We’ve had a lot of feedback here at HipChat and it’s a constant challenge to figure out what things we should do first. We always try to fit in user requests among the long list of tasks we have. Here are two of the latest updates:

Paste images directly into HipChat

Now you no longer have to save images to a file in order to upload them to HipChat. Just copy directly from your web browser or image editing program and paste into the message area in the desktop client (sorry, web users, this is a benefit only available to the desktop client right now).

We’re also letting you change the name of uploaded files, so you don’t fill your sidebar with things like “Picture 1″ or “upload.png”:

Paste an image from the clipboard

Change room privacy settings

Several people have contacted us wondering how they can change a room from public to private (or vise versa). Sadly, we’ve always had to tell them the feature wasn’t availble…until now. In both the desktop client and the web, when you choose “Manage permissions” for a room (you have to be a group admin or owner of the room), it will present you with a dialog to control whether the room is public or private. Now you don’t need to send an email and wait for us to change it manually.

Change room privacy settings

Getting the update

Many of our updates lately have been ‘minor’ – that means you won’t be bothered by a popup window telling you it’s available. To check if there’s an update for your client you can hit ctrl/cmd-u while running HipChat. If you’re using a recent version of the client, you can also check for updates by using the top level menu on Mac (under HipChat -> Check For Updates…), or the system tray icon on Windows (right-click and choose Check For Updates).