Videochat Extension

Release v1.7.0 (2023-03-14)

Added 2023-10-07 08:04:45 +0000 UTC

Support for 46 video chat sites, Firefox, Edge and TypeScript.

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Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

What's new in Videochat Extension?

A very time-consuming (~180 hours of work) rewrite of the extension architecture to simplify its long-term development.
Added support for 46 video chat sites, including basic Omegle support.
Added support for Edge & Firefox.
Added a post-install onboarding window.
Added a popup menu where you can find supported video chats and configure the extension. It can be opened by clicking on the extension icon in your browser's toolbar.
Renamed the English version of the extension to Videochat Extension.
Countless fixes & improvements.

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This is a very big and very important update: every inner gear has been touched. If you think that we broke something in the process, please report all issues to our Discord or directly write to the developer's email.

Almost nothing has changed outwardly, but inside, almost everything has changed. The goal of this update was to rewrite the extension so that you wouldn't notice any changes.

Chatruletka Extension has grown tremendously over the past year, but its technical state has always needed improvement. This extension was never intended to be published and to support such a broad audience. Because of this, with every unmotivated update, technical debt accumulated: a snowball of bad decisions that would sooner or later lead to disaster.

At the time these decisions were made, they were justified: saving time (time is the most valuable resource on the planet), loss of interest in developing videochat-related projects, lack of motivation to dive into new technologies in areas that were not interesting to me, and general universal sadness - all these things seemed like good reasons to forget about the serious development of this project.

But now that this project is in danger of becoming my most successful and popular yet, and its state at v1.6.3 does not justify the trust placed in it by you, I'm just ashamed to leave it like this.

Since further development of the old version would lead to even more trouble, I had to spend ~180 hours rethinking critical aspects before moving on.

Although there is still a long way to go, and there are still many things that I would like to rework, this update is only a first step towards reviving active work on the extension.

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At the moment, I have the motivation to work on the project. I also have new ideas, which include maintaining and developing everything that is already working, improving the quality of the code, new features, support for new video chat platforms, and some experiments.

At the same time, it is worth noting a few important things:

This extension will never be sold to third parties and will never be monetized by malicious methods.
This extension will never interfere with the functionality that is critical for the functioning of video chats: I will not oppose the moderation, user identification, and ban systems, as well as implement functionality similar to the paid functions of video chat platforms (for example, if video chat offers a gender filter for money - I don't implement the same in the extension and so on, there may be exceptions, such as geolocation, adblock, bot filter, etc.).
This extension will never partner with video chats to promote them to the extension's audience. Video chat platforms in the list of supported ones are listed in the order of appearance of this very support.
I don't plan to create my own video chat and use my extension to promote it: I have my main project (unrelated to video chats), which takes most of my life's energy, and I'm not going to cheat on it.
This extension and all its software components will always be distributed under free licenses.

If I ever need money to develop and support this project, I will create Patreon/Boosty page to provide it at the expense of interested users. The previous five points can be considered the constitution of the extension with all the consequences. It severely limits the monetization opportunities, but I believe this is the only way to develop the extension while avoiding conflicts of interest with supported video chat platforms.

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TypeScript.

Extension was rewritten almost from scratch using TypeScript.
Fixed a lot of bugs in the process.
This process is not yet complete, but the extension is already functioning with the full functionality of the previous version.

Support for 46 video chat sites.

The extension now supports all known mirror sites of the platforms: Chatruletka, ome.tv, minichat, chatrulez.
Implemented basic Omegle support similar to minimalistic mode, except for the dark theme.
Implemented support for an alternative ome.tv interface, such as, for example, on ome.chat.

Omegle platform support.

Features: IP Locator & Dark Mode.
Added basic support for omegle.com
Added basic support for omegle.tv

Chatruletka platform support (extension).

