You ask yourself, what features do I need?

Can it scale up and still be reliable for my whole company?

In today’s world, we demand only the highest caliber online communication tools to meet our needs.

They need to bring you to the next level and break barriers.

That’s why in this blog, you’ll discover why individuals and businesses alike are turning to Nextcloud Talk for its unmatched features, security and seamless collaboration.

A collaborative video conferencing tool

Nextcloud Talk is an open-source video conferencing and chat application. Designed to keep all your online conversations private, whether by video or chat, all data is kept on your own servers and no data – not even metadata – can be leaked.

The features you need for your meetings:

Video conferencing in Nextcloud offers essential and purposeful features to make video calls optimal.

Screen sharing with profile view

Let others in the call see you while you share your screen to foster a more personal encounter.

Easy recording

Record your video conferences for record keeping or later use. Before anyone joins the call, a popup to consent for recording is delivered to ensure full transparency to participants. Download and save your recording in your Nextcloud.

Support for large group conferencing

Lots of participants? No problem. Large groups are well-managed and you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Reactions in calls

Express your feelings in a call to acknowledge someone’s statement, but not go as far as disrupting.

Track call duration and speaker talking times

After one hour, you’ll get a notification that you’ve hit the hour mark so you can stay aware of your time and others’. You’ll also never have to guess how long you’ve been talking, as speaker talking times will be tracked and noted at the end of the call.

Available on web and mobile devices

Take video conferencing from your office, home or on mobile with iOS and Android like never before.

Why it works: Integrated with your Nextcloud

Nextcloud is unique in the sense that everything is connected. You can explore incredible integration capabilities with the rest of your Content Collaboration Platform.

Not sure what that entails?

Nextcloud operates as a one-stop-shop platform integrating its own file storage, email, chat/video platforms and more so you can work efficiently and flexibly.

For example, if you’re in the middle of a call in Nextcloud Talk with a colleague and want to share a proposal your team has been working on, you can open the document directly from the chat sidebar. This is due to Files and Talk being integrated which saves you a lot of time and effort.

The astonishing advantages of Nextcloud operating as a single platform doesn’t stop here – enable hundreds, even thousands, of integration possibilities across all apps with Nextcloud as a Single Platform.

High Performance Backend

Take it a step further with Nextcloud Talk’s High Performance Backend (HPB).

Designed for larger organizations, Nextcloud Talk’s High Performance Backend offers the capacity, reliability and features enterprises need to conduct their business privately, securely and efficiently.

Unbeatable convenience

• Dial-in by a phone line to join a call with SIP bridge
• Conduct large scale webinars, public broadcasting or video conferencing with lobby

As a HPB customer, you will notice improved connection speed and network efficiency after the implementation due to lowering the load from calls on the Nextcloud server.

Why open-source video conferencing

With open-source technology, you have the opportunity to have full reign over your data. Whether you self-host on your own server or use a trusted hosting provider, your communications data happens and remains on your server, unlike popular alternatives like Microsoft Teams or Slack.

This unique protection extends further with our encrypted technologies by even keeping metadata at bay.

The post Nextcloud Talk: Open-source online video conferencing software appeared first on Nextcloud.

About Sendent for Outlook

Sendent offers a host of powerful solutions for Outlook users, allowing them to easily integrate Nextcloud into their workflow for secure and easy sharing of any files with Nextcloud links. Thanks to the user-friendly setup, administrators and users can get started with Sendent for Outlook in just a few clicks, avoiding any learning and training. That makes the add-in a handy addition for teams leveraging multi-app environments.

Sendent for Outlook works with Microsoft Outlook 2013, 2016 and 365 for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Outlook for the Web.

With this Outlook add-in, you can:

• Convert email attachments into Nextcloud links for easy sharing.
• Insert upload links directly into emails, enabling recipients to upload files with ease.
• Add passwords and expiration dates to links for added security, with the option of customizing password and expiration settings.
• Configure the add-in to automatically upload attachments over a certain size, streamlining the sharing process.
• Use the easy file selection dialog to insert links to files stored on their Nextcloud account.
• Save valuable storage space on email servers by reducing the need to store large amounts of attachments in multiple email boxes.

Secure email attachments with Sendent

Apply custom security measures

System administrators can customize the add-in’s rules to meet their specific needs, including triggers on a specific attachment size to automatically upload attachments, adjust email templates, and maintain compliance with retention policies. By utilizing these features, businesses can maintain complete control over their data and keep it safe from potential threats.

Keep costs in control

The add-in also helps IT departments save valuable storage space on email servers. By reducing the need to store large amounts of attachments in multiple email boxes, the add-in decreases network traffic and frees up server resources, leading to improved performance and efficiency.

How secure is Sendent for Outlook?

We are committed to keeping your data protected while allowing you to share files with ease. When it comes to data sharing, privacy-conscious organizations require privacy-centered solutions.

The Outlook add-in offers various ways to enhance the security of your data:

• Secure file sharing: You can exchange data with clients and partners without compromising your security. Create a Public Share to allow collaborators to upload files and folders to your secure server.
• Password protection for your emails: You can set Sendent to generate a unique strong password every time you share data through Microsoft Outlook. The stronger the passwords you use, the harder it is for hackers to crack them and gain access to your data.
• Expiration dates for file access: When you’re working with people outside of your organization, you might want to limit their access to your server when your projects are complete. Control access to your data by putting an expiration date on all your shared files and links.
• Withdrawing shared files: Accidentally sent a sensitive file to the wrong person? With Sendent, you can withdraw the data straight from Outlook to keep it secure.
• Activity Tracker: If you host a lot of important files on your private server, you want to know who else has their hands on your data. You can check the Activity Tracker to verify if the file has already been accessed.

