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Substr Progress

A public view into what has already been built, what recently improved, and how Substr is steadily taking shape as a home for communities.

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Built in public

What has already been built

Substr is already much further along than a landing page and a pitch. Communities exist, threads are live, people can join corners, post in different formats, save things for later, tune the interface, and manage spaces with more intention.

This page is here so visitors can see that progress instead of guessing. It is not a promise board. It is a public snapshot of what is already real.

Open SubstrRead the vision
At a glance
Post types live
5

Discussion, Link, Media, Poll, Q&A

Personal layer
Saved

Bookmarks and collections are live

Live layer
Shipped

Substr communities can now carry live streams and chat

Direction
Sequenced

Nostr-native where it fits, careful where the standards still need time

Community foundations

Substrs can be created, managed, moderated, joined, and shaped into spaces with their own identity and structure.

Community ownership and team management
Join and leave states in the hero
Context-aware community cards and mobile sidebar sheet

New conversation formats

Posting is no longer just one flat thread type. Substr already supports richer community-native formats.

Polls with voting and results logic
Q&A threads with accepted answers
Media, link, and discussion flows cleaned up

Personal utility

People can keep track of what matters to them instead of losing good threads inside moving feeds.

Saved posts
Custom collections
Quick save and manage flows from cards
Substr on desktop

Recent product milestones

Milestone 22

Long-form publishing through NIP-23

Substr can now carry longer writing natively, so communities are no longer limited to short feed posts and quick discussion threads.

Live
Dedicated long-form composer flow
Article-style reading pages inside substrs
Longer community updates, essays, and guides now fit the product properly
Long-form publishing now sits alongside discussion, link, media, poll, and Q&A formats
Milestone 21

Atmospheric themes and stronger visual identity

The interface now has a richer mood layer, with atmospheric backgrounds that make presets feel more alive instead of just changing flat UI colors.

Live
Atmospheric page backgrounds tied into the active theme system
Intensity controls so the effect can stay subtle or become more expressive
About and info pages now share the same visual atmosphere instead of feeling detached
Theme persistence and dark-first loading behavior were tightened so the product feels more deliberate from first paint
Milestone 20

Shared Nostr events and repost compatibility

Substr can now share external Nostr events in a way that feels native inside communities while still behaving correctly across other clients.

Live
New Share Nostr Event composer flow with preview and source diagnostics
Shared event cards now resolve richer content (mentions, links, media, video) instead of raw URLs
Thread and feed actions target the original event for likes, zaps, and replies
Publishing behavior aligns with repost expectations so other clients can read the action correctly
Milestone 19

Signer onboarding v2

Account creation and signer access now feel like a complete onboarding flow instead of a technical setup dialog.

Live
Mobile signer and account-creation flow now runs fullscreen for cleaner focus
Create account now uses a clearer multi-step wizard with fixed step navigation
Backup and profile setup are separated into explicit steps with stronger completion feedback
Verify with PIN stays compact for quick re-auth actions while the main flow remains immersive
Milestone 18

Live streams inside substrs

Substr now has its first real live layer for communities, without trying to become a video host itself.

Live
Moderators can attach an existing live Nostr event to a substr
Live streams surface in the /s/ hero and stay pinned above the feed while they are active
Dedicated live page with player, chat, share, zap flow, and relay-aware stream handling
Live chat now reads and publishes into the same live event layer other Nostr clients use
Milestone 17

Community space cards for moderators

Moderators can now shape the right-side community space with clearer, purpose-driven cards instead of one generic block.

Live
Space settings moved into a cleaner dedicated manage area
Custom sidebar card can carry a community message with editable title and body
Social links card supports platform icons and compact quick-access links
Useful links card supports curated title + URL entries for community resources
Milestone 16

Signer flow cleanup

Connecting a signer is now much clearer, especially on mobile, and no longer leans so heavily on one specific app path.

Live
QR connect, Nostr Connect link, and manual bunker setup in one calmer flow
Cleaner mobile-first signer modal and account creation header
More neutral signer copy instead of overly Amber-specific wording
Better fallback behavior when opening a signer app is not the only workable path
Milestone 15

Settings and account polish

A lot of settings work has shifted from functional-but-rough to something that feels more deliberate and easier to trust.

Live
Save buttons now show success state inside the button itself
Notification settings got a cleaner desktop detail view and less noisy copy
Relay settings became more compact with inline info and clearer status signals
Profile/account menus now show more useful identity context instead of repeating raw npubs
Milestone 14

Explore and community discovery

The discovery layer is getting sharper, with less wasted UI and faster actions directly from the cards themselves.

