# Current Projects - September 2025
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033
**Category:** Announcements
**Tags:** current-projects
**Created:** [September 26, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033 "2025-09-26T15:02:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lindsey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lindsey)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/1 "2025-09-26T15:02:12Z")
## Current Projects - September 2025
Welcome to _ **Current Projects** _, a monthly newsletter about what we’re currently working on at Discourse. With our recent annual meetup in Prague, this was a slightly quieter month than usual, but there are still some exciting projects to report on.
Your questions and feedback are welcome!
## Kicking off
### Simplified topics list
We’ve been testing improvements to the New and Unread topics lists by combining them into a single view, with subviews for new topics (New) and topics with new replies (Unread). We’re preparing to make this view the default for new communities. Existing communities can implement this functionality today via the experimental\_new\_new\_view\_groups setting, and you can demo it today on Meta by [joining the testing group](https://meta.discourse.org/g/new-new-testers).
### Introducing a new versioning system
We’re planning to introduce a new versioning system for Discourse. Our goal is to provide more choice and predictability for community administrators, while maintaining our development velocity. We’re also adjusting some terminology to align better with other software. For more information, check out [the RFC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rfc-a-new-versioning-strategy-for-discourse/383536).
## In full swing
### Review queue refresh
The review queue in Discourse is currently receiving an extensive makeover. While this work is still heavily in-development, some of the standout features are consistent moderation actions, separate actions for users and content, moderator notes, reviewable timelines, a smoother moderator experience, and much more. The initial features will be available for beta testing soon.
### Updating our lightbox to improve image viewing
We’re working on a proof of concept for an updated lightbox functionality to improve the experience of viewing images and related files on Discourse. We’ll be testing among our team to make sure it meets our needs before proceeding with implementation.
### Discovery: AI Conversation Search
After shipping an experimental version of conversational search results powered by Discourse AI, we are polishing the feature to get it ready for prime time in all Discourse instances.
## Wrapping up
### Improving our welcome banner feature
We are finishing up our improvements to the welcome banner and will soon proceed with migrating users on the Search Banner theme component over to the core feature.
### Dynamic color palette management
We’ve been hard at work improving our color palette system by making it easier to implement your brand’s colors, simplifying the management of different palettes, and separating light and dark mode palettes for more robust dark mode support. [These updates](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/announcements/67/color-palettes) are available in your Discourse site today, and together result in a streamlined process for implementing and managing your site’s colors.
### AI translations: admin dashboard improvements
We are adding the finishing touches to our translation progress admin dashboard, including a simplified UX, dark mode compatibility, and improvements to page performance.
### Rendering modernization
Our long-term project to modernize the rendering technology of Discourse is now reaching an end, with the final deprecations now in place. The vast majority of sites are already using the new implementation. Any sites that aren’t ready yet will see warning banner with a link to [the post stream update docs](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upcoming-post-stream-changes-how-to-prepare-themes-and-plugins/372063), or the more general [widget docs](https://meta.discourse.org/t/upcoming-eol-for-the-widget-rendering-system/375332).
### Bringing Discourse ID to self-hosters
We recently enabled the new [Discourse ID](https://id.discourse.com/) service on Meta and wrote about [how it works](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-discourse-id-works/379565) and have now made registration available for self-hosted sites! We’re continuing to ship improvements to this service.
---
### Author:  [@schneeland](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schneeland)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/2 "2025-09-26T15:43:36Z")
> [@lindsey](#):
>
> We’ve been testing improvements to the New and Unread topics lists by combining them into a single view, with subviews for new topics (New) and topics with new replies (Unread).
Was the design updated since this was tested the last time? (I think last year?)
I had some concerns back then, because a) something that now takes 1 click, took 2 under the unified design, and b) new topics and new replies are really not created equal IMO.
But if the design was revised, maybe this is addressed already.
---
### Author:  [@lindsey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lindsey)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/3 "2025-09-26T16:14:35Z")
> [@schneeland](#):
>
> Was the design updated since this was tested the last time? (I think last year?)
I don’t _think_ so, but I’m not certain. I’d recommend joining [the testing group](https://meta.discourse.org/g/new-new-testers) here on Meta so you can see how it works.
With this change, New and Unread are brought together under a single “New” list, but with subtabs to distinguish between new topics and replies. So there’s still a way to review those lists separately, but the one-click view shows them all together:
Please note that we’re planning to make this a change to the default setting for new sites; we will not be forcing existing sites to use this system, and new communities will be able to use the legacy New / Unread lists if they prefer.
---
### Author:  [@schneeland](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schneeland)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/4 "2025-09-26T16:40:49Z")
Ok, thanks! That is the design I remember, and I think my criticism remains.
I’ll probably elaborate a bit further later, but I’ll join the tester group and will double check first.
---
### Author:  [@roke\_julian\_lockhart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/roke_julian_lockhart)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2026, 11:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/5 "2026-03-19T11:37:27Z")
> [@lindsey](#):
>
> We recently enabled the new [Discourse ID](https://id.discourse.com/) service on Meta
@lindsey, I don’t see it, at `u/$USER/preferences/account`, on _`meta`_. I do observe it elsewhere, however:
> [@Discourse ID is now available. Try it today!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-id-is-now-available-try-it-today/385007/1):
>
> We’re happy to announce that [Discourse ID](https://id.discourse.com/) can now be enabled on all Discourse sites, including both [hosted](https://discourse.org/pricing) and self-hosted sites!
Is it deliberately disabled here?
---
### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2026, 11:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/6 "2026-03-19T11:39:30Z")
Do you use 2fa?
> [@Discourse ID is now available. Try it today!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-id-is-now-available-try-it-today/385007/15):
>
> Do you use 2-factor authentication? Otherwise, you should see this section between your email and name field.
---
### Author:  [@roke\_julian\_lockhart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/roke_julian_lockhart)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2026, 12:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/current-projects-september-2025/384033/7 "2026-03-19T12:41:33Z")
@Moin, I am. Thanks. ~~Does an FR exist to allow OAuth2 SSO with 2FA enabled? I ask because other platforms certainly permit these simultaneously active.~~
> [@Why is 2FA incompatible with Associated Accounts?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-2fa-incompatible-with-associated-accounts/355387/3):
>
> Well, the reason being is that your associated accounts can also be compromised, and AFAIK associated accounts bypass the 2FA restriction on forum accounts. That is why 2FA suppresses associated accounts. Associated accounts can be compromised, especially without 2FA allowing bad-actors to therefore, log into your forum account as well. However, there is a site setting you can modify to stop 2FA-accounts from suppressing associated account logins. It’s named Enforce second factor on external au…