Feature highlights: Secure Mail and Guest Accounts

Secure Mail for guaranteed compliance

Elevate your email security with Sendent’s Secure Mail feature specifically designed for data-sensitive industries like banking, law, and healthcare.

Secure Mail allows users to protect their email content from interception by uploading the email and its attachments to their Nextcloud instance. No sensitive content is shared via the mail server. Additionally, they can password-protect the link for added security.

Guest Accounts for private sharing

With Guest Accounts, you can create a secure and private account for anyone who needs access to your data on a frequent base. This could be a client, a vendor, or a partner who requires access to specific files or emails. The recipient will receive an email invitation with a link to your Nextcloud instance where they can access the secure guest account that contains all earlier shared correspondence.

Guest accounts can be customized to suit your specific needs. You can set permissions for each guest account, allowing you to control what files and folders they can access. This ensures that sensitive information remains confidential and that you have complete control over who can view and download your data.

Secure your mail with Sendent

Sharing and storing files via email can be a risky business, but with Sendent for Outlook, you can streamline your workflow and reduce the IT headaches caused by risky email attachments. By using Nextcloud to store and share files securely, companies can enforce data availability, retention, and safety policies to ensure that sensitive information remains protected.

Why use Sendent Outlook add-in:

• Boost productivity with a user-friendly interface
• Enjoy a fully integrated solution with key Nextcloud settings
• Benefit from centralized control for administrators
• Protect your email content and attachments with Secure Mail
• Customize email templates to your liking
• Implement easily and quickly for customers, employees, and IT departments

Make collaboration easier within your organization by implementing Sendent for Outlook. Reach out to our sales team to learn more about this Outlook integration and get the app.

Available plans

	Free	Standard	Plus
Available for Outlook for Windows (VSTO add-in)
Available for Outlook for Windows, macOS, and Web (web add-in)
Share large files and create Public Shares
Nextcloud Talk integration*
Withdraw shared files
Activate triggers to automatically activate Sendent
Activity Tracker
Default Sendent branding
Custom branding and theming
Custom email templates
Advanced UI branding*
Send passwords separately
Secure Mail
Create and connect files to Guest Accounts

*Currently available for VSTO add-in only.

Sendent for Outlook is available for business and private use. Businesses can directly contact our Nextcloud sales team to test Sendent for Outlook.

The post Sendent: An Outlook add-in to protect your data appeared first on Nextcloud.

About Sendent Outlook add-in

Leveraging Nextcloud’s powerful sharing capabilities, Sendent simplifies and enhances file sharing by sending secure Nextcloud links instead of traditional direct attachments. The Sendent Outlook add-in seamlessly integrates your Nextcloud with Outlook, facilitating the efficient sending of emails without the need to switch between applications.

Why use outlook add in?

• Simplified Collaboration: Streamline Nextcloud file sharing seamlessly within Outlook. 
• Enhanced Productivity: Save time and minimize the risk of data leaks.
• Secure Emailing: Protect your emails and attachments from unauthorized access.
• Compliance Control: Set central company policies for sharing files via email for all users.
• Cost-efficiency: Save on exchange storage costs.

New: macOS and web compatibility

The most important upgrade in the app is cross-platformity. The new version is available for Windows, Mac, and web users alike, ensuring a consistent and productive experience for everyone. It’s a small step for technology but a big change for businesses using multiple operating systems, as the add-in is not exclusive to Windows users anymore.

To achieve this, the app has been rebuilt from ground-up, with the app’s features streamlined in the new code base. More features and improvements are coming soon, including a Nextcloud talk integration.

New user interface

The update brings a completely new UI that makes sharing even easier and more user-friendly. You can edit emails inline while uploading files at the same time.

There’s also a wizard that guides you through all the steps so that even for new users, you will be able to use Sendent within a matter of minutes.

Migration and old version support

Acknowledging the diverse user base, Sendent remains committed to supporting the old Outlook add-in for users who have yet to migrate to the latest version. However, users embracing the new Outlook will find themselves seamlessly transitioning to the new web add-in, unlocking a host of new features and improvements.

Microsoft has indicated its intention to phase out COM/VSTO add-ins, with the latest version of Outlook 365 no longer supporting them. While users of Outlook 2021 and older can still utilize COM/VSTO add-ins, Sendent subscribers are required to switch to the web add-in when upgrading to the new Outlook.

For those moving to the new version, Sendent is ready to address any limitations and facilitate a smooth transition. Everyone is encouraged to provide feedback on the new app and its features via community forum.

Get the free app

The app is already available with a free plan for all users to explore all improvements and new features free of charge. Paid options will be released in the upcoming weeks, offering business-grade features for corporate clients. To try the new free add-in, sign-up for the app on the Sendent website.

Please note that in order to use the add-in, Outlook must be connected with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com. IMAP and POP3 account support is limited by Microsoft at the moment.

Your feedback is appreciated!

You have a chance to help Sendent improve the app and request desired updates directly. Submit your feedback and suggestions on the Nextcloud Community forum to let the developer team know what they should work on next. The Sendent team will monitor your feedback regularly.

The post Major update to Nextcloud Outlook add-in is now available appeared first on Nextcloud.

The Nextcloud Polls App is a social and communication tool that allows you create, share, and implement access options for polls. For example, if you want to create a poll only open to a specific group of users, this app makes it simple.

