Nextcloud https://nextcloud.com/ Regain control over your data Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:09:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 https://nextcloud.com/c/uploads/2022/03/favicon.png Nextcloud https://nextcloud.com/ 32 32 Maintenance updates for Nextcloud Hub 6 and 7 are here https://nextcloud.com/blog/maintenance-updates-for-nexcloud-hub-6-and-7-are-here/ Thu, 25 Apr 2024 13:18:07 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=210389 Minor Nextcloud updates are released, carrying multiple stability and security improvements. As always, the upgrade process is designed to be safe and quick

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Please update to a new version to keep your data safe!

If you are using Nextcloud Hub 6 or 7, we strongly recommend you to update to version 27.1.9 or 28.0.5 respectively. Maintenance updates include important bug fixes, stability and security upgrades. It is a quick and safe process, as always!

About this update

The updates include several bug fixes, enhancements in file handling, performance optimization, and other improvements in all supported versions of Nextcloud Hub. You can find the full changelog on our website.

Updates are available for:

  • Nextcloud Hub 6 (version 27.1.9)
  • Nextcloud Hub 7 (version 28.0.5)

Make the most of your platform with Nextcloud Hub 8 🚀

Even more automated and optimized all around, Nextcloud Hub 8 is here to give you back control over your time. Upgrade today to unlock multiple new features in your favourite platform:

  • Nextcloud Assistant: Chat summaries, Nextcloud Mail reply suggestions, answers based on your data, and more!
  • Interactive previews for files, folders, boards and events
  • Federated chat and message editing in Talk
  • Mini-apps based on Tables
  • Public Collectives sharing, previews and QR-codes
  • Manage your team resources like a pro with Nextcloud Teams
  • Forms: automatically sync with a spreadsheet
  • And much more
Nextcloud - Get Nextcloud Hub 8

Get Nextcloud Hub 8

Download and install Nextcloud Hub 8 here!

Get Hub 8

Always keep your server up to date!

Nextcloud’s minor releases primarily focus on addressing security vulnerabilities and functionality bugs, avoiding major system overhauls that could jeopardize user data. Keeping your server up to date is vital, and our approach to testing and validation ensures that upgrading to minor releases is generally smooth and reliable.

For mission-critical Nextcloud systems in enterprise settings, consider switching to Nextcloud Enterprise. The tier provides you with ultimate deployment confidence: direct access to the Nextcloud engineering team, full assistance throughout deployment and integration, and peace of mind for system administrators. If you’re responsible for maintaining Nextcloud in your setting, this option may be the ideal solution for you.

The post Maintenance updates for Nextcloud Hub 6 and 7 are here appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Regain control over your time with Nextcloud Hub 8 https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-hub8/ Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=205651 Regain control of your time with Hub 8: improvements all around Hub, new apps, new AI features, new level of performance and comfort. Tune in and discover the next generation of collaboration.

The post Regain control over your time with Nextcloud Hub 8 appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Hi Nextcloud community! 👋

as we are announcing Nextcloud Hub 8 here at the Nextcloud Enterprise Day in Munich, our customers and partners are presenting their own and unique use of Nextcloud. Tens of millions of users trust Nextcloud to protect their data.

These include private users, running their own Nextcloud, or using a hosted solution from the likes of América Móvil or Deutsche Telekom. Businesses, keeping data on their own servers or hosting at one of our official partners. And the public sector, with universities, cities, governments and international organizations like Amnesty International using Nextcloud to stay safe. They maintain their own servers or host with partners like Bechtle that offers tender-free Nextcloud for the public sector in Germany.

We build Nextcloud to give you control over your data. In terms of who has access, but also what. Our world is digital, and AI is digging through all its data. It can use that for good – create fun meme, summarize your mails or help medical research. But should it operate heavy machinery or be used in the courts or HR departments?

While society finds its way through these dystopian questions, we make sure you have control. Different options, plus transparency over what AI does and how helps you make informed choices. That aligns with our core values of transparency, community and collaboration.

This release introduces many abilities specifically for the public sector. Some of those are AI related, developed together with public sector partners like the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, presenting here today. Others tick off important requirements like our new European accessibility certification, improved scalability or federated chat. But all of these benefit every Nextcloud user, at home, in an office or working in a cafe somewhere!

This release is faster, scales further, and gives you more control over your data than ever before. Whether you watch our release video or read the blog, we are looking forward to your feedback, and, as always, hope Nextcloud serve(r)s you well!

Greetings,
Jos & the Nextcloud team

Performance is now

Nextcloud Hub is the place where everything you need to be productive comes together in a connected, user-focused platform. Working on the improvements in Nextcloud Hub 8, we set a goal to give you half of your day back so you can take a breather!

Nextcloud Assistant 2.0 features

Nextcloud Assistant 2.0 ✹

The first change comes in the introduction of the Nextcloud Assistant version 2. Context awareness mechanics introduced with Context Chat and Context Write lets the Assistant know even more about your work than you do. Worry not about privacy — Assistant is itself a part of your Hub and doesn’t send your data anywhere.

Nextcloud Teams đŸ§‘â€đŸ€â€đŸ§‘

Shifting gears to teamwork, meet Nextcloud Teams — the next evolutionary leap for Circles. Teams arrives in Hub with the new team overview, quick access to shared resources, and a dashboard widget. And we are only getting started!

Teams - Contacts app improvements in Hub 8
Nextcloud Mail Hub 8 improvements

Speedy new Mail 🚄

A hefty part of your day you spend in Mail. With Hub 8 we made it faster — so you can go home earlier. The background sync is now twice as fast, the improved UI ensures comfort for a smooth morning catching-up, while replying takes less time with the addition of AI-powered suggestions.

Advanced Talk 💬

Reaching out to users from another Hub is a breeze with federated messaging in Talk. More on Talk features, we added message editing, sparing you the delete-and-rewrite dance. Many improvements come your way in conferencing too, making presenting and group calls more comfortable and efficient.

Edit message in Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Files improvements in Hub 8

Optimized Files 🗂

Hub 8 gets you to your files faster. Enjoy your private, clutter-free space with a Personal files section. Share downloads with confidence using one-time links. Preview and edit files linked across Hub with new interactive widgets. Discover optimized navigation for photos.

And so much more in Hub 8!

BITV 2.0 certification, incredible improvements in Tables, more automation in Forms, major performance updates in Office, and many other news are waiting for you in Hub 8. Get it now to see for yourself, or buckle up as we lead you through every new feature you need to know about.

Table of Contents

assistant-logo-white

Nextcloud Assistant 2.0

Build an efficient, sovereign, AI-powered workspace with Hub. Welcome Nextcloud Assistant 2.0, new integrations and new AI deployment mechanics.

Nextcloud Assistant 2.0 features
AI features in Nextcloud Hub 8
AI features already available in Hub

Ask Assistant about your own assets đŸ•”

Hub 8 enables Nextcloud Assistant’s new context awareness features. One of them is Context Chat, a smart chat bot that can access your data and answer questions about your documentation, contracts, papers, reports or anything else. You can manually define the scope and even limit it to a specific folder or file for more precision.

And it’s not limited to Files: we developed an API that allows Assistant to look into Mail, Calendar, Talk, Deck and other apps to fetch info about important meetings, tasks received via emails and chats, and any other data from those apps. Over the coming weeks and months, we are going to gradually implement the Context Chat API across the Hub ecosystem, making Context Chat ever smarter.

Texts written your way with Context Write 📝

Context Write is another new feature of Nextcloud Assistant powered by context awareness. It can derive context from existing files to convey their unique tone, wording, and even structure to create new texts with the data you provide. Tell the Assistant about your working experience and give it a nice CV file, and it will create a custom CV for you. Share meeting notes and ask it to write a formal report similar to your reference – done!

Generate Mail replies and automate events in Calendar 💌

With Hub 8, we add more Assistant features to Groupware tools. Get reply suggestions based on your conversation history in Mail. Create Calendar events from emails without leaving the Mail app, automatically generate event titles and descriptions, and even an agenda. Go ahead – take an extra coffee break!

AI email reply suggestions in Nextcloud

Chat summaries in Talk 🍡

Summarization of team meetings and spontaneous brainstorms in Talk chats makes it easy to get a refresher on previous discussions. The new AI Talk bot can recap your conversations, describe the discussed topics and define tasks based on chat activity. Give it a preferred time to deliver the summary, and it will send it in the chat when scheduled.

