Nextcloud has announced immediate availability of Nextcloud Hub 21, adding performance improvement and important new collaboration features in Text, Talk, Groupware and Files.

According to the company, the new High Performance Back-end for Files in particular reduces server load from desktop clients and web interface polling by 90% while delivering instant notifications and file changes to users.

Optimizations to app loading and database queries as well as a range of specific scenarios like the usage of Text, Object storage, LDAP group handling and more deliver up to twice more responsive user experience.

New client preview features will also result in more responsive mobile clients and the unified search was optimized for various apps, the company added. PHP 8 compatibility can bring an additional performance boost to Nextcloud deployments.

The High Performance Back-end for Files in Nextcloud is an optional, binary component developed in Rust. It is capable of maintaining a direct connection with desktop and web clients, providing file change and notification updates to the clients.

According to the company, the performance improvements in database use, file handling and app specific work combined with the high performance back-end are expected to result in an up to 10x increase in capacity of large Nextcloud servers.

To improve team coordination, Nextcloud Hub 21 introduces a collaborative Whiteboard app, allowing users to draw, take notes and upload images during a call or on their own. This release also introduces author colors in Text, making it easier to track activity during a collaborative editing session.

Nextcloud Hub 21 is compatible with the latest PHP 8 and drops compatibility with PHP 7.2.

The release is available for immediate download. Existing users will receive an update notification over the coming weeks.