The development cycle for the 2026.04 release enters the last stage before the stable release – today we have branched off the 2026.04 release candid branch. 2026.04-rc contains all the features of the stable release and is meant to test the new features, find some last rough edges and smooth out the path to the final stable release at the mid of May. If you want to help out in testing, please checkout the new 2026.04-rc branch and report problems that you encounter.

The most notable changes in this release are:

• We raised the minimal PHP version on the server to PHP 8.2 please make sure that your setup fulfills the new requirement,
• UI improvements in mainly in the frio theme,
• improved support of Bridgy Fed and the ATproto account integration,
• we added a new addon to ease the handling of images.

What is Friendica

Friendica is a decentralized communications platform, you can use to host your own social media server that integrates with independent social networking platforms (like the Fediverse or Diaspora*) but also some commercial ones like Tumbler and BlueSky.

How to use the 2026.04 RC Version of Friendica

If you want to help in the release process, you can checkout the 2024.06-rc branch from the git repositories.
git fetch
git checkout 2026.04-rc
git pull
bin/composer.phar run install:prod
cd addon
git fetch
git checkout 2026.04-rc
git pull
Note that you only need to pull the composer dependencies in the core repository.

Should the upgrade process of the database get stuck

If you encounter this, please initiate the DB update manually from the command line by running the script
./bin/console dbstructure update
from the base of your Friendica installation. If the output contains any error message, please let us know using the channels mentioned above.
What to do with Quirks

The 2026.04-rc phase is meant to identify and preferable resolve quirks and bugs that should not be in the 2026.05 release, but have slipped through so far. So if you switch your node to the 2026.04-rc version of Friendica, please let us know about rough edges you find, either at the issue tracker (github account required), in the support group or in the developers group.

Thanks a lot for helping with the release

friendi.ca/2026/04/30/friendic…