Nextcloud Assistant AI Talk summary

Prompt history and even more tools in Assistant 🛠

Assistant 2.0 gives you even more control. Access prompt history when you need to reuse your past prompts, and ask the Assistant to stop unfinished tasks if no longer needed. We also gave even more functionality to the Assistant, adding built-in image generation and speech to text features.

Nextcloud Assistant AI Transcribe result

Synchronous tasks in Text ⏩

Text now supports running Nextcloud Assistant tasks in a synchronous way. If your AI provider is able to return the results fast enough, the Assistant can deliver them in the window right away. If it takes longer, you can choose to run the job on the background and get notified once it’s done.

Nextcloud Assistant on Android

Assistant on-the-go đŸ“±âœš

Access Assistant from any device on the go to draft texts, compose mail responses and create social media messages — with Nextcloud Assistant now available in mobile clients.

Ready for mission-critical deployment

We know that AI works miracles when it comes to automation: it can make your work easier, save your time and hopefully get you back to your family and friends sooner each day. But we’re also aware of its downsides, some similar to the challenges brought about by the big tech firms, some unique to AI.

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. We want to offer you the best of AI, but also provide transparency and choice. You’re the one who decides where and how to use AI in Nextcloud and equally how to balance its benefits with privacy, environmental impact, and more.

More about our approach to AI and Ethical AI Rating

Nextcloud Ethical AI

Building sovereign AI in collaboration with the German government

Nextcloud teamed up with the government of German state Schleswig-Holstein to build sovereign AI tools for state administration needs. This will allow the state office to amplify process automation, create value for domestic digital economy, and notably set an example for AI strategy building within public sectors in Europe and beyond.

Minister of Digitization of Schleswig-Holstein and Nextcloud CEO shake hands
More AI updates in Hub 8
  • GPU support for LLMs, Context Chat, transcribe, translate
  • LLM apps can run on a separate server
  • LLM hot-swap models
  • New models ready for integration: NeuralBeagle14 7B model and Smaug-72b model
  • More Assistant applications can run on a separate server
  • Improved Assistant performance in Text
  • External app ecosystem: added support for AI apps
hub-4-icons-horizontal-white

Interactive widgets

No more jumping between apps. With Hub 8, we introduce the ultimate shortcut.

Nextcloud interactive widets - Office, Calendar, Deck

Edit meeting notes in a Talk chat while video conferencing, scroll through a project Deck board on a Collectives page, or add a whole interactive calendar to your planning file in Text — you name it. With interactive widgets in Hub, you can quite literally embed one app into another.

Hub 8 supports interactive widgets for files, folders, Deck boards and calendars. You can paste widgets in Talk chats, Collectives pages, Text files, and Deck card descriptions.

View and edit files 👀

Using widgets, you and other users with access can view the linked file contents and make edits without leaving the app. To prevent accidental edits, file widgets in Talk open in view-only mode by default.

File editing in Talk with interactive widget

Embedded Calendars 📅

Now you can embed a full calendar in many Hub apps to quickly browse events, dates, and schedules. Respecting your privacy, Nextcloud only shows the embedded calendar to users with access, while for others it will remain blank.

Embed project calendar with interactive widget Nextcloud

Integrated Deck boards 💡

Manage tasks and deadlines anywhere in Hub. Paste a Deck board to browse the contents, open and manage the cards, and even access search and settings.

Nextcloud interactive Deck widget in Text
Nextcloud Office

Nextcloud Office

Better team and project management in Office. Even more automated, even more connected, and even more collaborative.

Nextcloud Office Hub 8 improvements

Manage like a pro with Teams đŸ‘„

Nextcloud Teams is a new step for Circles, with a redesigned team overview, a Dashboard widget, and new features to streamline team management. Browse team resources like Deck boards, Talk rooms and Collectives in the team menu. Add new items to share them in an instant. Shared files and calendars are coming soon.

Nextcloud Teams - team overview with resources

Publicly share Collectives pages 📖

Sharing knowledge with Collectives is now easier, as we take a lot of extra actions off your shoulders. Share individual Collectives pages with included sub-pages via public links. Manage all link shares via sidebar Share tab. Create multiple links with individual permissions to improve security when sharing externally.

Nextcloud Collectives - public page share

Link Forms to sheets 🔗

Link forms to spreadsheets to automatically submit collected data to ODS, XLSX, or CSV files. Re-export, create new sheet copies and edit the linked sheets to add more columns with comments, statuses and any other data you need.

Spreadsheets: cell protection, tooltips, and improved filtering

New features in spreadsheets aim to boost security and integrity of your spreadsheets and greatly improve overall usability. Cell protection allows preventing unwanted changes in selected cells, intentional or not, and managing individual permissions for cells. When typing a function name, a tooltip will show you relevant functions to assist you in search. Filtering has been improved with the AutoFilter feature and new filtering options like Color and Condition.

Nextcloud Office cell protection

Documents: layout improvements, better navigation and change tracking

Keep the layout of your documents neat with dedicated section editing, separate headers and footers for pages under one style, and support for STYLEREF fields. Browsing tracked changes is now easier thanks to popover tooltips and improved change highlights in tables.

Office writer STYLEREF fields

Manage users you follow when collaborating

It’s now easier to follow and unfollow users in your documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The currently followed user is directly visible, so you always know whom you are following. Unfollowing became more convenient too: just click on the list to resume independent browsing.

More features in Office
  • Link handling improvements in Text and Collectives
  • Instant visual feedback when renaming Office files
  • Documents: Navigator nested sections
  • Documents: Tracked changes in a tooltip over changed text in Writer
  • Documents: Follow hyperlinks in read-only documents
  • Documents: Change tracking improvements in table columns and colors
  • Documents: Improved table handling in text documents
  • Presentations: Present slides in window

More than just Tables

Let’s talk about Tables, a versatile data processing app in the Hub ecosystem that elevates your workflow management. In Hub 8, we included improvements in Tables navigation and data imports, as well as introduce a complete new mechanic: no-code apps based on Tables.

Build custom Tables apps 🎛

Need a custom app in your Hub to manage a process, centrally access project data, or build a dedicated knowledge base? Now you can create custom Hub apps based on Tables, streamlining management of individual teams, projects, or processes. Aggregate and combine existing tables and views and add them as a new application to the menu bar for quick access.

Nextcloud Tables - vacation requests app

Navigate your tables in a pinch 🔩

All tables are accessible from a single list that you can filter to find the most relevant items quickly. Add tables to favorites to keep them on top of the list at all times, or archive unused tables to clean your space without losing old data.

With Nextcloud Tables, we’re definitely getting to a point where we can replace traditional specialized software, (German: Fachverfahren), by storing the data structures in Nextcloud.

Sven Thomson, CIO Schleswig-Holstein

New ways to import data 📊

Import tables from external files using the upload feature or from the right click menu from the Files app. We improved file parsing to automatically detect more items from CSV and spreadsheet files, such as dates, percentage, currency and decimals.

Transfer ownership with ease đŸ€

Now users can change the owners of the tables themselves, making it easier to manage tasks without admin permissions. The setting is available in the Edit window.

Nextcloud Files

Nextcloud Files

New Files, featuring your personal file management space, better navigation, and even more ways to share.

Nextcloud Files Hub 8 improvements

Files, your own 📂

Getting lost in a massive amount of shared documents? Enjoy a clean space for yourself with the Personal files section to find all of your own files and folders. Accessible from the web and Nextcloud clients, your documents, drafts, photos, invoices and other items are always close at hand. Plus, we added file recommendations to help you get to recently edited files faster.

Nextcloud Files - Personal files with recommended files

One-time links and QR-codes 🔗

Sharing is even more secure now with one-time download links. When you wish to share a download with a single user and don’t want the link passed around, check the corresponding box in the link settings. What’s more, now you can generate QR-codes on the spot to share links with ease on web pages, slides, printed materials, and more.

Nextcloud Files - Generate QR code share
Nextcloud Photos media folder settings

Pictures where you want them 🗂

In Hub 8, we added one of the most anticipated features for the Photos app: a dedicated Media folder for all your pictures. Your space no longer shows those annoying memes your colleague keeps sending over, and instead displays photos from the chosen folder. Previews also run smoothly now with ‘blur hash’ so you can scroll through your library more quickly.

Photos widget for Dashboard 🌅

While we were at it, we also created a nice Dashboard widget for Photos: it shows you a picture from the past. Good memories, we hope! 🌞

Nextcloud Photos Dashboard widget
More features in Files
  • Unified Search in specific folders
  • Buffer chunked requests used by certain clients
  • Support for theme meta w3c standard
  • Public DAV endpoint v2
Nextcloud Talk

Nextcloud Talk

Meet an optimized Talk with much smoother team meetings, Federated chatting, new mechanics in messages including editing, Flavored Markdown and much more.

