What's New in BigBlueButton 3.0.8

BigBlueButton 3.0.8 is now available, bringing a range of client fixes and improvements to presentation conversion. This release includes new features such as a keyboard shortcut for creating custom polls and the ability to disable reactions. Additionally, presentation conversion now runs in a sandboxed systemd process with limited resources, enhancing security and stability.

New Feature: Shortcut for Custom Polls

Presenters can now quickly create a custom poll using a keyboard shortcut. This eliminates the need to navigate through menus, making polling more efficient during sessions.

New Feature: Option to Disable Reactions

Meeting moderators can now disable emoji reactions entirely. This setting provides greater control over the meeting environment, reducing visual clutter when reactions are not needed.

Improved Presentation Conversion Sandboxing

Presentation conversion is now sandboxed within a systemd process with restricted resource limits. This change reduces the risk of runaway processes affecting the server, improving overall reliability and security during document uploads.

HTML5 Client Fixes

This release addresses several issues in the HTML5 client, including:

  • Whiteboard annotations no longer persist incorrectly after a reconnection.
  • Switching slides no longer causes the next slide to slightly zoom in.
  • External video playback rate remains synchronized during presenter changes.
  • Breakout room duration can now be set to less than 5 minutes.
  • Audio captions no longer get stuck when hardware muted.
  • Shared Notes now pin correctly when the hidePresentationOnJoin setting is enabled.
  • Mute state inconsistencies during presenter changes have been resolved.
  • Whiteboard toolbar tools no longer disappear due to DOM side-effects.

Plugin and Core Updates

Plugins now support unmounting automatically when the meeting ends, preventing resource leaks. A version compatibility check for the plugin SDK has also been added, ensuring that plugins are compatible with the running BigBlueButton version. On the core side, the bbb-web service now allows passing all plugin manifests in a single parameter, simplifying deployment.

Recording and Packaging

The recording pipeline removes duration lines from ffmpeg playlists, improving recording reliability. The WebRTC recorder and SFU have been updated to versions 0.9.4 and 2.19.0-beta.0 respectively, bringing bug fixes and performance improvements.

Administrators are encouraged to review the complete changelog for a full list of resolved issues.