In this special edition blog, we’ve interviewed the creators behind the Nextcloud Polls app: Vinzenz and René. Read on to discover their stories and how the Polls app came to be!

Meet Vinzenz and René

Tell us about yourself!

Vinzenz: I studied Computer Science in Tübingen, Germany focusing on 3D topics and graduated in 2015. During my studies, I was amazed by free and open source software, so I began to switch to Linux on all my work-related computers. I discovered alternatives to proprietary software but also still had to be able to work together with other students and their proprietary software. This wasn’t always easy – especially back in 2009! Back then, MS Windows and it’s Office suite were the default and could be acquired by students for free at the university. Now, over the last six years, I work as a software developer at the university and help institutions that want to have cultural heritage digitized in 3D. Besides my job, my hobbies are playing football (soccer) and (landscape) photography.

René: First, I have to mention, that I never learned programming and never wanted to be a programmer. I have an economic education and studied economics. However, I always loved to automate things and make routine work easier; out of pure laziness. In the 80s, I started to try programming in GW-BASIC and pure batch files, later dBase and Clipper, VBA and VB. I sometimes earned some money with that, but it was all just for fun or done as a hobby.

Why did you develop this app and publish it?

Vinzenz: Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, there wasn’t much awareness for data privacy and cloud services such as Dropbox or Doodle offering easy to use and “free” applications. Learning groups and even professors have been using these services to share documents and schedule appointments or exams. By then, my web development skills were far from good and I only used HTML, PHP and other (outdated) web languages at school and the university. However, I wanted to create a better and FOSS Doodle. There have been some alternatives like Dudle, but I wanted to have a solution where all polls I attended on, created or shared with me are in one place. That is, not have to have another account or host another software. At the time, I used ownCloud despite the learning curve for such a big app. Luckily, someone already had the same idea as me and released a polls app for ownCloud. This allowed me to start working on smaller parts of the app instead of starting one big project. This was back in 2014. In late 2015/early 2016, unfortunately the developer no longer had time to maintain the polls app so we decided that I take over development and released “my” first version (0.6.9).

René: Initially, I was searching for an app that could help me organize meeting polls for a sports club where I was volunteering at. I found polls and ownCloud and judged it as quite usable for our purpose. Vinzenz was the maintainer of the app in these days, which he forked from another app. In 2017, I wrote my first change request for this app. A few months later, I contributed my first pull request and then things evolved.

How was the development experience?

Vinzenz: It was really easy to start working on smaller parts and fixing bugs in existing features. Later on, it took more time to keep the app up-to-date. When I started my job in late 2016, I had to accept that developing a large software from scratch as well as learning a couple of web frameworks already took a lot of time. Nextcloud also has their own frameworks and APIs. With every new release and possible changes, I had to do a lot more research and investigation of these changes. Doing this after doing the same in a full-time job I realized that I can not work on the polls app the way I’d like to, to get a feature-rich polls app.

René: It was tough in the beginning because the learning curve was very steep and all I used was git and a text editor. However, it was quite impressive how low the barrier for cooperation of total strangers was. The communication on GitHub was straightforward and there was an absolute understanding of the people involved. This cured the pain with the local dev environment. I really enjoy the focused way development within the community works. As the development environment developed further, it was more fun. For me personally, all experiences help me to keep up with the times and handle developers at the same eye level.

What are Nextcloud Polls best features?

Vinzenz:

• Flexibility with different poll types
• Integration into the Nextcloud ecosystem

René: I would say it (Nexctloud Polls) is an absolute replacement for comparable commercial tools. Also, the features you have to pay for when using the competitors tools are included in ours for free.

Have you had any feedback from the community yet?

Vinzenz: There has always been a lot of feedback from the community which I really, really appreciate! This showed me that this app is needed and helps a lot of users in their daily routine. Also the feedback from the dev community was awesome! Especially René helped to push the app forward and in 2018 he took over development when I couldn’t find the time to maintain it. Since then, he’s puts in a lot of work and effort into it to develop new features and keeping everything up to date.

René: Unfortunately, not as much direct feedback as I’d wish. However, since Polls was voted in the top 20 apps of Nextcloud, I think we did a good job until now.

What are your plans for the future with the app?

Vinzenz: Whatever René’s plans are!

René: There are still some key features missing that I would like to make a reality. One thing is a smart calendar integration (a heavily desired feature judging from the change request on GitHub). The other thing is to offer public poll creation.

The post The Nextcloud Polls app: Meet the developers! appeared first on Nextcloud.

To keep up with today’s rising quality standards and enjoy the new level of working comfort, you may want to introduce a few AI tools in your software deck. Even more so, when your content collaboration platform seamlessly integrates those like Nextcloud does.

AI-powered content collaboration tools

In modern workspaces, a very fast cycle of implementing new generation productivity and collaboration instruments is evident. AI software is not an exception here. Artificial intelligence has proved to be useful in groupware and content creation apps, integrating seamlessly into the office IT. This diversity of apps allows teams to choose the tools that suits their workflow best, promoting efficiency and creativity.

One of the key benefits of integrating AI into content collaboration platforms is the significant boost in productivity and quality. AI can automate repetitive tasks, such as data analysis and formatting. This enables team members to focus on more creative and strategic aspects of their work. Moreover, with an ability to train the generative AI models on selective datasets, the outcome is technically configurable. Adding a custom touch, you can make the final content adhere to the desired industry standards and best practices.

