Changelog

New sidebar design

We re-designed the sidebar to be more compact and scalable for upcoming features. It now shows more information and teams are sectioned better. Under each team, you can find their issues grouped into open and closed views. You'll also have the ability to see all issues in a list in addition to the existing board view.

Together with the sidebar, we improved headers for better navigation and issue counts. We also added issue filters to all list views so it's easier to drill down issues based on different parameters.

Copy issue ID and git branch name

To make it faster to copy the issue ID or suggested git branch name, we added icons to the issue view sidebar for them. You'll still be able to get them through the action menu but this change should make copying easier for users who prefer to use a mouse.

Other improvements and fixes

• Unified view components for different lists
• App icon for iOS devices when saved to the home screen
• Improved Slack notifications
• New view for editing issue states

First-time user experience

This week we made major improvements to the sign in and first-time user experience: everyone in your team will now get an introduction to the command menu and other Linear features.

If you are an existing user, you can initiate first-time introduction through the command menu by searching for "welcome tutorial."

Keyboard shortcuts

Redesigned the keyboard shortcuts page with a new design and added all the supported shortcuts. Hit ? to bring up the keyboard shortcuts.

Emoji autocomplete

Typing : in any of the issue descriptions or comments now brings up the emoji autocomplete.

Slack /linear command

In addition to the "More actions" message action, you can now open the new issue dialog with /linear command to file new issues quickly from Slack.

Loading state

While we don't like seeing loading states in the app, having one for the initial load and browser refresh is necessary. We improved design with a subtle logo animation.

Other improvements & fixes

• Updated favicon
• Fixed bugs in GitHub integration and removed source code access from permissions
• Fixed keyboard navigation in Inbox
• Fixed sub-issue actions to focus on the correct sub-issue
• Moved add team functionality to settings page

Creating new issues via email

This week we added the ability to create new issues via email. Perfect for when one of your users emails you a bug report. Simply forward it to your team's email address (you can find the correct email address in your team's settings). The subject of the email becomes the issue's title and the body the description.

Board enhancements

Boards received some love this week, too. You can now easily archive all issues in a board column using the column's drop-down menu. Perfect for when you want to archive all completed issues at the end of the week. Next to the drop-down menu, there's a nifty short-cut to creating new issues for the column.

Jump to an issue via the command menu

You can now use the command menu to jump directly to an issue if you now it's identifier. For example, if you type lin-123, the command menu will search for an issue with that identifier and let you instantly navigate to it.

Other improvements & fixes

• Fixed issues potentially appearing in two board columns at the same time when creating them
• Overly long issue titles now don't break layout anymore
• Synchronization across users of the organization now works more reliably

Linear desktop app

We released our desktop application for macOS this week. It uses the same Javascript/React application we build for the web, but with the Electron wrapper you get nicer notifications, dock badge for unread messages, and most importantly: it's always on. Together with the new application we refreshed our logo (thanks @maxvoltar!) and redesigned the login page.

New settings

Settings views have been combined into one area. This makes navigating personal and team settings easier. GitHub and Slack integration capabilities are also explained in more detail.

Better notifications

We added emails for unread notifications. They are only sent if you were to miss them in the desktop app. We do want to keep your email inbox for more important messages.

Desktop notifications have been redesigned so that titles and descriptions are easier to read. Issues marked as Urgent will also require user interaction as we don't want you to miss them.

Other improvements

• Inbox's "mark all as read" has been re-mapped to Shift+Esc shortcut and it's now also outside the Inbox view.
• New action for adding a comment to an issue was added (Cmd+Shift+M)
• Internal links have been fixed and they will load significantly faster. You can also paste an issue ID into a description or comment and it's linked automatically.
• Issue actions have been cleaned and un-relevant ones have been removed from the new issue view.

New features

Option to display usernames or real names

Those of us who grew up with IRC, forums and games, we love display and nicknames. To give more control over display and real names in Linear, we added a setting to prefer one or the other. If you use display names, you can still see the other user's real name in their profile by clicking the name.

Improvements

• Improved git branch name generation by changing format and breaking at full words.
• Better error experience for frontend exceptions and ability to reset the client.
• User autocomplete now supports both usernames and display names.
• New welcome email for newly signed up users.
• Fixes related to Safari on iOS. We improved the experience for iPad but are still working on mobile phone support.