Franz speaks French again.

A request from the founder.

Franz has been downloaded more than a million times since 2016. Some of you have been here for most of that run. Others signed up only recently, to follow along from a distance. I'm glad of both, and this issue I would like to hear from you.

So we are building a page. A wall of the people who stuck with Franz, in their own words. Not marketing copy. Yours.

If Franz is part of your day, here is the ask. Write to me and tell me what you love about it: what it replaces, how long you have used it, the one thing you could not do without. If you are happy for it to go on the wall, say so, and let me know I can use your first name and last initial. Want your face up there too? Attach a photo and I will feature it.

And if you have not made Franz part of your day yet, I still want your reply. Tell me what is keeping you on the fence, or what you are hoping it could do for you. That mail is worth as much to me as any story, because it tells me what to build next. If you have been meaning to give it a go, here is where to start →.

And if Franz frustrates you, tell me that as well. I read every reply, and the honest mail is the part of this job that actually makes the product better.

Franz speaks French again.

Franz 6 was rebuilt from the ground up, and its languages have to be rebuilt with it. Today French rejoins the app, entièrement, alongside the German that was already there. You will find it in Settings, under Language.

The old Franz spoke a dozen languages, and we are bringing them back, one careful translation at a time instead of a heap of half-finished ones. The order is where you come in. Rather than guess it, we would like you to set it: reply to this dispatch and tell us the language you want next. The bureau counts every vote, and the count decides what we work on first.

News from the workbench

• We made Franz quieter about your data. Privacy got sharper this release. The new bit: hover any link to see where it really goes before you click, then hold a modifier as you click to choose Franz or your system browser. The controls you already had improved too. Blocking trackers in a service, and allowing or denying a camera or microphone request, are now faster, more reliable, and easier to use.
• A new About page, and a door into Beta. Settings now keeps your update info in one place, and from there you can opt your account into beta builds to get new features first. It follows your account, so every device you sign in on comes along.
• Three more services. Zalo, imo and BiP joined the catalog.
• And a healthy round of bug squashing. Dark mode that stays dark, a smoother sign-up and onboarding, popups that size themselves right, and email sync that no longer trips over one bad account.

— Stefan, founder of Franz