What's New in BigBlueButton 3.0.0-rc.4

Version 3.0.0-rc.4 brings several improvements to the whiteboard, breakout rooms, and plugin system, along with numerous client fixes. This release candidate focuses on refining the user experience ahead of the final stable release.

User List and Participant Visibility

Starting with this release, users see their own name at the top of the participants list, matching the behavior from BigBlueButton 2.7. This change makes it easier to locate yourself in large meetings.

Whiteboard and Screenshare Improvements

The whiteboard can now be used during a screenshare by swapping between the two without stopping the screenshare. This allows presenters to annotate or draw while sharing their screen. Several whiteboard fixes address zoom instability, shape rendering, and the fit-to-width feature not syncing with the tldraw camera.

Breakout Room Fixes

Two significant breakout room issues are resolved: pre-defined groups now work correctly when creating breakout rooms, and rooms are properly assigning users with external IDs (extId). Additionally, audio and screenshare are no longer interrupted when joining a breakout room.

Plugin Enhancements

Plugin developers get three new capabilities: a useLocaleMessage helper for localization, the ability to block notification display, and a ui-command to disable self-view. The plugin SDK version has been updated to 0.0.73.

Additional Client Fixes

  • Fixed an error where the whiteboard reloaded with an error message when a webcam request was denied.
  • Resolved a client crash caused by the shortcuts list.
  • Corrected the chat loading behavior to avoid loading all pages unnecessarily.
  • Adjusted chat message styling with a blue background for moderator messages.
  • Fixed audio modal endless state updates and layout modal style on mobile.
  • Improved the presentation toast notification and corrected the “Current presentation” notification always showing.
  • Fixed camera positioning when focusing on presentation layout.
  • Allowed polls to be published even without a presentation active.

Other backend changes include the removal of post-meeting feedback and typed closed captions from the server side, as well as updates to the bbb-webhooks and bbb-webrtc-sfu components.