Citizens,
Chat had been running on a third-party service called Sendbird since the launch of Chat 2.0 back in 2023. Following the visual overhaul released as Chat 3.0 last year, we've been building our own replacement for Sendbird on Torn's infrastructure - and that work is now complete. Chat 3.1 runs entirely on our own systems.
The practical difference for you is that chat is no longer constrained by someone else's platform. Where previously a number of long-standing issues were outside our control to fix, we can now address them directly, and build new chat features without waiting on a third party.
What's changing
All players will be moved to Chat 3.1 automatically. Chat 2.0 and Chat 3.0 are being retired as part of the move, as both depend on Sendbird and can't continue once it's switched off. There's nothing you need to do.
Your message history comes with you. Every message has been stored on Torn's own systems alongside Sendbird for some time, so nothing is lost in the move.
A word on what to expect
We want to be upfront about this. Replacing the whole of chat is a significant change, and it's very unlikely to be completely smooth. There will almost certainly be some rough edges in the first days, and while we'd expect them to be minor inconveniences rather than anything serious, we're sorry in advance for any disruption they cause.
What we can promise is that we'll be watching closely and fixing quickly. Please report anything that isn't working as expected on the forums in the usual way, with as much detail as you can. It genuinely helps us find and fix things faster, and the more we hear in the first few days the better.
Known issues
The first time you open Chat 3.1, some conversations you'd already read may show as unread, and any chat windows you had open in the old chat won't be there. Read state couldn't be carried over from Sendbird. Opening Chat Settings and choosing Mark all as read clears it, and you can reopen any chats you want from the chat list. It's a one-off and only affects the initial move.
If Global chat has flash disabled and is left minimised, new messages may not appear when you reopen it. A page refresh brings them through, and we're working on a fix.
What's been fixed
A number of issues you've reported over the past couple of years were caused by limitations in Sendbird rather than in Torn itself. Moving to our own infrastructure resolves them.
Messages going missing in Global and Trade. Busy public rooms were split behind the scenes once they passed a certain size, which meant players in one part of a room didn't see messages from another until they refreshed the page. There was also a cap on how many messages a second could be delivered live, with anything above it held back and only appearing on reload. Neither limit exists on the new system.
Limited chat history. Sendbird only served the last six months of messages, which is why older conversations disappeared earlier this year. Your messages are now stored by Torn and no longer disappear after six months.
Chat outages. Chat no longer goes down when an outside provider has problems.
Alongside those, a few other long-standing issues are resolved:
- Hospital, Jail and Travel chats work as soon as you arrive, with no more "banned from this channel" or "Not a member" errors
- Situational chats such as Jail and Hospital appear and disappear by themselves as your situation changes, without a refresh
There's also a new setting, Open new chats automatically, which adds a new private chat to your chat bar as soon as someone writes to you. This new setting can be found below the existing 'Decline chats from people you don't know' setting.
Thanks.