# Unboxing Discourse 3.5
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249
**Category:** Blog
**Created:** [August 19, 2025, 8:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249 "2025-08-19T08:04:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hugh)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 8:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/1 "2025-08-19T08:04:48Z")
After six months of steady improvements in our beta releases, we’re excited to announce our latest release, Discourse 3.5. This release, we focused on improving both the member and community management experience. We’ve rolled out Horizon, our sleek modern theme; a new composer option that makes creating and responding to topics simpler; streamlined color management with updated dark mode settings; automatic site translations; and much more.
* * *
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://blog.discourse.org/2025/08/unboxing-discourse-3-5](https://blog.discourse.org/2025/08/unboxing-discourse-3-5)
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/2 "2025-08-19T10:31:36Z")
> [@Discourse](#):
>
> Find and manage our most popular plugins easier now that they’re [bundled with Discourse core](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bundling-more-popular-plugins-with-discourse-core/373574?ref=blog.discourse.org).
IMO this should be emphasized a bit more… it would surprise some admins to find that a bunch of plugins just appeared (not to mention console errors).
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/3 "2025-08-19T15:32:03Z")
Thanks for highlighting that here! It’s true that self-hosters who are only updating now will have to take action if they are using any of the affected plugins already. But for customers hosted by us no action is needed and there is no change.
The list of affected plugins and what to do is all explained in the topic the announcement links to so do recommend self-hosters review it. If you have any questions or concerns about it, please reply there: [Bundling more popular plugins with Discourse core](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bundling-more-popular-plugins-with-discourse-core/373574)
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### Author:  [@Dannii](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Dannii)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 10:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/4 "2025-08-20T10:58:03Z")
So now is the time to switch to the stable branch if we want to hold off [removing support for old browsers](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dropping-ios-15-other-old-browsers-in-july-2025/358131)?
Should we update to 3.5 while on tests-passed and then switch to stable, or switch to stable before updating?
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### Author:  [@Albert\_Dessaint](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Albert_Dessaint)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/5 "2025-08-20T16:38:25Z")
Thanks for your work 🙏 The horizon theme is great! (Even if I would prefer to see tags directly in the topic card but I understand the trade-offs you made). I saw in the blogpost a screenshot about the tactile community, I searched online but I didn’t find it, is it a private community / a test community? I wanted to get some inspiration for my community 🙂
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 4:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/6 "2025-08-20T16:59:04Z")
> [@Dannii](#):
>
> Should we update to 3.5 while on tests-passed and then switch to stable, or switch to stable before updating?
You should switch to stable before updating.
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### Author:  [@haydenjames](https://meta.discourse.org/u/haydenjames)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/7 "2025-08-21T14:39:48Z")
> [@Dannii](#):
>
> So now is the time to switch to the stable branch if we want to hold off [removing support for old browsers](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dropping-ios-15-other-old-browsers-in-july-2025/358131)?
How can we do this? (switch to stable) is it a simple task? I need to spend less time on updates and aftereffects of.
> [@RGJ](#):
>
> You should switch to stable before updating.
Is there a quick write-up or guide to this that you can link me to, please?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/8 "2025-08-21T15:30:33Z")
Richard answered this in another post. You want to wait for a stable release, then:
> [@Switch from beta to stable releases](https://meta.discourse.org/t/switch-from-beta-to-stable-releases/127735/5):
>
> find the line `#version: tests-passed` in your app.yml , change it to `version: stable` , and rebuild.
> (don’t forget to remove the `#` as well)
That said, `tests-passed` is strongly recommended. We use it on our own hosting.
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 8:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/9 "2025-08-22T08:45:05Z")
> [@Albert\_Dessaint](#):
>
> is it a private community / a test community?
Yes, it’s an internal theme we’re working on atm. But glad you like the look 😉
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### Author:  [@haydenjames](https://meta.discourse.org/u/haydenjames)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/13 "2025-08-29T19:32:15Z")
So if I **Set `version: stable` in my `app.yml`** today and rebuild my Discourse site. Nothing will happen, right? It will sit there for weeks or months until 3.5.0 stable is available, and only then promote me to upgrade, correct?
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unboxing-discourse-3-5/379249/14 "2025-08-30T01:49:17Z")
Yes though, we will also make security patches to stable between now and 6 months from now, so you’ll still get some prompts to upgrade, but at those times, when you upgrade, it’ll only fast-forward you in the stable branch to the new patch version.