🌸 Welcome to April Newsletter! 🌸
After months of cold and dark times, the world bursts back to life; trees bud, flowers bloom, and even the smallest seeds push through the soil, reaching for the sun. Plants must endure unpredictable weather; rain, wind, cold snaps, yet they adapt and continue to grow.
Spring is a symbol of new starts and reminds us of our resilience. Just like nature, we, too, go through seasons of challenge and renewal in activism. In the same way, sometimes life throws unexpected challenges our way, but resilience means adjusting while staying rooted in our core values.
Unlike plants though, we don’t get to just chill in the sun, drink water, and magically grow, we actually have to do things. However, the good news is that our doings can be a catalyst for the next season to be better. So this month, soak up what nourishes you, stretch toward the light with the help of your own ecosystem. Let's go!
In this issue, we’ll share:
📱 New Product Developments
📅 Upcoming Events
🎙️ Podcast Special
Product News: Stories, Encryption Key, Space Activities
📸 Introducing Stories
Last time we told you that sometimes we need more than a boost for engagement- Now we’re excited to introduce Stories: a new way to connect, engage, and share moments with our community. Whether it’s a small win, an inspiring action, a question for your community, Stories let you share personal updates with your group?
How this is different than Boost? While Boosts are usually important updates and news from your Space admins or community leaders. Stories let individual users share both big updates and everyday moments, keeping the community connected in a more informal way. Try it out and let us know what you think of this new feature!
🔒 Encryption Key Backup
As you might know, Acter chats are what is called end-to-end-encrypted. That means that no other than the final devices the messages were sent to can decrypt those messages. Unfortunately, that also means that when you login out, and log in again to an existing account, you can’t decrypt any previously sent messages.
As a solution, we have now integrated new way of creating encryption keys right at the sign-up flow; upon registration, user will receive an unique key for easier user authentication. That key is then used to encrypt all your local encryption keys and store them on your home server. Therefore, remember to always store that key securely, either in some password manager, or write it out on a piece of paper and store that in a secure location.
As an existing user, you can also enable the encryption key backup, either from your settings or Activities tab. Find full information how to do all this here.
🚀 Space Activities
You might also have noticed something called Space Activities showing now on your Activities tab. We know some people prefer not to have notifications on, but still want to catch up on what you might have missed anytime.
Therefore, you can now easily keep track of everything happening in your space in one convenient place. In this way you can stay informed, even if you have notifications turned off.
Upcoming Events
📅 Demo Sessions - April & May
We have started to host monthly open Demo sessions for anyone that want to discover and know more about Acter. In these sessions, we’ll introduce Acter, walk you through the key features and answer any questions you have. One session lasts 60 minutes.
Register to the sessions here!
✊ Acter at Copenhagen People Power Conference 2025
We’ll be attending Copenhagen People Power Conference 8-10.4.2025, a gathering of activists, leaders and changemakers from around the world. This is a great opportunity to exchange ideas, explore new collaborations, and discuss the future of democracy.
If you are attending, come to talk to us, share insights, and learn more about what we’re working on. Whether you have questions, ideas, or feedback, we’d love to hear from you! If you’re interested in collaboration, let’s explore how we can work together.
Don’t hesitate to schedule a meeting in advance, we’d love to connect: community@acter.global. See you there!
Digital Activism Podcast
🎙️ Group-Chat-Leak Special: Is Signal messenger insecure?
In recent weeks, Signal Messenger has been making headlines due to a mishandling of information by the Trump Administration. As one of the most trusted end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms, particularly among activists and privacy-conscious users, Signal’s reputation has come under scrutiny, though not always for the right reasons.
Unfortunately, some of the reporting surrounding this issue has been misleading, creating confusion about Signal’s security and reliability. To clear up any misconceptions, we’re dedicating a special episode to breaking down exactly what happened and discussing what we can learn from this situation.
What does this controversy reveal about the challenges of digital privacy in an era of political and media scrutiny? Tune in as we unpack the facts and set the record straight. Listen to the full episode here!