Nextcloud Talk Hub 8 improvements

Message editing 🖋

Here’s to cleaner chat! Now you can edit messages in talk to correct typos, update information and add new lines without following up in a separate message. Edits are possible for 6 hours after the message is sent.

Message editing Nextcloud Talk

Federated chatting 🌐

Federated Hub becomes even more united. Now users from all teams can create group chats across federated Talk instances and use many Talk features like mentions, polls, and chat notifications. And even more to come in the future!

For federated chatting, we use the open standard Open Cloud Mesh (OCM) developed at CERN with the help of Nextcloud and other open source projects. The same standard is in use for federated file sharing. In the future, we are planning to expand this into federated Calendar sharing and other features.

Federated chats in Nextcloud Talk

Smoother team meetings 📞

Now you can drag the speaker video to pick the best position to fit shared screen content. Current speaker is highlighted in the list for more visibility during large group calls. Call UI is greatly improved: access chat descriptions and post polls during calls, navigate chat messages without interruptions, and more.

Nextcloud Talk - speaker and polls

New text styles 🎹

With Flavored Markdown now supported in Talk, you can make your messaging even more visually rich and informative. With syntax included in Flavored Markdown, you can create tables, add interactive check boxes and format text as a strikethrough.

About using Markdown in Talk

Nextcloud Talk flavored markdown
More features in Talk
  • Unified Search in individual Talk room
  • Accepting individual users when the lobby is enabled
  • Caching unsent messages in the browser
  • Improved highlight for “Stop screenshare”
Nextcloud Groupware

Nextcloud Groupware

In Hub 8, we focused on improving the performance of the whole Groupware bundle, delivering faster Mail with notable design adjustments, more automation and comfort in Calendar, better external compatibility, and more.

Nextcloud Groupware Hub 8 improvements

Faster, smarter, sleeker Mail

Find the right words with reply suggestions 💬

Don’t have time to compose a well worded, professional reply? Hint: Use AI! Nextcloud Assistant in Mail now generates reply suggestions for you, so you can send a response to incoming mail based on your context in no time.

Nextcloud Mail Hub 8 improvements
Faster Mail background sync

Enjoy a much faster sync 🔁

IMAP accounts without CONDSTORE extension can now sync 2x faster to enjoy a much more agile Mail experience.

Create events with automatic info â„č

Enjoy even more automation! Now you can quickly create an event from the email thread using the More actions >> Create event action. Nextcloud Assistant will automatically pick the event title and description, and even create an agenda based on your conversation.

Nextcloud Mail create events with automatic title and description

Save the date: Calendar improvements

Redesigned calendar window Nextcloud Calendar copy

Redesigned event window 📍

We improved the event overview window and sidebar view, rendering a more comfortable layout and introducing two window modes: View mode and Edit mode.

Nextcloud Calendar event availability

Suggestions for free/busy times ⌚

In Nextcloud Mail, you can view the free/busy times of attendees to arrange the best time for your meeting. What if the time slot you picked doesn’t work for everybody? In Hub 8, Calendar automatically suggests the next suitable time slot on their availability and let’s you adjust the event in one click.

What’s more, in the redesigned availability window you can quickly manage the event: change the event time or add and remove the attendees.

More features in Groupware
  • Toggling Mail composer modal size
  • Message list and reading pane stacking in Mail
  • Editor toolbar instead of balloon editor in Mail
  • Full-width message list in Mail
  • Default calendar picker for Calendar/CalDAV backend
  • Primary/Secondary choosing query builder
  • Mail iCloud compatibility
  • Database cluster read/write split readiness for Calendar, Contacts, and Mail
Nextcloud Hub icon

Nextcloud ecosystem

Together with the Hub 8 release, we roll out new features for external apps, add new integrations, and amplify our whole app ecosystem with new mechanics.

Nextcloud ecosystem appstore

Pop-up update summaries 🔔

The change log pop-up feature enables you to deliver update summaries straight to your users in a form of a notification. List new features, bug fixes and improvements and ship them in the appropriate format depending on the user’s role: admin or general user.

Discover in App Store 🔎

The new Discover section aims to create a more engaging experience for App Store users. It features curated app suggestions, themed collections, and various related content such as interviews, podcasts, and resources. To app developers, it is also an opportunity to greatly amplify visibility of their apps.

Nextcloud App Store Discover

New integrations đŸ§©

Paperless-ngx logo black

Paperless-ngx is an open-source document management solution designed to help you organize and navigate your paperwork with a variety of complimentary features like OCR.

  • Transform physical documents into a digital archive
  • Organize and customize your library, enjoy advanced navigation
  • Use a variety of extra features like OCR and Tesseract

New LLMs ready for integration

NeuralBeagle14 7B

It is a 7B parameter model that uses a context window of 8k. It is compatible with different templates like chatml and Llama’s chat template. It is good at instruction following and reasoning tasks and can be used for RP and storytelling.

Smaug-72b

The Smaug-72B model is a significant advancement in open-source language model development. It is a powerful large-scale language model that excels in reasoning and math tasks.

Build apps for Nextcloud! đŸ§‘â€đŸ’»

Whether you want to create mobile apps that connect to Nextcloud, integrate independent apps in Hub, or build dedicated apps, we’ve got you covered! You can build applications in any programming language, make use of our complete API documentation, and follow ready tutorials to get inspired.

Nextcloud developers integrations

Speaking of which, we are constantly extending our library of app tutorials, and this time we added two awesome new guides: a hello world app tutorial and a guide to using Github Codespaces as a developer environment.

New app ecosystem features 🌏

The app ecosystem update gives new liberties to app developers. With declarative syntax, now you can define custom setting screens for admins and end users. Opening opportunities for deeper integration with Nextcloud, we made it possible to inject a full user interface in Nextcloud. To aid the contributing developers in localization efforts, we also let you get help from our translator community using Transifex.

More in integrations and apps
  • OpenID Connect user backend: improved stability
  • OpenID Connect user backend: improved user migration
  • OpenID Connect user backend: enabled user count
  • OpenID Connect user backend: make the app work for non-standard providers
  • OpenID Connect user backend: enabled custom endpoints URLS and custom attributes
  • App store: mark comments as spam
  • External app ecosystem: added injecting a page UI
  • External app ecosystem: added support for AI apps
  • Improved app routing mechanism
Nextcloud Hub icon

Nextcloud Clients

We worked on Nextcloud clients for all platforms, adding some great features to extend functionality and improve performance.

Nextcloud-talk-clients

VFS support in macOS app

With Hub 8, we are releasing a new client for macOS that has support for the Virtual File System (VFS). The new sync engine adds more agility to file browsing, presenting all of the files available on the server without downloading them and taking extra disk space. These files will only be downloaded when you need to interact with them.

Easier app updates on Windows

Great news for our Windows users: new versions of the desktop client can now be installed without user intervention in most cases, making the update process smooth without disrupting your work.

MDM in the Android app

Enterprise customers will be glad to read that the Android app now has Mobile Device Management (MDM) integrated. The feature allows you to manage the mobile devices connected to your Nextcloud and therefore greatly improve security controls.

Design improvements for iOS client

iOS client for Files received major design rework in many areas:

  • Cleaner navigation bar with new dropdown menu
  • New account switcher
  • Ability to show/hide the description
  • Optimized action sheet
  • Improved grid view for files
  • Improved icons throughout the app
Nextcloud iOS design improvements
Other features in clients
  • Nextcloud Assistant in clients
  • Support for client certificates
  • Hardcoded proxy on Android
  • Design improvements in iOS app

BITV 2.0 certified Nextcloud Enterprise ✅

Nextcloud Enterprise has been awarded a German BITV 2.0 certification that is based on WCAG 2.0 benchmark. This means that the enterprise and public sector users can be confident in the accessibility standards of Nextcloud.

The platform is designed with all users’ needs in mind, suitable for people with limitations and requirements for non-standard input devices and additional measures like a screen reader.

Our work done to obtain this certification shows our commitment to offer barrier-free technology to everyone. Customers who require the certification should contact their sales representative.

New level of performance

Organizations big and small rely on Nextcloud to supercharge their collaboration. That’s why we take performance and stability very seriously. Efficient software is not only about getting things done fast and serving a large base of users, it is also about reducing energy consumption and running on diverse infrastructures without losing efficiency.

