useful tools at your disposal.
It can be easily used with Nextcloud Talk for things like describing an idea, creating diagrams, conducting a live workshop, presenting at a meeting, and many more such use cases.
Then there's the new dynamic background functionality that will adjust the interface's color scheme according to the selected background in Nextcloud Hub. It is a nice quality-of-life upgrade that ought to catch on with most users.
On the performance front, Nextcloud Hub 9 employs Vite to bundle the JavaScript code, resulting in reduced sizes (up to 5x) for the various Nextcloud applications, making the suite more efficient as a whole.
Nextcloud Assistant Upgrades
Reacting to what users would most likely find useful, Nextcloud Assistant has been upgraded with a dedicated chat interface, where users can send prompts to interact with the AI-powered assistant to carry out various tasks.
It can do things like summarize a user's day, proofread content, answer questions, and more. Keep in mind that everything is done locally.
The Translate app is also more accessible because it can be used directly from the Assistant menu, and there's support for new languages too.
🛠️ Other Changes and Improvements
We wrap this up with a few notable changes that were not mentioned above:
- Nextcloud Talk moderators can now ban misbehaving users.
- Two fresh integrations have been introduced: Llama 3 and XWiki.
- You can set a PIN for passwordless authentication on your Nextcloud account.
- Nextcloud Presentations now has support for 3D transitions and performs better than before.
- It is possible to request files from other users, with configurable settings ensuring security.
For a more in-depth look into this release, you should give the announcement blog a read.
Want to check it out?
Nextcloud offers a 60-minute trial (requires filling out a form) for those who want to test the waters before fully committing to using the platform. If you would like to get started right away, then you can go to the official website to learn how.
Existing users can update their Nextcloud AIO setups by following the official guide, or they can wait for the update to be available for their installation.
Suggested Read 📖
Sourav Rudra
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