Ethical AI concerns

However, ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI, and especially the publicly available cloud tools, are valid. One of the primary issues is the potential for bias and misinformation. AI may inadvertently generate content that perpetuates stereotypes or inaccuracies. Secondly, models provided by proprietary vendors often receive the training data in real time. It comes from the very users of the software, putting your data and your privacy commitments at risk.

And the law might not be there to protect you, at least not yet. AI companies keep successfully appealing international privacy charges to continue capitalizing on your pictures in someone’s interest.

Can AI be used ethically? The solution to the efficient and safe use of the AI in creative work is to promote conscious choice of AI-powered content collaboration tools. Equally important is to encourage continuous training and upskilling of the users.

At Nextcloud, we believe that ethical AI should:

• Be open source when it comes to the code behind the solution and the training routine.
• Be available as a self-hosted AI model within user’s infrastructure to provide ultimate control over the data.
• Grant open access to the training sets to ensure ethical and legal compliance.

Let’s discover eight AI-powered instruments that you can start using today and learn how to make informed decisions with principles of AI ethics in mind.

AI text generation

Let’s start with the simplest and the most widely applicable use for generative AI — text generation. Text tools see a booming success in creative writing since it takes a very little effort to achieve high quality results. And it doesn’t need a detailed input: even a very short prompt will bring you a rich, informative text based on massive knowledge database it has been trained on. Accessed from a browser tab or embedded in a text editor, text generation AI software is a handy addition to your routine.

However, developers of artificial intelligence models, including text generation tools, achieve the impressive delivery through exhaustive training. Very often they train the language models using your own input data. This makes online AI tools a questionable choice when working with sensitive business information.

At Nextcloud, we try to challenge this culprit. We give you freedom to choose what model to use and how your AI-powered content collaboration tools will handle your data.

Nextcloud Assistant is a text generation tool integrated in the Text app and the navigation bar that can write, summarize, and create headlines for any texts. You can host it on-premises, making sure your data doesn’t leak out to any third party. How? Read the Nextcloud AI guide to learn more about all AI apps you can use to power Nextcloud Hub.

Try it in Nextcloud Hub

AI Image generation

Image generation, though less applicable in wide use scenarios, gains popularity due to rapid advancement of GANs (Generative Adversary Networks). AI delivers contextually accurate visuals that look appealing and mostly natural. With the right prompt, it can easily troubleshoot problematic image search. Image generation with apps like Dall-E and Replicate can become a staple in creating artworks for articles, social media, web pages, and even ads.

In comparison to text generation, casually creating an image using artificial intelligence requires more skill. In practice, a detailed prompt with clear structure promises a much better result. Plus, in many cases, it takes lengthy trial and error practice before you receive the anticipated outcome. That, and still a not-so-perfect state of training make professionals reluctant to use it for more serious purposes like big budget advertising, for example.

However, the technology is already here, and everybody can use it to draft imagery for web content, illustrate ideas with sketches, and create simple visuals for social media posts. In Nextcloud, you can generate images in Talk chats and text documents using the Smart Picker feature. Choose one of several available options to run via an API or on your own server to enjoy a helpful tool that you can use for a multitude of tasks.

Text Summary

Need to skim a conversation, article, or technical document? There’s no easier way to do that than generating a summary with AI. Text processing capabilities of large language models allow quickly figuring out key points and grasping the text structure to build an accurate outline of bulky text input.

Imagine having to read a 10 page paper or a long web article just to understand key findings and conclusions. AI can save hours of work without missing important points. Based on your preference, you can get a brief one-paragraph summary or a structured rundown containing all analyzed problems, examined data and proposed solutions.

Nextcloud Assistant is not only here to help with writing, but also with text analysis. It can provide compact summaries for any texts you throw in to easily paste in a text file or a message.

Nextcloud Assistant is a great tool for text analysis. It can provide compact summaries for any texts you throw in to easily paste in a text file or a message.

Try it in Nextcloud Hub

Headline generation

A good headline is a major part of an article’s success. However, creative block or a lack of outsider’s perspective can sometimes get writers stuck with otherwise straightforward tasks. With generative AI, getting inspiration for a sharp and professional headline is a piece of cake.

In Nextcloud Hub, you can use Nextcloud Assistant to create headline ideas for your articles and web pages, summoning it from the navigation bar or right in the Text app. The command is pre-configured for you and doesn’t require a prompting skill.

Email thread summary

We all deal with bulky email threads at some point, and fairly often it is easy to get lost in the year-long conversation when you need to find certain information or provide a summary of your discussion. Just like getting a plain text summary, you can easily generate one based on the email history.

There are two ways to do it: manually via chat like with ChatGPT and by using a specialized summary tool. The ‘Thread Summary’ feature in Nextcloud Hub powered by Nextcloud Assistant brings the quality of communication to a whole new level while caring about your privacy.

Packed in an easy-to-use interface inside your Mail app, Thread Summary is reachable right from your thread to sum up the ideas, questions and to-dos brought up by participants. Nextcloud Assistant is open-source and hosted where you want it: on your server, in a data center you trust, or in the cloud of your choice.

Try it in Nextcloud Hub

It’s not a surprise that some email threads contain sensitive business information. Exposure of such texts may threaten not only your and your company’s privacy, but also that of your valued partners and clients. We strongly advise you to only use the tools you can trust to summarize your emails unless you want to end up in somebody’s database, or even a publicly available one.

AI speech-to-text dictation

Remember the time we all dreamed of typing from our spoken word without a keyboard? In fact, the speech recognition has been around for years, but with the arrival of tools like OpenAI and Whisper it really began to shine.