Nextcloud Hub 8 Performance keynote
Nextcloud Hub 8 Performance keynote by Jos Poortvliet

With this release, we started working on the Database Sharding which lets you split Nextcloud database into several smaller databases and to distribute it among a few smaller servers. The basis for Database Sharding is already here, and we are planning to work on it moving forward to bring the opportunity to our users.

Another noteworthy improvement is in continuous work on the Read-After-Write behavior. Current architecture requires synchronous replication, which reduces the number of database cluster nodes to 4. In the future, we will support an unlimited number of Read nodes that are using asynchronous replication.

These efforts in boosting Nextcloud performance will allow us to accommodate up to 10x more users within a single cluster, moving the scalability of Nextcloud to a whole new level.

This, and numerous smaller but meaningful updates in the frontend make the Nextcloud experience much smoother, not only tackling the challenges of the large setups but also improving the performance for every user. After all, it’s all about giving you more time, achieved with scrutiny of every detail.

Nextcloud One: a fully managed cloud platform

Nextcloud One is a fully managed Nextcloud offering. It is a comprehensive service where the hosting, maintenance and management of a Nextcloud instance are fully handled.

Nextcloud One ensures strict compliance with global data protection standards, including GDPR. This platform integrates workflow management tools, such as rule-based file tagging and access controls, with auditing capabilities, ensuring data oversight and security.

Nextcloud One is hosted within the stringent, privacy-focused jurisdiction of Germany and as such provides a secure, efficient and fully managed Nextcloud environment.

Nextcloud Hub 7 hero image

Discover the power of Nextcloud One! We invite organizations of all sizes to explore its capabilities. Visit our website today and start your journey for freee with a fully managed Nextcloud solution.

Ready to get the feel of the new Hub?

From continuous work on AI features and interface optimization, to various new shortcuts between apps and performance improvements — we tried to make Hub 8 worth your while. This is a result of the meticulous work of our growing team of engineers and designers, our contributors, and the whole of Nextcloud and its community.

Thank you for reading and sticking to the end! We took some of your time with this hefty blog, but we promise to give some of it back with Hub 8! 😉

Nextcloud - Get Nextcloud Hub 8

Get Nextcloud Hub 8

Download and install Nextcloud Hub 8 here!

Get Hub 8

You can download Nextcloud Hub 8 from our installation page. Among available options, you can use a zip file or the all-in-one image for fresh installation.

Over the coming weeks, we will make it available to our home users via updater using the usual staged roll-out process. You can switch to the beta channel temporarily if you want to try the new Hub right away. Don’t forget to switch back to stable after you’ve updated to Hub 8!

Note: Nextcloud caches the results coming from our updater server, so it can take some time for the new version to show up and you likely have to refresh the page, wait a bit, then try again.

How to update: AIO users

For new Nextcloud All-in-One (AIO) users, you can install Hub 8 directly by checking the “Install Nextcloud 29” box.

Nextcloud AIO 8.2.0

We have a dedicated setup guide for AIO users. Follow the guidelines to easily set up Hub 8.

Nextcloud AIO 8.2.0

The Nextcloud Enterprise version of Hub 8 will become available soon, once we successfully run the additional testing and complete certification.

Nextcloud logo with people

Thank you to our community! 💙

Nextcloud runs on community power. Users, contributors and developers who dedicate themselves to making Nextcloud better every day are the life force that drives our project. With our whole heart, we thank everyone involved in making the new Hub happen.

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Nextcloud releases Assistant 2.0 and pushes AI-as-a-Service https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-releases-assistant-2-0-and-pushes-ai-as-a-service/ Wed, 24 Apr 2024 09:00:00 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=206286 We bring you a major update to the Nextcloud AI Assistant, plus the news we work with several big hosting providers like IONOS and OVHcloud to bring AI-as-a-Service options to you!

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Today, we bring you a major update to the Nextcloud AI Assistant with Context Chat, Context Write, GPU acceleration, the ability to split off the Nextcloud server & AI server, and MUCH more! And for those without $100K GPU’s (you know who you are), we have also incredible news: we are working with several prominent European hosting companies, including IONOS, OVHcloud and plusserver to deliver AI-as-a-Service solutions that respect your privacy and digital sovereignty! For our US users and customers, there are already several companies offering AI-as-a-Service and some we support (OpenAI in particular) while others are in the works.

Introducing Assistant 2.0

With a nearly complete overhaul of the user interface AND how our AI Assistant works on the back-end, plus a ton of new, big features, we decided that this is the moment to call this the Assistant 2.0. Let’s go over what’s new, but first a short summary of where we are today!

Nextcloud has a ton of AI features, some big and elaborate, others more basic. Some train a neural network on your data, on your own server to give you a smart inbox in Mail or warnings about unexpected logins from Suspicious Login Detection. Others rely on a pre-trained network that can recognize faces and objects in photos, generate a transcript of your video call or modify text. We can also generate images, translate text and chat messages, and much more. Many of the features are accessible through our easy to use Nextcloud Assistant interface!

Nextcloud Assistant in Text

Many of these features can help you, save you time, or improve your productivity. And best of all: as always we focus on making all these services available of running on your own server. Given even the US Congress doesn’t trust ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot, there are good reasons to want control over the data send to and from an AI service! Our Ethical AI Rating system provides you transparency about the AI used to generate your text, image or classify your photos:

  • Is it open source? Can I study how it works and re-train or optimize the model for my needs?
  • Is the model freely available? Can I run it on my own server?
  • Is the training data open and available so I can inspect it for issues and re-train or optimize the model?

Learn more in our blog post about our approach to AI.

Nextcloud Ethical AI logo

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Context Chat and Context Write

And now, let’s explore what’s new: The two biggest new features are Context Write and Context Chat. These both share a lot in common, both providing AI-assisted outputs for you, but they’re also distinctly different.

Context Chat, in short, is the ability for the Assistant to answer questions about your data. You can ask the Assistant questions about a document you have: Say, you have a PDF with the manual of your new digital watch… you’ll be able to ask the Assistant how to set it up, or how to replace the battery. And if your company has a nicely documented reimbursement process in its documentation in Collectives, you can ask the Assistant questions about this process. This is an absolutely amazing ability!

It is not just limited to your files either: we developed an API so apps like Mail, Calendar, Talk and Deck can make their data available too. You’ll then be able to ask “When do I have my next meeting with my boss?” (from the Calendar) and “What tasks did she ask me to work on as high priority this week?” (from Mail). Or “Give me a summary of the status of project X.” (Deck + chat perhaps?)

Context Write, on the other hand, lets the Assistant rewrite something in a certain requested context, or style. Say, you have a nice poem and want to write another in that same particular style. By providing the original poem, then new text of what you want to say, the Assistant will then create a masterpiece. But you can also give it a form, give it your data, and ask it to provide the text you would need to fill in the form. Impressive, and useful!

Big user interface overhaul

Over the last year and a half, we have introduced a wide range of AI features in Nextcloud. Translation, transcription of audio, text and image generation, and more. Then the Nextcloud Assistant came – and we’ve now integrated most of our AI features into the Assistant itself, all available from a unified interface. It is no longer limited to text, but can also generate images and transcribe audio.

Another improvement many of you will appreciate is that you can now see a history, a list of earlier generated images, text or audio transcripts in the Assistant interface. You can even go back and generate more based on your earlier prompts. It is now also possible to cancel a running operation, if desired.

Lastly, as possible inputs to the Assistant you can paste or type text or record audio, and now… select one or more documents as input too!

Behind the scenes

We also did significant work behind the scenes. We made it possible for administrators to make use of AI models we’ve not yet explicitly integrated into Nextcloud, giving more flexibility and versatility to your choice of models to use.

Especially for larger deployments, we have made it possible to run the LLM and other AI operations like Transcription and Context Chat on a separate server, using our new external app ecosystem for one-click, Docker-based deployments. You can also now use a GPU for text generation, transcription and context chat. This means transcribing an hour-long audio file could, on a CPU, take many minutes while taking only seconds on a GPU!

More coming soon

And, of course, this is not all. We have developed an API which can be used by apps like Deck, Calendar or Mail to support Context Chat. This will allow the Assistant to answer questions about your mail, tasks or upcoming appointments! We look forward to these and other apps implementing support for this feature.

Nextcloud Hub 8 – our next version out very soon – will also feature two more app integrations of the Assistant: First, Nextcloud Talk will be able to show you summaries of conversation in Talk rooms, and Nextcloud Mail will introduce email ‘suggested answers’! If you haven’t yet registered for our Nextcloud Hub 8 Launch Event on April 24, this is the time to do so to find out more!