Live
Explore header simplified into one cleaner discovery block
Join and joined actions now live directly on substr cards
Broken or low-value sort controls were removed instead of left half-working
Community cards and discovery UI keep being tightened around feed intent instead of generic browsing
Milestone 13

Safety and content controls

Substr now has its first real sensitive-content layer instead of leaving all viewing behavior flat and global.

Live
Posts can be marked as NSFW during creation
Communities can block NSFW posts through their content policy
Users can hide NSFW content in Substr settings
Media previews can now be blurred by preference and revealed manually
Milestone 12

Media posting and viewing

Media posts have become much more capable, from upload to reading, instead of relying on pasted links alone.

Live
Image uploads for media posts via nostr.build
Image quality presets before posting
Image lightbox with blur backdrop and scroll lock
Portrait images now stay fully visible instead of cropping awkwardly
Milestone 11

Feed and card polish

A lot of recent work has gone into making cards cleaner, more compact, and more stable across mobile and desktop.

Live
Mobile full-bleed media in feed and thread cards
Cleaner expand and collapse flow for longer post text
My feed no longer mixes in pinned posts
Joined and discovery feed behavior has been tightened up
Milestone 10

Profile and community utility

Community spaces and personal profiles now have more of the supporting UI they need to feel complete.

Live
See all members modal from the /s/ sidebar
Follow and profile actions inside member lists
Lightning address surfaced on profile headers when available
Profile names and avatars resolve more consistently across the app
Milestone 9

Installability and web app polish

Substr now behaves more like a deliberate mobile web app instead of just a website with app-shaped pages.

Live
Installable manifest and app icons
Mobile install flow and standalone-friendly setup
Minimal service worker foundation
Search indexing signals improved through favicon and sitemap cleanup
Milestone 8

Relay and publishing improvements

Publishing behavior has been tightened so posts and media have a better chance of showing up consistently across clients.

Live
Longer relay ack handling and clearer publish success tracking
Default relay coverage has been tightened toward a smaller, healthier core set
Rebroadcast post action from the post menu
NIP-98 authenticated uploads for external media hosting
Milestone 7

Remote signer flow

Remote signer and bunker-based signing now behave like real account access instead of a half-saved identity state.

Live
NIP-46 bunker signing wired into auth
Signer app connection flow
Server auth after successful remote connect
Cleaner signer dialog with QR, copy-link and manual fallback options
Milestone 6

Account and signer flow

Multi-account handling became more understandable, faster to switch, and better aligned with the mobile experience.

Live
PIN modal refined with clearer copy and branding
Account switching now refreshes viewer state correctly
Locked local accounts can jump straight into PIN entry
Milestone 5

Polls

Substr now supports polls as a real post type instead of treating everything as generic discussion.

Live
Up to 4 options
Optional image support
Results visibility and close-date settings
Votes render in feed and thread views
Milestone 4

Q&A

Question posts now feel different from ordinary threads, with answer-driven UI instead of one flat reply stream.

Live
Ask-a-question composer flow
Answer-focused thread layout
Accepted answer support
Answered state visible in feed cards
Milestone 3

Saved and collections

People can save posts for later and organize them into named collections without making the flow heavy.

Live
Save page
Collections create and rename
Bookmark modal on cards
Per-account saved state
Milestone 2

Appearance and theming

The customizer has grown into a real product layer, with better persistence and more account-aware behavior.

Live
Preset saving and cross-page persistence
Per-account theme state
Sidebar layout persistence
Cleaner bright and dark switching
Milestone 1

Mobile polish

A lot of recent work has focused on making Substr feel intentional on phones instead of merely usable.

Live
Compacter headers and hero layouts
Sticky mobile reply composer on /p/
Community sidebar sheet from hero
Cleaner feed and thread card headers

What this means

Substr is being shaped as something slower, more intentional, and more community-first than the usual social feed. That does not happen through one big launch. It happens through steady product work, testing, refinement, and a lot of small decisions that improve how the platform feels.

The goal is still the same: keep Substr free to use, light on noise, and aligned with a more open internet. This page simply makes the progress visible.

Some of the biggest decisions are still being made in the open too. Communities are currently living on the Substr layer while moderation, discovery, ranking, and infrastructure keep maturing, and the longer-term goal is still to move more of that closer to open Nostr standards when the time and relay support are right.

What we are refining now

Keep refining the live stream experience, especially around support signals, stream actions, and moderation visibility
Keep tightening the mobile reading and posting experience
Keep improving how relay strategy stays reliable without becoming noisy
Keep shaping how more of the community layer can eventually move toward open Nostr standards where it actually fits
Make creator-led and show-led communities easier to understand
This section can later expand into a fuller public roadmap or update log as Substr keeps growing.

Still early, already real

Substr is still early, but it is no longer just an idea. The community layer, posting system, personal utility, theming, moderation flow, and mobile experience are all being actively shaped into something people can actually use.

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