Increase likelihood of users updating

[jupjohn]

Fairly often, I find that users (streamers & chatters) tend to run outdated versions of chatterino long after newer versions have been released. While users shouldn't be forced to upgrade, I believe we could be better at highlighting that updates are available and/or improve the update process.

Today's example was from a user who reported losing settings files on Windows - a common issue which should be mitigated in 2.5.4. They're currently on 2.5.3 and didn't realise that a new version was available. After I mentioned that this was fixed in 2.5.4 and that they should upgrade, they said the update arrow at the top blended in so much that it practically became invisible.

Possible solutions/improvements

Here are some ideas I've had:

1. Draw more attention to the update icon (an easy win for the "I didn't see it" group)
   • Using colour to stand out from other icons
   • Flashing/shimmering the icon
2. Pop up a dialog on start when a new update is available, like we do for Show changelog
   • Perhaps adding a delay of x days after the update has been released before prompting would be less annoying. Would also allow for catastrophic day-one bugs to be patches before the "average user" updates
3. Pre-download the update in the background, and "apply" the update instead of downloading on-the-fly
   • For users that can't be bothered waiting for an update to download & apply, having this process be quicker seems like a win
   • A negative for this would be using bandwidth without explicit consent. Mobile data users wouldn't like that

[jupjohn]

If chatterino's release frequency is increased (per #5773,) this would be a lot more important.

[Coldblackice]

Wholeheartedly agree with this. I've lost count of the number streamers/viewers I see using ancient Chatterino versions, teaching them about nightly versions to stay current.

[Nerixyz]

teaching them about nightly versions to stay current.

I would love it if we could have proper nightly updates (#2787), because once you install a nightly version, you don't get updates anymore. Especially with our slow release cycle, we sometimes tell people to try out nightly if it fixed their issue. Afterward, they stay on nightly, because it fixes their issue.

A reason why we don't have nightly updates yet is that the GitHub API shouldn't be called from Chatterino (#3779 (comment)). Though https://api.github.com/repos/Chatterino/chatterino2/releases/tags/nightly-build would give us exactly the info we'd need to update.

Again (#5773), more frequent beta updates could pull some people from nightly versions.

[pajlada]

I think allowing nightly to update to stable seems ok. If you're running a nightly version because some feature you want or need is not released yet, you'll be automatically prompted to update once a stable release containing this feature is released

[Nerixyz]

1. Draw more attention to the update icon (an easy win for the "I didn't see it" group)
   • Using colour to stand out from other icons
   • Flashing/shimmering the icon

We could show the update icon a few seconds after Chatterino is launched. The launch itself is (if you have a few channels open) a bit chaotic, so the update icon appearing might not be noticed.

When the icon appears, it could flash/animate for a few seconds and then go back to the default color.

2. Pop up a dialog on start when a new update is available, like we do for Show changelog
   • Perhaps adding a delay of x days after the update has been released before prompting would be less annoying. Would also allow for catastrophic day-one bugs to be patches before the "average user" updates

We have the option for users to receive beta updates. These users could get the dialog immediately, and others after some time.

3. Pre-download the update in the background, and "apply" the update instead of downloading on-the-fly
   • For users that can't be bothered waiting for an update to download & apply, having this process be quicker seems like a win

I see this as mostly orthogonal to the notification itself.

• A negative for this would be using bandwidth without explicit consent. Mobile data users wouldn't like that

That's a valid concern. Technically, we could ask the OS about our connection, but it's unlikely to give a decent answer in case of hotspots.

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I'm favoring idea 2. It's how ShareX does it:

Though, I'd replace the last checkbox with something that disables notifications for that release or even all notifications, because some users don't like this (e.g. ShareX/ShareX#3246 where I stole the screenshot from).

[jupjohn]

We could show the update icon a few seconds after Chatterino is launched. The launch itself is (if you have a few channels open) a bit chaotic, so the update icon appearing might not be noticed.

When the icon appears, it could flash/animate for a few seconds and then go back to the default color.

I like this. Draws enough attention to an update without overwhelming/being missed on startup.

We have the option for users to receive beta updates. These users could get the dialog immediately, and others after some time.

That sounds like a good tradeoff. I would assume beta users like to be up to date anyways.

Technically, we could ask the OS about our connection, but it's unlikely to give a decent answer in case of hotspots.

IIRC Windows & macOS will automatically enter a "low data" mode when they think they're on a hotspot, but I wouldn't put full trust into that. Also worth remembering that some countries still default to capped internet plans, so bandwidth is more precious to those users.

Though, I'd replace the last checkbox with something that disables notifications for that release or even all notifications [...]

I'm in 2 minds about this:

• On one hand, I feel like some users would tick those checkboxes just because we live in a world where popups are everywhere and people just want to get rid of them. Would hate for them to miss out because of learned behaviour most people (me included) have.
• On the other hand, annoying popups are annoying and there should be a way to ignore/silence for current/future updates.

Perhaps an alternative would put putting this into settings (it's going in the settings file anyways) and mention it in the dialog. That way there's a small bit of friction, but hopefully not enough to piss people off.

[Mm2PL]

Here are some ideas I've had: 1. Draw more attention to the update icon (an easy win for the "I didn't see it" group) * Using colour to stand out from other icons * Flashing/shimmering the icon

This will be distracting and annoying to users who decide that they don't need to update to a particular release. I don't think this is the way.

2. Pop up a dialog on start when a new update is available, like we do for |Show changelog| * Perhaps adding a delay of /x/ days after the update has been released before prompting would be less annoying. Would also allow for catastrophic day-one bugs to be patches before the "average user" updates

I would love if the changelog for new releases was available before updating, this will likely come useful is there are major bug fixes. My worry about this is someone accidentally skipping the update dialog and not knowing how to open it again.

3. Pre-download the update in the background, and "apply" the update instead of downloading on-the-fly

Hell nah. This is just asking for one of us to be hacked and instantly and automatically spread malware. A user delaying an update download will have a chance of saving them should such a scenario happen. Why do OSes other than Linux still not have working package managers that we could offload the update process to

[jupjohn]

This will be distracting and annoying to users who decide that they don't need to update to a particular release. I don't think this is the way.

I think Neri's suggestion of ignoring current/future updates would solve this concern.

I would love if the changelog for new releases was available before updating [...]

If we went with a popup dialog approach, that would be a great thing to put in there. A simply "What's new?" link would be nice.

Hell nah. This is just asking for one of us to be hacked and instantly and automatically spread malware. A user delaying an update download will have a chance of saving them should such a scenario happen.

Valid concern. If this approach was chosen, perhaps adding some safeguards to the release process could alleviate this?

[jupjohn]

Another suggested idea is to use system messages on startup/periodically to notify of updates. Could be an option; unsure how this would work in practice though.