How to get it

So now, you ask: When can I get it? We have good news! Nearly all these features have been backported to Nextcloud Hub 7, meaning they are available in the Nextcloud app store right now. All you need to do is update. If you have not yet tried out the assistant, perhaps this is the time to do it!

To run the AI locally, it’s easiest to use LocalAI. A community container exists for our All-in-one, so users of the AIO can simply go to this page to learn more about adding extra containers and then enable the LocalAI container. Be sure to check out our documentation and ask questions in the forums – you could just start below this post!

IONOS, OVHcloud, plusserver and others bring you…

This brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: For these AI features to work smoothly, you will need some serious hardware. This unfortunately will not be a fun experience on your Raspberry Pi. But! Luckily, a number of businesses have started to provide AI-as-a-Service, running various open source models that Nextcloud supports in a way that you can connect to remotely. While this is great, unfortunately nearly all these companies are American-based, with a few in China. If you live in the USA, that is of course perfect – the data stays in your jurisdiction, and you have a choice of local providers. But for our users in Europe, this is less than ideal. The US jurisdiction unfortunately treats the data of European users with less than ideal respect for privacy, in no small part thanks to the CLOUD act signed into law by the former US president Donald Trump.

But today, we announce that we have been working closely with several major European hosting companies including IONOS, OVHcloud and plusserver to integrate their upcoming AI-as-a-Service solutions. This will make them available to Nextcloud customers and users who wish to take advantage of the advanced AI functionalities in Nextcloud Hub but don’t wish to host AI services themselves. Several Nextcloud customers have expressed interest in these features and are preparing to or in the process of testing them. Here’s what our partners and customers have to say:

OVHcloud is thrilled to collaborate with Nextcloud in delivering state-of-the-art Digital Sovereign AI solutions to our customers. We are aligned with Nextcloud’s commitment to offering secure, privacy-conscious AI functionalities that safeguard training data and adhere strictly to GDPR regulations. We are excited to announce that this integration will become available in Q2 2024, marking a significant milestone in our journey towards responsible AI innovation.

Germain Masse, AI Product Marketing Manager at OVHCloud

We are proud to offer Nextcloud customers a solution that complies with European data protection regulations. Reliable, trustworthy, and local AI services will be key to protecting their digital sovereignty for both the public and private sectors in Europe.

IONOS

plusKI brings cutting edge, open source AI technologies in a compliant and digitally sovereign service to the German market. We are excited to work with Nextcloud to make this available to their customers as back-end to the new generation of the Nextcloud Assistant.

Christian Schmitz, Director Open Source at plusserver

We at SUNET are happy that that Nextcloud Assistant is 100% Free and Open Source, runs on-premise and provides useful features that we hope will benefit our users going forward. We enjoy the very productive collaboration with Nextcloud.

Mike Nordin, Sunet, the Swedish University Computer Network

In the future, we will make AI services available to colleagues in the state administration directly at the workplace. We want to drive the development of digitally sovereign and open solutions in addition to the use of existing AI services such as ChatGPT. Because, the administration of the future will work in an automated, algorithmized, cloudified and data-based way. To make this vision of the future a reality, we must provide the appropriate tools. This also creates value and jobs in our domestic digital economy.

Minister of Digitisation and Head of the State Chancellery Dirk Schrödter, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

US technology firms have a large head start on European companies offering large language models and other AI services to smaller firms and end customers. There is a significant number of offerings either using their own models like OpenAI, or providing one or a choice of open models like Llama, Gemma or Mistral as a service. In Europe, Mistral and Aleph Alpha are still working on offering their own models while only a few large hosting providers are looking to offer various open LLM’s in an AI-as-a-service model.

At the same time, there is a growing demand from our customers and users for European AI services. Running AI locally is expensive, and AI-as-a-Service from foreign tech firms is not a solution for most Nextcloud customers in Europe, given the privacy and sovereignty risks inherent to shipping large amounts of crucial data overseas. For this reason, we have been working with a handful of providers to offer their AI services. To speed up the process, we connected them with potential customers. As you can imagine, offering a service when it is unclear who its customers might be is not easy. But several universities are interested in the ability to outsource some heavy AI operations, so there is now movement towards AI services. This means not only our users, but the wider European ecosystem will be able to benefit from this!

Public availability of the European AI services is expected in the course of spring and summer, with some even aiming for late April/early May!

Thank you!

We are super excited about this release and we’d like to thank everybody who contributed, with testing, reviewing code but also the universities who are willing to test the AI services, and of course OVHcloud, IONOS, plusserver and our other partners who’d like to provide these services!

See Nextcloud Assistant 2.0 in action

Sign up for our webinar and see all the features of Nextcloud Assistant mentioned in this article.

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OVHcloud and Nextcloud’s commitment to customers: data that stays your data https://nextcloud.com/blog/ovhcloud-and-nextclouds-commitment-to-customers-data-that-stays-your-data/ Fri, 19 Apr 2024 09:00:19 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=209697 OVHcloud and Nextcloud are bound by a strong partnership in sovereign cloud collaboration. Join us at Nextcloud Enterprise Day!

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OVHcloud at Enterprise Day

OVHcloud is a returning sponsor of Nextcloud Enterprise Day – Nextcloud’s annual enterprise event for like-minded industry professionals and decision-makers to get the most out of their Content Collaboration Platform.

By supporting Nextcloud Enterprise Day, OVHcloud reinforces its position as a cloud provider that values privacy, security, and open-source standards, offering solutions that empower organizations to maintain control over their data while leveraging the benefits of cloud technology.

At last year’s Enterprise Day 2023, OVHcloud’s CEO, Michel Paulin, underlined this ambition in his virtual speech:

“For 20 years, OVHcloud has been dedicated to building an open and trusted cloud, upholding fundamental values centered on trust, data protection and innovation. Our commitment extends to partnering with entities that reflect our principles. We take immense pride in our strong partnership with Nextcloud. Sharing similar values allows us to collaboratively propose innovative solutions.”

– Michel Paulin, CEO OVHcloud

About OVHcloud

OVHcloud, a global cloud computing service provider, offers scalable and flexible web hosting, server, private and public cloud solutions for businesses, developers and individuals. With a commitment to data autonomy and transparency, OVHcloud enables efficient IT infrastructure management while advocating for privacy and innovation.

A powerful partnership

Grounded by a strong and solid technology partnership, Nextcloud and OVHcloud work on interesting joint cooperations. Nextcloud users can easily integrate dedicated AI services from OVHcloud in Hub 6 and 7 and OVHcloud clients have very simple access to install cloud services from Nextcloud on their OVHcloud infrastructure.

Since their founding, Nextcloud and OVHcloud share a plethora of shared values and the following aligned principles:

Open-source philosophy

Nextcloud is built on open-source software, allowing for transparency, flexibility, and community collaboration. Similarly, OVHcloud supports open-source initiatives, as seen in the five core values of their SMART cloud, and contributes to various open-source projects. This shared commitment to open-source values fosters innovation and empowers users and developers alike.

Data sovereignty pioneers

Both Nextcloud and OVHcloud are at the forefront of the data sovereignty vision, advocating for a world where the public sector, businesses and individuals alike have access to all their data with a high level of data security. While Nextcloud emphasizes self-hosting options, giving users more control over their data and enabling them to comply with regulations like GDPR, OVHcloud implements robust security measures across its infrastructure and data centers, ensuring the safety and privacy of customer data. We envision a world where users won’t have to worry about the interference of any extraterritorial laws like the U.S. Cloud Act that pose substantial risks to European’s personal data.

Further demonstrating our dedication to this vision, in 2021 Nextcloud filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission about Microsoft’s anti-competitive, bundling behavior. Later that year, together with a coalition of some 30 NGOs and other European tech companies, we publicly called on the EU to take action and we haven’t stopped there.

OVHcloud also takes a firm stance on data rights, with their CEO Michel Paulin stating, “EU policymakers should have the courage and intellectual honesty to establish a sovereign cloud as well as to regulate American cloud service providers under the EU’s antitrust Digital Markets Act regulation.”

Our powerful partnership has the potential to enact change in establishing a level playing field for cloud service providers and a data-sovereign cloud for all.

GDPR compliancy

Ensuring GDPR compliance is paramount for both Nextcloud and OVHcloud as we both prioritize data security and privacy in the EU. With a strong commitment to adhering to local laws and regulations, both of our companies go the extra mile to safeguard user data within the EU.