Added support for chatruletka.com
Added support for chatruletka.ua
Added support for ruletka.chat
Added support for videochatar.com
Added support for videochatau.com
Added support for videochatbr.com
Added support for brvideochat.com
Added support for videochatca.com
Added support for videochatde.com
Added support for videochatfr.com
Added support for frvideochat.com
Added support for roulettefrancais.com
Added support for videochatit.com
Added support for videochatjp.com
Added support for videochatmx.com
Added support for videochatnl.com
Added support for videochatpl.com
Added support for videochatpt.com
Added support for videochatuk.com
Added support for videochatus.com
Added support for roulette-espanol.com
Added support for ruletaespanol.com
Added support for ruletkavideochat.com
Added support for turkishvideochat.com

ome.tv platform support (extension).

Added support for ome.chat
Added support for camki.com
Added support for chatalternative.com
Added support for chatrooms.chat
Added support for chat-brasil.com
Added support for chat-de.com
Added support for chat-fr.com
Added support for chat-nl.com
Added support for chat-pl.com
Added support for chat-pt.com
Added support for prostochat.com
Added support for stickam.chat
Added support for ukr.chat
Added support for cafeclub.ua

Minichat platform support

Added support for minichat.com

Chatrulez platform support

Added support for chatrulez.ru
Added support for videochatruletka.com
Added support for videochatruletka.ru

Firefox support.

A lot of work was done to analyze all the issues and ensure compatibility with the latest versions of Firefox.
Published the extension to the Firefox browser add-on store.
There are still some problems: the error monitoring system, the hotkey for switching between chat and the last tab, the notification sounds and the streamer mode do not work, but all the core functionality already works, and we will design all future features keeping Firefox support in mind.

Edge support.

Published the extension to the Edge browser extension store.

Name changed.

Renamed the English version of the extension to 'Videochat Extension'.
This happened due to the fact that English-speaking users (which are the majority) have no idea what Chatruletka is. At the same time, in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, it is already a word for any random video chat.

License changed.

License changed from MIT to BSD-4.
This is because we started to take this project more seriously and don't want to see our work reused in the works of possible competitors without complying with the terms of the BSD-4 license.

Extension icon changed.

Changed the extension icon and description.
The old icon is enabled by default for old users.
For new users, by default, the icon is set to the icon of the last video chat, and the text 'ext' is placed on it.

System of platforms and dynamic permissions.

Implemented a dynamic permissions system that allows us to add support for new video chats without disabling the extension for users because of missing permissions.
If you open a chat to which you have not yet given permission, the extension will kindly ask you to grant access to this chat (it can be disabled).
A system of local settings for each platform has been implemented (one platform can have several sites).
When updating from v1.6.3, the extension will try to migrate your old settings.
Your video chat usage statistics will move to the last used chat platform (Chatruletka or ome.tv).
The blacklist is shared between all platforms.

Window after installation.

After installing the extension, a page with information about the extension opens, which allows you to learn more about the extension or go directly to the chat.

Window when opening the platform for the first time.

Redesigned the welcome window. Now, there are only three pages: brief information about the video chat, features supported by the extension, and extension license.

Popup.

Clicking on the extension now opens a special menu, not the last video chat.
The menu has lists of favorite, recent, and supported video chats, global settings, and links.
The menu allows you to fix possible problems with missing permissions.
The menu allows you to enable/disable the extension for specific video chats.
The menu allows you to set a star for your favorite video chats to appear at the very top of the list.
When first installed, the extension checks open tabs in the browser, and if it finds supported video chats, it adds them to the list of favorites.
If the extension does not find video chats, videochatru.com and ome.tv are added to favorites.
The extension offers to scan the history and add video chats to favorites on the page that opens after installation.
Video chat platforms in the list of supported ones are listed in the order of appearance of this very support.

Minimalism mode.

Changed the logic of the minimalism mode and the geolocation data display format.
Cellural location data is displayed for Russia and Ukraine with city and region.

Geolocation.

Adapted the reserve request method as the main one. It no longer makes sense to allow insecure content in the browser.
Error 429 (too many requests) no longer prevents the API from working.
If error 429, a button appears that allows you to request geolocation again after a while.

Local hotkeys.