Speech-to-text dictation enables you to save a great deal of time when composing texts in both communication and writing, making it a great addition to all types of AI-powered content collaboration tools. Using voice typing to compose emails, chat with colleagues, draft documents, or make notes — those are just a handful of possible applications.

In Nextcloud, dictation with AI of your choice is available suite-wise via the Smart Picker menu. It only takes one command to activate the feature, no matter where you are. Use the Smart Picker in Talk, Mail, Deck, Collectives, or other native Hub apps.

Try it in Nextcloud Hub

Speech transcription

Not quite the same as dictation, speech transcription helps convert pre-recorded audio to text. Multiple apps offer such tools to get summaries for YouTube videos, converting audio and video content into articles and more.

In Nextcloud, we found a way to improve the videoconferencing experience with the very same tool. Using the features of OpenAI or LocalAI in Talk, you can record team calls and get accurate written records of the meeting delivered to you in a text file. When enabled, the feature provides you with a transcription upon the end of the meeting together with the video recording. Use it to keep the meeting records for future reference, provide summaries to your team members, or even write interview articles based on calls.

Why use Nextcloud? If you value privacy and want to keep your collaborators at ease, you can keep the recordings and transcriptions locally. Running on your server and being open-source, AI tools available in Nextcloud are ethical, transparent and leak-proof.

Translation

Quick translation in chats, documents, marketing texts, or mail communication saves time and keeps browser tabs clean. With many AI-powered services available today, you can decide where your texts are processed and what translation model is used.

We advise you to take better care of how your work travels around the web. That’s why in Nextcloud there are different translation apps available for integration. Some of them you can even run locally.

Available on-premises tools include Local translation built using Opus models developed by the University of Helsinki and LibreTranslate. Both apps are open-source and operate independently without external processing. Another option is using the DeepL translator. It provides a wide range of available languages, but uses proprietary model and connects to the DeepL website.

Face and object recognition

A technology called ‘computer vision’ allows the machine to analyze images and videos to understand and interpret their content. Based on the training data and methodology, the AI can identify patterns and features, categorize media, and select independent objects.

It is a truly vast field of artificial intelligence. Image analysis with AI introduces multiple useful applications of visual recognition and media generation, from image and video editing to real-time visual effects in video conferencing. For example, the iPhone camera roll puts photos in automatic categories and Zoom applies dynamic backgrounds to your streams using computer vision.

As with any AI that manipulates your content, you must be aware of the privacy risks. For instance, Zoom’s March 2023 TOS update directly states that the company is permitted to use your content to train its AI model:

In Nextcloud, we offer locally running object recognition tools that won’t share your content with third parties for training purposes. Recognize app in Nextcloud categorizes media in your Nextcloud Photos collection based on objects it recognizes on your pictures. For instance, faces, landscapes, food, vehicles, landmarks and buildings, and more. In Nextcloud Talk, machine learning is used to apply backgrounds and blur to your picture during the calls. To implement this feature, we use the Jitsu library and a model called MediaPipe. Both are open source and self-hosted, securing a Green rating among our AI apps.

What is Nextcloud’s Ethical AI Rating and how do you choose the right AI-powered content collaboration tools consciously? Read below!

Nextcloud’s Ethical AI Rating

Get Nextcloud Hub

Privacy-first content collaboration platform powered by open source AI

Install

The post 8 innovative AI features to use in a content collaboration platform appeared first on Nextcloud.

Connect your apps to Nextcloud!

Do you have an app used in your organization that you want to integrate into Nextcloud? Are you developing a mobile app that needs to store documents? A desktop application that would need to share files between users?

We’ve got a solution for you!

The Open Collaboration Services (OCS) API is designed to make it easy to connect your apps to any Content Collaboration Platform like Nextcloud. Whether you want to just store or share files, notes or documents, it’s now really simple.

Let’s say your company is developing an internal application that creates invoices for your customers. You want to store the invoices in Nextcloud Files and even have an instant chat room created when a new invoice is added. To learn how to do it, all you have to do is use the OCS API. And using the OCS API Viewer, you can easily browse through the options and try them out.

OCS API Viewer

The OCS API Viewer is a Nextcloud app where you can interactively discover APIs (Application Programming Interface’s) and try them out on your own instance from the browser.

For example, if you wanted to update a (file) share, you can go to file_sharing –> shareapi –> update a share and add the file ID. Hit “Send API request” and you can see the response from the server, and how the share was created. On top of that, it shows you code snippets for many different programming languages for executing this request.

The OCS API Viewer thus makes it easier and faster for a developer of an application to build integration with Nextcloud.

The app can be installed on any Nextcloud instance and allows you to run everything on your own server.

Don’t know how to get started?

Check out our tutorial!

Developers: Get quick documentation for your apps

As an app developer, you can now generate documentation for your app yourself and for others with a few changes to your app.

Say you’re developing the code for a new Nextcloud app, like a trip planning app, and you want to allow a third party software developer to write an app for Android that can create, view and modify a trip. You would use the openapi-extractor in the OCS API Viewer to create that documentation that the third party developers can use.

What languages do we support?

We’ve got four different programming languages for which we provide convenience code for OCS based communication to a Nextcloud server: Typescript, Python, Rust and Go. For each language, we’ve set up Developer Toolkits to ease the development of integrations with apps using these languages.

Instant how-to documentation

If you just want to check out how to use the new documentation as a non-Nextcloud user, check it out here: docs.nextcloud.com.