OVHcloud’s local data centers are a testament to their dedication to compliance with GDPR requirements.

Scalability and Flexibility

Nextcloud and OVHcloud both offer scalable solutions tailored to the needs of businesses and individuals. Nextcloud can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, accommodating various use cases and organizational sizes. OVHcloud provides scalable cloud infrastructure with options for custom configurations, enabling users to adapt their resources as their requirements evolve.

A history of alliance

While Nextcloud and OVHcloud operate in different niches within the cloud computing landscape, our shared values of data security, privacy, openness, scalability, customer focus, and innovation unite us in our mission to provide reliable and user-centric cloud solutions.

Accordingly, we partner at major events and tech conferences together like at the leading IT security event, it-sa in Nuremberg, Germany. It-sa provided us the platform to talk about our secure and sovereign cloud collaboration in a large audience of IT leaders and participants from around the world.

The Open Trusted Cloud (OTC) initiative

The Open Trusted Cloud, or OTC, program aims to build vibrant ecosystems of software publishers – SaaS and PaaS companies around an open, reversible, secure, transparent and trusted cloud. Started by OVHcloud and joined by Nextcloud in 2022, we share common values about compliance with local data regulations and data sovereignty.

“The Open Trusted Cloud is an ecosystem of European software manufacturers and puts the European offer effectively in the spotlight – a structure with a common voice that conveys our messages clearly. To strengthen their position, software manufacturers should work with other European players together. By acting together, we can increase the impact and share costs.”

– Khaled Allab, director of the Open Trusted Cloud

We’re also both members of the CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe) association, with OVHcloud being a founding member, that aims to standardize the rules for personal data protection throughout Europe. In addition, we’re both members of the German GAIA-X project, a European initiative for developing an efficient, competitive, secure and trusted data infrastructure for the European Union.

OVHcloud representing our shared vision at Enterprise Day 2024

This year, OVHcloud’s Vincent Le Fort, Sales Director Tech DACH Market, will be giving a short talk about our common vision and commitment to our customers at Nextcloud Enterprise Day.

This is a unique opportunity to learn more about our collaboration at our upcoming event and meet the OVHcloud team.

We are looking forward to sharing this day with you and celebrate our shared values.

Join Nextcloud Enterprise Day!

There’s still time to register and be part of our largest enterprise event of the year.

Register now

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How to protect yourself against deepfake scams in video calls https://nextcloud.com/blog/how-to-protect-yourself-against-deepfake-scams/ Wed, 17 Apr 2024 09:01:02 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=209151 Read out guide to learn what deepfake scams are, how spot a scammer, and how to protect yourself with the right techniques and software.

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How to protect yourself against deepfakes

Ongoing public concerns over real-time video scams has been the spur to gain global attention as we witness new major incidents taking place increasingly more. Take a Hong Kong MNC recently falling prey to a scammer in a colossal $25.6 million heist — the deepfake technology has already evolved enough to bring on a whole new brand of fraud.

What remains is a call to action. Are there ways to protect yourself and your organization against con men posing as your boss, your business partner, or even your own mother? Let’s find out!

First things first, let us start with the definition.

What is a deepfake?

In case the definition of a deepfake is still unclear to some, a deepfake is content generated using deep learning techniques that is intended to look real, but is in fact fabricated. Artificial intelligence (AI) used to generate deepfakes typically employs generative models, for example, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) or auto-encoders.

Deepfakes are used not only in video content, but also in audio recordings and images. The purpose of a deepfake is often to depict an individual or a group saying or doing something that they never did in reality. To produce content that appears convincing, the AI must use large datasets in its training. It allows the model to recognize and reproduce natural patterns present in content it is designed to mimic.

While deepfake technology is a breakthrough with great potential in the film industry and game development, as well as a rising social media trend, it also opens dangerous opportunities for illegal use. The examples are numerous and include identity theft, evidence forging, disinformation, slander and biometric security bypass. In all cases, fraudsters typically leverage the depicted person’s authority over the targeted individuals or personal connection to them, depending on the setting.

Secure your calls with Nextcloud Hub

Watch back our webinar on secure conferencing in Talk. learn how to set up reliable access control, prevent leaks and track back all suspicious activity.

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Where can you encounter a deepfake?

Deepfakes are used to produce video, audio or image content, as a recorded media or a real-time stream. It can be a YouTube video, a ‘leaked’ recording in a social post, a phone call or a video conference – the opportunities are practically unlimited.

Depending on the purpose, the format is picked accordingly. For example, political disinformation works best where mass engagement is possible, meaning that spreading it publicly via social media is the best tactic. Whereas seeking a private gain from a company or or individual requires a more intimate setting and often a personal conversation.

When it comes to threats to your personal life, finance or security, we can narrow down the most dangerous deepfake scenarios to encounters with people you care about, trust , or report to. This can be a family member, a friend, or an authority figure at work such as your boss or a company executive.

The setting will most likely be private: whether over a phone call or a video meeting. Personal meetings are much easier to execute and give the faker much more control over the situation. The conversation, whatever the background is, will lead you to an action under a sense of urgency or fear – most likely to transfer a sum of money. The tactic is to deceive your logic and common sense using fear, compassion or even ambition.

As generative AI development drives a huge interest and investment, we are entering a dangerous zone: real-time video, the most sophisticated and convincing deepfake use case yet, still has a very little awareness.

Deepfakes in real-time video

Real-time video deepfakes generate manipulated video content in real-time for immediate application during live streams and video calls. Voice cloning and face swapping are the most frequently used techniques to compose a complete faked environment.

Face swapping

Face swapping is a common application of deepfakes, allowing the software to replace facial features of a target person with fake features, most often those of another person. With facial landmark detection and manipulation techniques, the blending appears seamless and hard to spot when caught unaware.

Voice cloning

In addition to looking convincing, a faker also needs to sound convincing. For this part, voice cloning is used. In voice cloning, the AI replicates the voice of the individual. A significant amount of high-quality audio data is required to train a voice cloning model, usually obtained from recordings of the target person speaking in various contexts and using different intonations.

Curiosity time: how does a deepfake setup actually work?

Deepfake technology is capable of impersonating real-life individuals and doing it in a real-time setting, making the result even more convincing (and terrifying!). But how does the software work in a way that we encounter deepfakes using familiar meeting platforms?

Deepfake generation software can be integrated with streaming platforms and video conferencing tools in many ways:

  • It could function as a separate application that captures the video feed, processes it in real-time, and then sends the manipulated feed to the video conferencing software.
  • Alternatively, it might be integrated directly into the video conferencing software as an optional feature or plugin.
  • Another way, even more sophisticated and hard to detect is camera input, namely a virtual camera. Virtual camera intercepts the video feed from the physical camera of the faker. It then outputs the manipulated feed to the video conferencing software. The faker just picks the virtual camera as their camera input and voilĂ ! (not funny, we know).

How to protect yourself against deepfakes?

Finally, to the most important part. How do you protect yourself against a deepfake, or at least get prepared to spot a fake boss making a sketchy request over video?

Nextcloud Talk in Hub 7

Privacy-first videoconferencing software is a key to safe meetings. Meet Nextcloud Talk, a powerful chatting and meeting platform that lets you regain control.

Watch out for red flags

AI face swapping technology maybe advanced, but it’s not perfect. There are red flags you can spot, or at least learn to look out for when something seems off or unnatural:

  • Unrealistic facial expressions or movements, including unnatural eye movements, inappropriate blinking, and/or weird lip sync.
  • Inconsistencies in lighting and shadows that don’t match the surroundings.
  • Unnatural head or body movements, as well as visible blurring or pixelation around the face or neck.
  • Inconsistent quality in audio and video and mismatch between the picture and the sound.

Suspicious? Be proactive

There are methods to help you fish out the red flags that generally won’t make the conversation awkward if the person is in fact real.

First, there’s nothing more natural than a casual conversation. Engage in small talk: ask about their day, routine, questions about people you both know, etc. A complete stranger will struggle to be spontaneous and maintain the same personal connection. It’s also easier to catch one off guard when they lose a sense of control.

You can also use other video conferencing features: ask the person to share their screen and show you something related to your common tasks. This will be very difficult to replicate without access.

Finally, once they make a suspicious request, you have more freedom to be alert openly — politely ask them to confirm their identity by providing some exclusive information or send you a confirmation message via a different channel.

