March Update: Event Visibility, Chat Admins and Ensemble Functions

March brings a series of innovations that noticeably improve everyday life in Chorilo. The focus is on more control over event visibility, stronger differentiation in chat management, new options for polls and significantly more flexible management of ensemble functions. In addition, we have optimized usability in many areas and added further features that affect both the web application and the mobile app.

Targeted Event Visibility Control

Not every event in a choir concerns all members. A sectional rehearsal is only relevant for certain voice parts, a board meeting only for the board, and a rehearsal weekend perhaps only for a specific permission group. Until now, all events were visible to all members, which could quickly lead to a full and confusing calendar in active ensembles.

With the new visibility control, you can specify exactly who may see each event. The restriction works across three dimensions: permission groups, ensemble functions and voice parts. You can freely combine these criteria. An event can, for example, only be visible to the soprano section, or only to members with the "Board" function, or only to a specific permission group. Members who do not fall within the selected criteria will not see the event in the event list or calendar and will not receive any notifications about it.

The visibility control works both in the web application and in the mobile app. When creating or editing an event, you simply select the desired restrictions. Administrators and moderators continue to see all events regardless of visibility settings, in order to maintain an overview of the entire programme.

Group Chat Administrators

The chat function has received an important extension: administrators can now be specifically designated in group chats. Previously, only the creator of a group chat could change settings, add or remove members and manage the chat. This was impractical when the creator was unavailable or when multiple people needed to take over management.

From now on, chat creators and existing chat administrators can designate additional members as administrators. These then receive the same management rights: they can change the group name and description, add or remove members, adjust access restrictions and also appoint other members as administrators. The feature is available both in the web application and in the mobile app and makes managing group chats significantly more flexible.

Poll Deadlines

Polls in notifications can now be given a deadline. When creating a poll, you can optionally set an end date after which no more votes can be cast. This is particularly useful when you need binding feedback by a certain point in time, for example for planning a group dinner after a concert or for selecting a rehearsal weekend.

The deadline is clearly displayed in the poll, so all members know by when they can vote. After the deadline has passed, the results are frozen and the poll is closed. The result remains visible, of course. The feature is available in the web application.

Audio Export in the App

Many choirs attach practice files as audio attachments to their sheet music. In the mobile app, these files could previously be played but not exported. This changes with the new audio export: audio files attached to sheet music can now be shared or exported to other applications directly from the app. This allows members to play practice files in their preferred music app, for example, or forward them to other people.

Ensemble Functions with History

The management of ensemble functions has been fundamentally expanded. Previously, it was possible to assign functions such as "Chairperson", "Treasurer" or "Music Librarian" to members. What was missing was traceability: who held which function and when? Especially for associations with regular board elections or changing responsibilities, this information is important.

From now on, a history entry is automatically created for every change to an ensemble function. You can see when a member took on a function and when they relinquished it. The history is displayed both in the web application and in the mobile app and gives you a complete documentation of all function changes. This facilitates the handover of offices and creates transparency within the ensemble.

Jump Areas in Sheet Music

Many choral pieces contain repeats, da capos and jumps that require quick navigation through the sheet music during rehearsals. With the new jump areas feature, authorised persons such as choir directors or moderators can pre-define jump areas for a piece of sheet music. These mark specific positions in the PDF that can be quickly jumped to during rehearsal.

Once jump areas have been created, all members of the ensemble automatically receive them in their app. Anyone who wants to adopt the jump areas later can import them at any time. Especially for pieces with many repeats and complex jump sequences, this saves considerable time in rehearsals because nobody has to laboriously scroll through pages any more.

Pagination with Memory

A small but very useful detail in everyday use: lists in the web application now remember your last page position. If you were on page 3 of the members list, then edited a member and returned, you will land back on page 3 instead of page 1. The position is saved for ten minutes. This saves many unnecessary clicks when working with long lists.

Accessibility in the App

The mobile app has been supplemented with further accessibility features. The high contrast mode provides better readability for users with visual impairments and font enlargement adapts all texts to individual needs. Both features can be activated in the app's profile settings. Screen reader optimisation for assistive technologies such as VoiceOver or TalkBack is automatically active and improves usability without any additional settings.

Further Improvements

Muted chats are now marked with a clear icon in the app, so you can see at a glance which conversations are muted. The calculation of new messages in the chat list has been improved, making the display of unread messages even more reliable. A bug that could occur under certain circumstances when creating cashbooks has been fixed. We have also optimised chat performance and made numerous smaller corrections to the user interface.

We are continuously working to make Chorilo better. If you have ideas for new features or encounter problems, we would love to hear from you. Use the AI chatbot, the feature request function, or send us an email.