Introducing the new and improved... MaraTalkThe news has been pretty quiet for the last couple of weeks as we were busy working on the new and improved MaraTalk. There was a rare moment while the June event was running that we had some spare time to focus on the new MaraTalk. Expecting to get a huge project like this done in a couple of weeks was a stretch and our unplanned, emergency maintenance July 1st delayed us even further.
The maintenance was a huge success (completed 8 hours earlier than estimated) and enough of MaraTalk is complete for us to officially release it now, allowing us to return to normal news and
release the event winners later this week.
Please remember that this is an ongoing project that will have lots of updates, changes and improvements over the coming weeks, months and years and that this news is just to keep you updated with the progress so far. Any glitches or errors you find, please report in the Help Forum and suggestions/ideas to the Editorial.
MaraTalk is our instant messenger and was first started in 2005. We were ahead of our times in many ways, giving players many different ways to communicate. Those who like to chat in a slower, simpler way have MaraMail, Forums, Club Chat and those who prefer fast, shorter instant chat have had MaraTalk. The new MaraTalk is an upgrade to the way that these chats happen -
they are not a replacement of the old way! This is an ongoing project and we have many, many exciting changes and additions to come but now is the time to announce some of the changes made so far...
The new
MaraTalk has many new features but the main improvement is that
Group Chat works again (it was closed for several years) and it is all 100% mobile friendly, fast, light on data and works on all devices. As MaraTalk really is only useful for those who like 'instant chat' we have made it faster, easier to switch between MaraTalk, Adult Chat, Group Chats, Private one to one chat and your Club Chat. They all use the same system and you receive real time alerts, sounds and notifications while you chat. You can open this full screen or in a new window - as its fully responsive, you can resize the window to the size and shape that works best for you.
New Features • New Addow and Bolimo themed Emojis and the full emoji dictionary (with every single skin tone)
• GIFs can be added to chat in one click, showing the current GIFs trending worldwide
• You can easily search to internet to find the GIF you are looking for
• The browser tab/window will flash New Message Alerts or make a sound when you receive a new message. You can control this setting for each chat
• A new organised Inbox keeps track of your conversations. You can hide these from your inbox and they will still show in your Talk History
• You can see who is currently online and inside each chat. Any messages you post will have 2 ticks and when these both turn yellow your message has been Seen. In a chat with more than one person, you can click this to see who saw your message and when!
• Each chat is much more "instant" showing you who is currently Typing a message and the time since a message was posted updates in real time
• You can create different Group Chat and add any players (who allow you to contact them via MaraTalk) to join your own private chat room
• You can @ Tag players with any of their usernames in each chat. Doing so in a Group Chat automatically adds them to the group
• Youtube video links (and a few other major video hosting sites) can now be shared in the new MaraTalk. The issue before was the unmoderated comments sections but videos you share now are processed here and you can watch the video direct from MaraTalk. You can even drag the video around the screen to the position you want it to be while you chat!
• BBCodes still work but you can also now easily share links. MaraPets approved safe links will automatically become links. All others can be clicked but this can take a few seconds to process, while it creates a screenshot preview of the site before you visit
• Mara.Pics is linked with each chat. More information about this is written below...
Our free image upload service
Mara.Pics is also linked with each chat. Simply press the Mara.Pics icon (the paperclip) and you'll be able to browse each of your folders and images. Simply press 'Share' and it will be added to any conversation. The upload icon also redirects you to Mara.Pics, automatically logging you in, to allow you to upload images with ease.
We have also integrated the site
Alerts into the new MaraTalk system. This new system is not a replacement, its in addition to the current Alerts system. The new system means you will not miss any site alerts while you are chatting. All alerts are grouped together by type and each can be viewed in order like a MaraTalk conversation. The benefit of this is that you can
Mute Specific Alerts - this is especially useful for those with lots of pets being inundated with Fairy Rewards!!
There are also new alerts that appear inside of MaraTalk conversations.
Club Chat will tell you when a new player joins the club, leaves the club and close to 500 more messages in the club. MaraTalk will tell everyone when a Random Event prize is won inside that chat and when a player is about to hit another 1,000 message count goal.
And finally, the way that
Feeds work has been improved. As Feeds are designed to be instant like MaraTalk, they have been integrated into this new system and follow a similar design. Feeds will update automatically in real time whenever you have this feature opened. It can be opened in full screen, a new tab or resized to suit your needs. There will be lots of new features and improvements coming to feeds in the future too!
