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| title: "fastest cobalt yet, new youtube features, translation platform, and a lot more" | |
| date: "4 Nov, 2024" | |
| banner: | |
| file: "meowbalt_very_fast.webp" | |
| alt: "meowbalt absolutely zooming through space and time (only meowbalt and his speed trail are pictured)." | |
| ## oh-so-fast | |
| starting from this update, cobalt can run several instances in parallel, reducing load on individual instances and making it much faster. | |
| previously cobalt ran on *only one thread*, and it's honestly impressive that it lasted this long. | |
| we tested cobalt under peak traffic load & same network conditions: | |
| - initial request processing is now **~14 times faster than before**. | |
| - starting a tunnel is now **~32 times faster**. | |
| <div style="display: flex; justify-content: center;"> | |
| | | 10.2 | **10.3** | | |
| |-------------------|---------|------------| | |
| | processing | 14780ms | **1070ms** | | |
| | starting a tunnel | 11660ms | **360ms** | | |
| </div> | |
| these tests weren't really scientific as we based them on screen recordings, | |
| but the point still stands: cobalt no longer slows down and runs as fast as it can. | |
| ## youtube improvements | |
| - added a [new hls option](/settings/video#youtube-hls) that allows for downloading *more formats* of youtube videos. | |
| - fixed an issue that caused long youtube videos to get abruptly cut off. if you still experience this issue, try enabling the [new hls option](/settings/video#youtube-hls) in settings! | |
| - added an option to [pick any audio track language](/settings/audio#youtube-dub) for youtube videos in settings. all languages that youtube supports are listed, cobalt will fall back to default if preferred language isn't available. | |
| - if a [youtube codec](/settings/video#youtube-codec) isn't available, cobalt will now fall back to the next best one. | |
| ## meet weblate, a place where you can translate cobalt | |
| we're finally ready to invite you to translate cobalt to any language you like! your translation contributions are linked to your github account, so you'll show up in cobalt's contributors list. | |
| you can start translating cobalt at [i18n.imput.net](https://i18n.imput.net/) right now! | |
| thank you for showing such an overwhelming amount of interest in making cobalt more accessible around the world, we really appreciate it! | |
| ## other service improvements | |
| - added support for bookmark links from twitter. | |
| - fixed parsing of some mobile tiktok links. | |
| - fixed twitter gifs having an incorrect extension in the content picker. | |
| - fixed a bug that broke downloading older (shorter) links from streamable. | |
| - fixed video downloading from odnoklassniki (ok.ru). | |
| ## ui/ux improvements | |
| - [always-on file tunneling](/settings/privacy#tunnel) is out of beta! feel free to use it if your isp tracks or filters your internet traffic. | |
| - redesigned the [community & support page](/about/community), added bluesky and removed support email. | |
| - improved the debug page: added a button to copy data, added current states, fixed padding. if you're curious, it can be enabled in [advanced settings](/settings/advanced#debug). | |
| - reduced timeouts on action buttons in security warning popups as they were very annoying before. | |
| - added a message about cobalt not being fully usable without javascript when the page is loaded without it. | |
| - improved contrast of all emoji icons on the home/save page. | |
| - improved contrast of the toggle button. | |
| - fixed the color of text selection, it's no longer hideous. | |
| - audio bitrate section now gets greyed out when it's not applicable. | |
| - fixed cursor state (pointer, arrow, etc) on various buttons. | |
| - fixed a bug when iphone landscape mode optimizations were applied incorrectly (fix for a bug in ios firefox). | |
| - various text/phrasing improvements across ui. | |
| - small padding improvements across ui. | |
| - other small improvements. | |
| ## documentation improvements | |
| - all [documentation on github](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt) was majorly improved. all projects and docs are now listed in the main readme. all docs are now easier to read and follow. | |
| - added a new document outlining all [instance protection methods](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/blob/main/docs/protect-an-instance.md) along with step-by-step tutorials on how to configure them. | |
| - added a tutorial for [configuring a cobalt instance for youtube downloading](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/blob/main/docs/configure-for-youtube.md). | |
| - updated [contribution guidelines](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md). | |
| - updated [examples](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/tree/main/docs/examples) for cookie & docker compose files. we now recommend running cobalt api as **read only** image, as it ensures that it wasn't tampered with. we do it on our servers, too. | |
| ## internal improvements for nerds | |
| - added support for api keys, api instance hosters are now able to limit access to a set of people. you can see [how to configure them on github](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/blob/main/docs/protect-an-instance.md#configure-api-keys). | |
| - cobalt api docker image is now running alpine & node 23. it's also much smaller than before. | |
| - instances now log whether they were able to load cookies or api keys. no more guessing if your config works or not. | |
| - updated the console error when cobalt api is configured incorrectly. | |
| - majorly refactored the youtube module. | |
| - lots of general api code refactoring. | |
| - improved settings schema migration on frontend. | |
| - removed outdated api functions, util scripts, and docs. | |
| ## fixed a XSS vulnerability that wasn't exploited | |
| a malicious cobalt instance could serve links with the javascript: protocol, resulting in XSS when the user tries to download an item from a picker. | |
| as far as we know, this vulnerability was never found and exploited in the wild, but we still urge all frontend instance hosters to **update their instances asap**. cobalt.tools and all other instances that configured CSP correctly weren't affected by this vulnerability. | |
| this issue was fully fixed in [c4be1d3](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/commit/c4be1d3a37b0deb6b6087ec7a815262ac942daf1) and [an advisory with CVE was posted on github](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/security/advisories/GHSA-cm4c-v4cm-3735). | |
| if you ever discover a security vulnerability in cobalt, please report it responsibly [on github](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/security/advisories/new). we'll make sure to fix it as soon as possible! | |
| ## where's 10.2? | |
| we were very excited to release the first part of changes, so we bumped the version early. then, we decided to make cobalt faster, so now we're at 10.3! | |
| *we also silently released changes in prod before the announcement, teehee :3c* | |
| ## all changes are on github | |
| as always, you can check [all commits since the 10.1 release on github](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt/compare/f461b02...c021293) for even more details. | |
| we hope you enjoy this update as much as you enjoy fresh air, because it really feels like one! | |
| \~ your friends at imput ❤️ |