Set up a passphrase

One more way to ensure confidence when it comes to sensitive topics is setting up a password or passphrase. This is an easy way to confirm the identity of the people you know, both at work and between family members, and it is equally effective via voice, video and text communication.

Verify identity outside of the meeting

If a faker poses as a person you know well, chances are you have more than one communication channel to reach out with. Use email, a messenger or a personal phone number to contact them and raise a question — the reason is valid.

Don’t let them harvest your data

To replicate and manipulate a person’s voice or image, AI needs a massive amount of data. This data is often gathered beforehand, during online calls and meetings. Features like Recording Consent in Nextcloud Talk may help you protect yourself and others from such a data haul.

Giving consent before joining call - Nextcloud Talk

Use company software

It’s unlikely for your real boss to set up a meeting via a platform you never use for work. And if they do, they must have a good reason! Don’t be afraid to stand up to suspicious activity.

Using company software means better control over the data and compliance with privacy regulations. Even better — if you run it on-premises! Should an incident happen, the company IT team can run an audit to retrieve the relevant data and investigate.

Ensure secure access to your videoconferencing platform with settings like 2FA, strong passwords, data encryption, activity monitoring, and login restrictions. This applies to your personal settings and administrative controls.

Nextcloud Talk: video and chat with privacy in mind

Using a privacy-oriented, unified workspace with admin control in all apps makes sure your security protocols are in place to detect and prevent breaches. Nextcloud Hub provides a user friendly videoconferencing platform that keeps users happy to stay within company IT.

https://vimeo.com/576684156

How Nextcloud Talk protects your data:

  • AI-powered suspicious login detection
  • Multi-layered encryption with end-to-end encrypted communication
  • Brute-force protection
  • Fully on-premises, 100% open source

Nextcloud is an open-source project backed by a strong community with proactive approach to vulnerability research and patching. It is designed to let you stay compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and the upcoming EU ePrivacy Regulation.

Nextcloud - Get Nextcloud Hub

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Enterprise Day 2024 sponsor announcement: plusserver https://nextcloud.com/blog/enterprise-day-2024-sponsor-announcement-plusserver/ Thu, 11 Apr 2024 07:05:00 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=205506 Join us at Nextcloud Enterprise Day on April 24 in Munich and meet our sponsor, plusserver. Discover how they embody the pinnacle of 'cloud Made in Germany' with their commitment to data sovereignty and secure workplace solutions.

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In our final round of sponsor announcements for the Nextcloud Enterprise Day, we are delighted to highlight plusserver as one of our sponsors!

plusserver stands as a prime example of cloud innovation “Made in Germany.” In partnership with Nextcloud and HKN, they provide open-source workplace solutions that align with the strictest data protection standards, ensuring data security and autonomy.

Their most recent innovation, plusAI, is a dedicated platform for sovereign and secure AI, highlighting the importance of data sovereignty across their solutions. In cooperation with HKN, plusserver will be showcasing the advantages of their data sovereign cloud platform pluscloud open as a base for your Nextcloud installation and dive into the possibilities that future integrations and add ons will provide.

Circle April 24 in your calendar and register today to learn more about the innovation developed by plusserver and HKN at Nextcloud Enterprise Day.

Register for Nextcloud Enterprise Day today to secure your spot!

Register now

About plusserver

plusserver is recognized for its commitment to data sovereignty and digital autonomy, establishing itself as a cornerstone in the German cloud services market. With a history rich in innovation and security, plusserver offers GDPR-compliant cloud solutions, offering customers complete control and security of their data. As a founding member of Gaia-X, which aims to create a secure and reliable data infrastructure for Europe, plusserver champions open-source technologies and digital sovereignty.

Their sponsorship of Nextcloud Enterprise Day reflects their dedication to fostering a secure, open, and self-reliant digital ecosystem, alongside sovereign workplace solutions.

About Nextcloud Enterprise Day

Nextcloud Enterprise Day brings together the leaders and decision makers in the enterprise IT landscape. For one day, it provides a platform to foster innovation, exchange experience, and present unique stories behind Nextcloud implementation in various industries.

The agenda encompasses exclusive talks and workshops. Topics include digital sovereignty, the future of AI in business, building a secure and resilient cloud infrastructure, and more.

The April 2024 edition comes to Munich, a city in the heart of Bavaria famous for it’s unique mix of urban ambition, modernity and historical legacy.

Register for Nextcloud Enterprise Day today to secure your spot!

Register now

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Microsoft slows antitrust case by unbundling Teams https://nextcloud.com/blog/microsoft-attempts-to-slow-antitrust-case-by-separating-teams/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:23:00 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=206970 Microsoft attempts to delay antitrust action by separating Teams from Office, hoping to continue to abuse its market dominance while it 'negotiates' with the EU.

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As part of a trend of “malicious compliance” by big tech firms, news has emerged of an attempt by Microsoft to avoid antitrust fines. The video chat application Teams will be sold separate from the Microsoft 365 offering. However, there are no indications that Microsoft will stop bundling Teams in Microsoft Windows, nor separate its on-premises version of Office from its cloud offering, or separate OneDrive from its office bundle or desktop operating system. In short, it’s a very, very minimal move in the right direction by the industry giant, only aiming to placate the regulators and likely delay any enforcement activities in lieu of ‘negotiations’.

Logo of the Coalition for a level playing field supporting Nextcloud in its antitrust case against Microsoft

Nextcloud calls upon the regulators to look through this charade and not be deterred in their efforts to reign in the anti-competitive behavior of Microsoft.

Antitrust cases against Microsoft

There is a series of antitrust cases against Microsoft. The case by Slack resulted, 3 years after filing, in an investigation and is behind Microsoft making a minor concession here, following similar approaches by Apple as it tries to comply in the most minimal way with new EU regulations.

Early 2021, Nextcloud filed an antitrust complaint and, later that year, together with a coalition of some 30 NGO’s and other European tech companies, called publicly on the EU to take action. But, while it also has been well over 3 years, unfortunately there has not been any progress. It is unclear whether that is because the complaint came from a number of smaller companies, due to delay tactics by Microsoft or simply slow bureaucracy.

What it is definitely clear is that the regulators are not able to keep up with the pace at which technology moves and big tech firms abuse their power.

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Latest updates for Hub 6 and 7, end of life for Hub 4 https://nextcloud.com/blog/latest-updates-for-hub-6-and-7-end-of-life-for-hub-4/ Fri, 29 Mar 2024 10:25:58 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=206243 We updated Nextcloud server releasing updates for Hub 4, 6, and 7. With current update, Hub 4 reaches its end of life. We recommend you to update your Nextcloud, as it is always a quick and safe process.

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Please update to a new version to keep your data safe!

We strongly recommend you to update your Hub to version : 28.0.4, 27.1.8 or 26.0.13 . The maintenance updates include important bug fixes, stability and security upgrades. It is a quick and safe process, as always!

Minor Nextcloud updates released

What’s new

The updates bring several fixes and performance improvements in all supported versions of Nextcloud Hub. Version 26 meets its end of life and will no longer receive the updates. The Nextcloud desktop client has also been updated to version 3.12.3, and we highly recommend updating to this version due to important bug fixes.

Find the full changelog on our website, or read the update summaries below.

Version 26.0.13

This is the final update before the end of life of version 26. The update involves a mixture of enhancements and fixes across various components. Notable enhancements include:

  • Collaboration, MailPlugin: Protect access to a potentially missing array component by ??
  • Docs(config.sample.php): Warn that updatedirectory will break updates if set to a value within the installation folder
  • Feat(share): save date and time for expiration
  • Fix: Avoid clear cache with prefix
  • Fix(api): Ignore “parsed” link and icon URLs when deleting
  • Fix(caldav): add EXDATE and EXRULE to confidential object
  • Fix(config): Make sure user keys are strings
  • Fix(mail): Use parsed action label in email notification
  • Fix(settings): posix_getpwuid can return false which should not be accessed like an array
  • Fix(UpdateNotifications): Handle numeric user IDs

Note: There will be no more releases of Nextcloud Hub 4 (26.x.x and older). Upgrade to Nextcloud Enterprise to continue to get security and stability updates or move to Nextcloud Hub 6 or Hub 7. Don’t forget that running web-facing software without regular updates is risky. Please stay up to date with Nextcloud releases of both the server and its apps, for the safety of your data! Customers can always count on our upgrade support if needed.

