Mastodon v2.2.0 preview (Patreon)

Mastodon v2.2.0 is currently in the release candidate phase, mostly waiting for translations. This version is what I would call the "user retention bundle":

There are two central points, first impressions for new users, and first impressions for returning-from-long-absence users. To help with the former, a couple changes have been implemented:

The tutorial window has been improved visually (also, most illustrations have been redone in a vector format to guarantee a sharp look on retina/high-DPI displays)

All e-mails that come from Mastodon have been enhanced with a pretty HTML version

A new type of e-mail that new users will receive, the "welcome" e-mail, will describe first steps you should take with your account (e.g. edit profile, check preferences, start posting with an introduction) as well as some tips (such as the link to the Mastodon bridge, or the fact that the Mastodon webapp can act as a near-native mobile app in Chrome, Firefox and Safari).

Besides being informative, I think those improvements will also make Mastodon look more professional to new people. As for returning users:

A bug has long been plaguing the home timeline of returning users. After 2 weeks absence, they would usually come back to an empty home timeline that would only begin to fill up with fresh posts. Well, the reason for this bug has finally been found and eliminated. Furthermore, since the regeneration of the timeline may take some time (probably less than a minute in most cases) there's now a clear loading message with a cute elephant illustration to explain what's happening and keep you company.

The "digest e-mail" feature that has existed for a long time but has been underutilized, has been improved and made more prominent (but don't worry, the e-mails are rare and not annoying - you only get one if you get some message in a 20 day absence).

With all these improvements, I think Mastodon will significantly improve user retention (that is, people coming back and sticking around).

Meanwhile, the network is gradually upgrading to 2.1.3, the latest stable version that collects active users stats. You can see on this page how many of the known Mastodon instances are on which version of the software. The active user stats are collected from the point of upgrade onwards, so some time is needed, but we should start seeing some realistic numbers soon.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support!Eugen