What's New in BigBlueButton 3.0.0

BigBlueButton 3.0 is a major release, the result of over 18 months of development with 4,496 commits. It brings a new plugin architecture, significant improvements to chat and the whiteboard, audio enhancements, and a complete restructuring of the backend by replacing MongoDB and Meteor with Hasura and GraphQL. The server now runs on Ubuntu 22.04.

Plugin Architecture

BigBlueButton 3.0 introduces support for plugins, allowing you to extend the core functionality of the virtual classroom. This opens up the platform for custom integrations and new features developed by the community and third parties.

Improved Chat

The chat feature has been rebuilt with new capabilities: users can now edit sent messages, add emojis, and create follow-up message threads. These improvements make communication more flexible and expressive during sessions.

Improved Whiteboard (tldraw 2.0)

The whiteboard has been updated to a build of tldraw 2.0, providing a more modern and capable drawing experience. It includes better zoom stability and overall performance improvements.

Audio Enhancements

Users can now join audio directly with their microphone, eliminating the separate listen-only/microphone option. A new Away mode lets you set your status with one click, and Push-to-Talk support (experimental) is available for quick audio control.

Experimental Features

Several experimental capabilities are included: integration with LiveKit for audio, webcams, and screen sharing; an infinite whiteboard canvas; and support for ClamAV as a presentation file scanner.

Architecture and Performance

The entire backend has been refactored. MongoDB and Meteor have been removed and replaced with Hasura and GraphQL communication. This restructuring optimizes the user list, chat, and all other communications, resulting in improved stability and performance. All components have been updated to run on Ubuntu 22.04.

For the full list of changes and fixes, including numerous HTML5 client fixes and locale updates, please refer to the official release notes.