Version 27.1.8

Recent updates encompass various improvements and fixes across different modules. Key enhancements affecting security, data integrity, user experience and overall performance include:

  • Add recursive detection/prevention
  • Docs(config.sample.php): Warn that updatedirectory will break updates if set to a value within the installation folder
  • Fix: Avoid race condition that may initialize a document twice on the clients
  • Fix: No password set for new mail shares
  • Use the proper path to check if a file needs to be copied/moved to the actual target storage
  • Fix: Allow to disable multipart copy on external s3 storage
  • Fix: Avoid clear cache with prefix
  • Fix: Fetch custom app store URL without internet connection
  • Fix: Don’t return null for SharedStorage::getWrapperStorage with share recursion
  • Fix: Ensure nested mount points are handled in the correct order

Version 28.0.4

The update includes multiple enhancements. Among those, the following focus on fixing issues related to security, data integrity, and functionality, ensuring smooth operation and improved user experience:

  • Add recursive detection/prevention
  • Fix: Avoid clear cache with prefix
  • Fix: Avoid race condition that may initialize a document twice on the clients
  • Fix: Catch exception from LogIteratorFactory, throw a clean error when log_type is not file
  • Fix: No password set for new mail shares
  • Fix(admin role): fix old and wrong way to determine whether user is admin
  • Fix(backend): Accept pushes with only step1 messages by read-only clients
  • Fix(config): Make sure user keys are strings
  • Fix(settings): posix_getpwuid can return false which should not be accessed like an array
  • Fix(UpdateNotifications): Handle numeric user ids
  • Fix(user_ldap): Early failure for empty password login attempt
  • Fix(user_status): Fix status update request not being sent
  • Improve files version listing
  • Use the proper path to check if a file needs to be copied/moved to the actual target storage

Desktop client 3.12.3

Update is highly recommended

Due to important bug fixes released in this update, we highly recommend the users of version 3.12 to upgrade to the latest version.

Recent updates 3.12.1 and 3.12.3 include several important bug fixes to tackle issues reported by customers.

In version 3.12.1, there are multiple improvements in end-to-end encryption functionality and a fix to a data loss issue that affects the users when group folders and files are moved from one location to another. Find the full changelog on GitHub.

The biggest part of version 3.12.3 is improvements for Windows users with a crash issue fixed and a much faster contextual menu performance. The crash could happen depending on the user workflow with the Windows file manager and its Nextcloud client integration. It also includes an important fix for users of group folders. Find the full changelog on GitHub.

Stay tuned for Nextcloud Hub 8! 🔔

Sign up for the Nextcloud Hub 8 launch event on April 24. Register now to participate in the live online presentation and be among the first to experience the next big update!

Register

Always keep your server up to date!

Nextcloud’s minor releases primarily focus on addressing security vulnerabilities and functionality bugs, avoiding major system overhauls that could jeopardize user data. Keeping your server up to date is vital, and our approach to testing and validation ensures that upgrading to minor releases is generally smooth and reliable.

For mission-critical Nextcloud systems in enterprise settings, consider switching to Nextcloud Enterprise. The tier provides you with ultimate deployment confidence: direct access to the Nextcloud engineering team, full assistance throughout deployment and integration, and peace of mind for system administrators. If you’re responsible for maintaining Nextcloud in your setting, this option may be the ideal solution for you.

The post Latest updates for Hub 6 and 7, end of life for Hub 4 appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Enterprise Day speaker: Lars Karrock on connecting 10K users at EKHN in Hesse and Nassau https://nextcloud.com/blog/lars-karrock-enterprise-day-speaker-protestant-church-hesse-nassau/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:59:01 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=204974 Nextcloud Enterprise Day speaker announcement: Introducing Lars Karrock, Head of the Church Council of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN).

The post Enterprise Day speaker: Lars Karrock on connecting 10K users at EKHN in Hesse and Nassau appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Nextcloud Enterprise Day is coming in one month’s time and we are excited to share the next speaker in our impressive lineup: Lars Karrock, Head of Organization and Information Technology Department at the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau.

From a wide variety of industries and backgrounds, our speakers will provide insightful talks on their experiences with Nextcloud. Read below to discover the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau and discover the unique use case Lars is bringing to the stage.

Nextcloud Enterprise Day speaker

About the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN)

The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) is a member church of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) with around 1.2 million members and around 1,000 parishes. With around 19,000 full-time employees and 57,000 volunteers, the EKHN is also a large employer in the Hesse and Nassau region.

Don’t miss out at Nextcloud Enterprise Day!

Register now!

Lars’ topic: How EKHN uses Nextcloud as a centralized service

EKHN chose Nextcloud so they could have one place that enables everyone to use all of their distributed services. Nextcloud’s all-in-one platform combines file storage, sharing capabilities, office, calendar and so much more making it simple to collaborate and condense work flow.

Currently, around 10,000 users are on their Nextcloud instance working with Files and other apps efficiently.

In Lars’s upcoming talk at Nextcloud Enterprise Day, he will talk about how a heterogeneous organization can provide different services in one place that is both easy to access and use.

About Nextcloud Enterprise Day

Nextcloud Enterprise Day is our top event of the year for business leaders, decision-makers, and project managers to achieve their goals with Nextcloud.

From customer presentations and success stories to networking opportunities and access to management, sales, marketing, and engineering teams, you’re bound to walk away with new information, techniques, and inspiration.

The April 24th edition takes place at the fabulous Marriott hotel in Munich, Germany. Early Bird tickets are available until March 23rd.

Join the conversation in Munich!

Explore the full program, location and registration information on our dedicated page

Learn more

The post Enterprise Day speaker: Lars Karrock on connecting 10K users at EKHN in Hesse and Nassau appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Enterprise Day 2024 sponsor announcement: SpaceNet  https://nextcloud.com/blog/enterprise-day-2024-sponsor-announcement-spacenet/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 09:50:00 +0000 https://nextcloud.com/?p=203309 We are excited to announce SpaceNet as a new sponsor of the Nextcloud Enterprise Day, a leading provider offering tailored Nextcloud hosting solutions that ensure robust security, efficiency, and data sovereignty.

The post Enterprise Day 2024 sponsor announcement: SpaceNet  appeared first on Nextcloud.

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Enterprise Day sponsor announcement SpaceNet

We are excited to announce SpaceNet as a new sponsor of the Nextcloud Enterprise Day!

With a track record extending over three decades, SpaceNet is now a leading provider in Germany for today’s demand for private, sovereign infrastructure solutions. As a Nextcloud Gold Partner, SpaceNet delivers a comprehensive range of Nextcloud hosting solutions. These services meet many business demands, from highly standardized cloud services ready for immediate use, to customized installations uniquely tailored to individual client requirements.

Positioned in the heart of Munich, Germany, SpaceNet’s data centers are at the forefront of managed Nextcloud offerings. This strategic location not only aligns with the stringent European data protection standards but also reinforces the commitment to providing robust security, supreme efficiency, and complete control over your data.

The event is taking place in Munich, Germany, on April 24. Register for the Nextcloud Enterprise Day today to secure your spot!

Register for Nextcloud Enterprise Day today to secure your spot!

Register now

About SpaceNet

SpaceNet is a Munich-based provider of managed services and data center solutions that prioritizes security and performance while strongly aligning with GDPR standards and principles. In acknowledgment of the distinct challenges each business faces, SpaceNet offers customized solutions tailored to the unique needs of their clients. SpaceNet has earned the trust of industry leaders such as MVV, Utopia.de, and Antenne Bayern, a testament to the commitment to excellence and innovation in IT solutions.

Providing secure hosting in Germany, SpaceNet contributes to the initiative to build a digitally sovereign European IT. A Gold Partner of Nextcloud, SpaceNet expands its offering with powerful capabilities of Nextcloud. Nextcloud is also a part of Zamadama, the self-service collaboration platform by SpaceNet. Managed Nextcloud is offered both as an immediately available standardised cloud solution and as a customised installation to fit individual requirements. 

About Nextcloud Enterprise Day

Nextcloud Enterprise Day brings together the leaders and decision makers in the enterprise IT landscape. For one day, it provides a platform to foster innovation, exchange experience, and present unique stories behind Nextcloud implementation in various industries.

The agenda encompasses exclusive talks and workshops. Topics include digital sovereignty, the future of AI in business, building a secure and resilient cloud infrastructure, and more.

The April 2024 edition comes to Munich, a city in the heart of Bavaria famous for it’s unique mix of urban ambition, modernity and historical legacy.

Register for Nextcloud Enterprise Day today to secure your spot!

Register now

The post Enterprise Day 2024 sponsor announcement: SpaceNet  appeared first on Nextcloud.

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