The post Integrate Nextcloud into your app with the help of the OCS API Viewer appeared first on Nextcloud.

Over the last year, AI has become a popular topic. Some is hype, some is substance. Some is good, some is bad. We want to give you the good, not the bad, and ignore the hype!

In Nextcloud Hub 4 and 5, we’ve focused on providing you the best tools that AI has to offer. Benefits like improving your work productivity and jump starting creativity, AI features can enhance your Nextcloud experience.

To fit everyone’s needs, we offer several types of integrations for AI, from completely self-hosted options to integrations with external services.

If you’re interested in setting up Nextcloud’s AI features on your instance, then keep reading for a breakdown of how to enable and use each one!

Self-hosted vs. integrations from external services

First, let’s understand the difference between self-hosted AI features versus integrations from external services.

All self-hosted AI features are built-in and only run on YOUR server, meaning no data leaves your premises and you’re in full control. Our self-hosted options can be installed from the Nextcloud App Store. Some are built-in and some require some command line commands to be run to download Ai models.

We also offer AI features using remote AI services from companies like DeepL and OpenAI (ChatGPT and DALL·E). These features can be enabled on your server but data from the app is sent to the third party. Note that nothing is ever sent to external services by default unless you explicitly enable those features or install the related apps. However, if you like these services, then they are available to you!

Ethical AI Rating

For some use cases, tools like ChatGPT might be a reasonable solution, while for other data, it is paramount to have a local, on-prem, open solution. To differentiate these, we developed an Ethical AI Rating.

For every AI feature that Nextcloud supports, a rating is established. This shows you the risks you take with your data is when using a feature and it gives you a quick insight into the ethical implications of your choice.

Now, let’s learn about Nextcloud’s AI features, their rating and how to enable and use them!

About LocalAI

LocalAI is an open source API that allows you to set up and use many AI features to run locally on your server. However instead of connecting to the OpenAI API for these, you can also connect to a self-hosted LocalAI instance with the Nextcloud LocalAI integration app.

The AI features LocalAI supports:

• Image generation
• Text generation
• Speech-to-text dictation

1. Image generation

Your cloud is full of photos, but sometimes the image you need isn’t there. Maybe it is somewhere on the web, or maybe you can only visualize it in your head? With AI image generation, you can type in keywords to create the image you’re imagining. Your instant AI generated image can be inserted into a Talk chat, Notes and much more.

3 options to generate images:

1. Online StableDiffusion based generator via Replicate’s remote API – Yellow rating
2. Self-hosted StableDiffusion using the OpenAI app- Yellow rating
3. Online DALL·E 2 – Red rating

How to enable:

To use OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 images or the on-premises StableDiffusion based generator, just install the OpenAI integration app. You can find instructions to get the model in the settings!

This feature is very versatile on Nextcloud, being able to insert an AI generated image in a document, Talk chat and more. To use this feature in your Nextcloud, open up the Smart Picker by typing a slash (/) in your document, Talk chat and more!

2. Text generation

How do you craft intelligent, professional text? With the text generating tool in Nextcloud Talk, Office and Mail of course!

On-premises option: Yellow rating

• Self-hosted instance of LocalAI that runs language models locally.

External service integration: Red rating

• ChatGPT with GPT-3 and GPT-4 models by OpenAI.

How to enable:

For the on-premises option, you also install the OpenAI app to communicate with a self-hosted instance of LocalAI which can run language models to generate text. See instructions.

To use OpenAI’s ChatGPT, install the OpenAI integration app.

3. Speech-to-text dictation

Sometimes, it’s easier to say something out loud. With Nextcloud’s speech-to-text dictation feature, you can formulate text through your voice. Use your spoken words to send a message in a Nextcloud Talk chat, in an email and through many more applications.

On-premises option: Green rating

• The on-premises version can be enabled with the OpenAI app. In your Nextcloud settings, configure the OpenAI integration app to use your self-hosted Local AI instance.

External service integration: Yellow rating

• The external service integration option utilizes Whisper, as seen below.

4. Speech-to-text transcription

In the speech-to-text transcription feature, your call recordings can be automatically transcribed. This smart feature is great for recording what was said during important meetings for your record keeping.

How to enable: Green rating

If the OpenAI integration is installed and configured (using either OpenAI or LocalAI), Talk will be able to automatically produce speech-to-text transcriptions of call recordings. You will receive a transcription file just like the video recording file right after the recorded call ends.

5. Smart Inbox in Mail

Now let’s talk about our smart feature in Mail. Nextcloud Mail uses Machine Learning (ML) to classify the importance of incoming emails based on your historical data and pattern recognition. This provides you a priority inbox, where your most important messages are at the top. Due to the ML technology, your data never leaves the server.

How to enable: Green rating

Luckily for you, this feature is already integrated by default. However, if you want to disable it at any time, you can do so in the bottom left settings of the Mail app.

6. Face and object recognition – Green rating

In your Nextcloud Photos, you can quickly find people, places or objects when using the Recognize app. Recognize goes through your media collection and adds fitting tags which automatically categorize your photos, and even music!

The way Recognize works is through training an artificial neural network that recognizes patterns which yields the results we see. You can learn more about how the app works and facial recognition technology in the blog.

How to enable:

To get face recognition in your Nextcloud, install the Recognize app in the Nextcloud App Store.

“This app is incredible! It works really well. Very easy to set up. It takes a long time for the first recognition, but man, is it worth it! I expected face recognition working well, but I did not expect the tags feature working very well also! It created tags I did not think is possible. Super useful!”

György Kiss, Recognize apps rating

7. Background images and blurring in video calls

Before joining a video call, you have the opportunity to change your background to an image of your choice or add a blur effect. It so happens that this blur “effect” is actually a complex computing contouring that uses Machine Learning (ML). Nextcloud uses the Jitsu library and a model called MediaPipe (both open source) to create this effect.

How to enable: Green rating

This feature is ready to be used once you’ve installed Hub 5.

8. Translation tools

In today’s connected world, you’re bound to be put in a situation where you need to translate a message, word or piece of text in another language. Now you can translate anything with Nextcloud!

Local translation – Green rating

Nextcloud provides a translation service app that runs locally on your server. Using open source Opus models by University of Helsinki in Finland, you can rest assured no data can leak.

Use local translation in Nextcloud Talk to translate a message in a chat or in a Text document.

Witness how your writing can be instantly translated in Nextcloud Text.

How to enable:

Enable local translation by installing the Translate app! Languages supported are: English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese so far.

LibreTranslate – Green rating

The LibreTranslate integration provides translations using your own server/api key. This translation tool uses open source OpenNMT models.

DeepL translation – Red rating

You also have the option to use the external service integration DeepL. DeepL is a popular translator based in Germany that provides translations in 29 different languages.

DeepL receives a red rating because they use proprietary models and the app connects to their website. Since DeepL is a separate service, data put into this model on your server will be sent to them. Take care to read about DeepL’s privacy protocols and what they do with your data.

9. Suspicious login detection

Suspicious login detection detects and warns you about suspicious IPs logging into your Nextcloud.

This feature works through learning your behavior of logins – when and where – so if a suspicious login occurs, you’ll be notified in time to change your password or upgrade your security controls.

How to enable: Green rating

Suspicious login detection was once an app, but now it is integrated right into your instance. Just go to your admin settings and click on security. As always, the feature can be enabled or disabled per your preference.

The post AI in Nextcloud: what, why and how appeared first on Nextcloud.

Whether you’re an amateur, experienced or an expert developer, our tutorials will prepare you for developing apps for Nextcloud.

We focus on open source app development and are commited to providing our community all the tools they need to transform their ideas into real Nextcloud apps.

Why Nextcloud Apps?

So what are you waiting for?

Read on to discover our brand new Nextcloud App development tutorials!

Developing a complete app

If you have a groundbreaking idea for an app, now’s your chance to develop it from scratch!

In this tutorial, you will learn how to develop a complete app with a navigation bar and database.

After the tutorial you will know how to:

• Create a stand-alone app with a navigation menu
• Use the database
• Extend Nextcloud’s API with your app’s endpoints
• Export data that is stored by your app in the database to a file

Add automated tests to your app

After you’ve set up your own app, you can learn how to configure automated tests for it!

Learn how to use GitHub Actions – a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform allowing you to automate your development workflow. With GitHub Actions, app developers don’t have to deploy a test environment for all the different Nextcloud, PHP and database system versions.

You’ll see just how convenient it is to have tests being triggered automatically so they are running for each pull request.

After the tutorial you will know how to:

• Use GitHub Actions to set up a specific Nextcloud test environment
• Configure which tests to run
• Implement tests
• See if the tests ran successfully

Basic troubleshooting techniques

Is your app not functioning as expected? Do you not know why the code is not working properly?

This tutorial will teach you how to:

• Restart your Nextcloud instance
• Access the browser console
• Get the Nextcloud.log file

EXTRA: Set up a test environment – Reproducing bugs and testing PR’s

For those working on the core of Nextcloud, you can learn how to set up an easy test environment using Simon’s Nextcloud Easy Test Instance.

This is a super quick instance using docker for Nextcloud to quickly launch different versions of Nextcloud which is great for reproducing bugs, testing PR’s, and user testing UX changes.

After this tutorial you will know how to:

• Set up a local Nextcloud environment for testing purposes
• Test PR’s for Nextcloud
• Quickly reproduce bugs on different Nextcloud versions and get logs
• Set up multiple environments for user testing UX changes

The post Develop your own Nextcloud Apps: Check out our new tutorials! appeared first on Nextcloud.

In this blog, we show you 9 most popular Nextcloud features, apps and functionalities that allow your government organization to come full circle and be digitally sovereign.

1. File Drop for End-to-End Encrypted folders

You may already use File Drop – the Nextcloud feature that allows your external personnel, clients and partners to easily upload files to a secure cloud folder through a hyperlink.

With the new Hub 4 (Nextcloud 26) release, File Drop now includes the option to upload into End-to-End Encrypted folders for increased security in your government organization. Receive confidential files in a secure, trustworthy way without worrying about security breaches. It’s simple, secure and a no fuss file exchange.

2. Persistent Versions

When using your Nextcloud Office in the cloud, you never have to worry about losing data if your computer suddenly shuts down or you accidentally exit your tab. That’s because of Nextcloud’s versions. Whenever you leave your work (intentional or not), the last copy will always save automatically and be available to revert back to.

With Hub 4, you are able to name versions so you can easily identify your copies and go back to them if or when needed. For example, you could name the first version of your document “original,” the second draft “Jane’s edit” or lastly “final draft.” Persistent versions are extremely beneficial when collaborating on a project, in confidential cases and for content writing. You can rest assured that any version created is saved as long as you want, and will never be deleted.

3. Shared mailboxes

Having a shared mailbox is an excellent tool for teams that have to cooperatively manage their communication. Shared mailboxes were developed for transparency, information sharing and inbox management.

The way shared mailboxes work so seamlessly is through ACLs or Access Control Lists. ACLs enable users to share their email folder with other users in the instance – without even sharing a username or password. ACLs even let you hide certain folders or mailboxes from other users, so just the primary inbox is shared.

There are many great use cases for shared mailboxes:

• IT support teams – users easily share the account and have access to all data
• Maternity leave or holiday replacements – the replacement user can take over the mailbox without the person temporarily leaving losing access
• Shared work roles – users can pick up work ad hoc and stay informed

4. Office template creation

Government offices often have lots of paperwork circulating for several different use cases. For example, immigration and housing forms. In Nextcloud Office, users have the ability to create customizable templates that can be used over and over again. Choose any font, style or format for your template and name it so it’s easily identifiable.

Templates can be created for documents, presentations and spreadsheets in Nextcloud Office.

5. File Retention

File retention is the ability to have control over if and/or when your files get deleted. For instance, if you’re working on a short-term, highly confidential project, it would be smart to have the files be deleted after a certain period of time. With file retention, you can set up these functionalities and rest assured that data you don’t want is permanently deleted.

File retention and deletion can also be controlled based on tags set manually or automatically, ensuring legal or practical requirements for the longevity of data lifespans can be enforced.

6. Nextcloud Tables: Microsoft SharePoint alternative

Nextcloud Tables is an on-premises, open source SharePoint lists alternative that lets customers track data that is relevant to their organization, such as expenses, projects or sales leads.

The built-in app enables customers to build, manage and work with data structures, putting together easy ‘apps’ and connecting them to various other components in Nextcloud for automation. The flexibility of Tables allows users to tailor the table to their specific needs.

Many organizations use Nextcloud Tables for privacy and compliance reasons.

7. File firewall

File firewall’s monitor who’s entering and leaving your documents and decides whether or not to allow or block specific traffic based on a defined set of rules.

In Nextcloud, sharing can be restricted through the file firewall, with the ability to filter on user properties like location or group, or file properties like (automatically or manually) assigned tags, file type and more.

8. Group folders

Nextcloud’s group folders app allows admins to create groups of users with special permissions. For instance, the admin can configure the users’s ability to write, share and delete documents within the folder as well as control how many gigabytes are used. The benefit of group folders is the level of control you have over your teams and the ability to scale up.

Especially for organizations or governments that value strict management and policies, group folders allow you to take full control over your data and be a digitally sovereign entity.

9. Nextcloud Office watermarking

Watermarking helps protect confidential information, like your assets or branding, and ensures the validity of a legal document.

In Nextcloud, you can easily enable watermarking in ‘secure view settings’ and customize them too with placeholders like, “confidential” or “copyrighted.” To create a simple workflow, you can create a tag that will automatically watermark your documents every time it’s used. When you open the watermarked document, you can see the date, time and user who accessed the file. Watch the video for a demo!

Nextcloud watermarking is available in Nextcloud Office (with Collabora Online) and ONLYOFFICE.

The post 9 Nextcloud features for Government users appeared first on Nextcloud.

Nextcloud Enterprise allows users to integrate with various systems and tools to simplify users’ work processes and enhance their productivity. And now Nextcloud is excited to introduce its newest addition to the lineup: the Nextcloud Exchange Connector.

What is the Nextcloud Exchange Connector?

Developed in partnership with Sendent, the Nextcloud Exchange Connector provides bi-directional syncing with Microsoft Exchange. This new connector allows you to sync your contacts and agenda items between Nextcloud Enterprise and Microsoft (on-premises) or Microsoft 365 (cloud).

The connector integrates Microsoft’s proprietary contact and calendar formats with Nextcloud, by using the open standards CardDav (for contacts) and CalDav (for calendars). Initially, the focus is on ensuring bidirectional synchronization of personal agendas and contacts, while support for shared agendas and contacts will be implemented at a later stage.

Why use the Nextcloud Exchange Connector?

The Nextcloud Exchange Connector is designed to make your workflow more efficient and productive. Here are some of the key benefits you can enjoy with this new integration:

No more copying and pasting

If you use both Microsoft and Nextcloud Hub for your agendas and contacts, the Nextcloud Exchange Connector makes it easy to sync them seamlessly. This eliminates the need to manually copy and paste information, saving you time and effort.

Directly share files stored in Nextcloud with Outlook contacts

With the Nextcloud Exchange Connector, you can directly share files stored in Nextcloud Hub with your Outlook contacts. This makes collaboration even easier, as you can share files with just a few clicks.

Easily plan Nextcloud meetings with Outlook users

If you’re planning a meeting with colleagues who mainly use Outlook for their agenda, the Nextcloud Exchange Connector makes it easy to see their availability and plan the meeting. This is especially useful if you’re using Nextcloud Talk for video conferencing.

Offers an alternative to the Office experience

The Nextcloud Exchange Connector offers organizations an opportunity to leverage Nextcloud Hub while maintaining their familiarity with the Microsoft ecosystem, providing an alternative to the Office experience.

Sign up for the Nextcloud Exchange Connector beta

Sendent will make the Nextcloud Exchange Connector available for both Microsoft Exchange (on-premises) and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. This ensures that organizations can take advantage of this integration regardless of their current Microsoft environment.

You can still sign up for the beta program of the Nextcloud Exchange Connector Beta.

The post 4 reasons to sign up for the Nextcloud Exchange Connector Beta appeared first on Nextcloud.