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September marks the beginning of what will likely be the most intense stretch of the year for us. With Black Friday approaching, the sync engine rewrite underway, infrastructure preparations in full swing, the Rust migration expanding, and the new mobile app rollout about to begin, we’re entering a phase where multiple major projects are running in parallel. On top of that, API 4.0 is already on the horizon. This update covers where we stand today and what’s coming next.
Mobile App - closed beta complete, rollout coming soon
The closed beta for the new Filen mobile app is now finished. Over the past weeks, all of our testers have put the app through its paces, helping us uncover edge cases and polish the user experience. Their feedback has been invaluable in getting the app ready for a wider audience.
We have now submitted the final build to both the App Store and Google Play and are waiting for approval. Once confirmed, the rollout will begin in stages. This slow rollout approach gives us more control, allowing us to monitor stability and quickly act on any issues before the update reaches everyone.
This release is more than just an update, it is a complete rebuild of the Filen mobile experience. Some of the highlights include:
- A fresh, modern home screen with improved structure and navigation
- A completely redesigned media player for video and audio, including playlist support
- Smarter and more reliable automatic camera upload, with settings for low battery behavior, cellular data usage, and file compression
- Better handling of video files across different formats
- A native look and feel tailored for both Android and iOS
- Major performance improvements for previews, gallery loading, and overall responsiveness
- Improved document rendering for Markdown, code, and common office files
- Global search across your entire cloud (see disclaimer under the pictures)
- A cleaner codebase that makes long-term maintenance and improvements easier
- Support for empty files
All of this makes the new app feel faster, more consistent, and more future-proof. To give you a first impression of the new design and layout, we have included a series of screenshots below.
Disclaimer for global search
Global search is the ability to locate files anywhere in your cloud by name using the search bar.
At launch, global search will only work for newly uploaded files. The reason for this is tied to our zero-knowledge encryption model. In the past, global search was not possible without decrypting all files locally, which would have been inefficient and against our principles of privacy. With the new technology, files are indexed in a zero-knowledge way, making global search possible without compromising security or privacy. This indexing process starts with all newly uploaded files. In the future, we will re-index all previously uploaded files so that global search works across your entire cloud. For resource management reasons, this re-indexing will be rolled out together with the next desktop client update.
Rust migration
Rust is steadily becoming the backbone of our ecosystem, and this month we are pushing it further. The Rust SDK, which already powers parts of the new mobile app, is now being integrated into the web app. At the same time, the command-line interface is being fully rewritten in Rust.
Our Rust migration plans have also been accelerated. This is partially due to external factors, such as Google Play now requiring 16 KiB page sizes which some of our TypeScript SDK dependencies do not support, and partially due to us wanting to avoid another partial rewrite of the web app a few months from now. By moving forward faster with Rust, we ensure long-term stability and consistency across all platforms.
This acceleration does mean that improvements to the sync engine in the desktop client have been pushed back somewhat. We want to be transparent about this: the sync engine remains a top priority, but the timing has shifted because it makes more sense to build on the stronger Rust foundation first rather than rewrite things twice.
By unifying our stack on Rust, we gain smaller binaries, faster startup times, lower memory usage, and consistent behavior across all clients. For users this translates into more reliable apps, fewer differences between platforms, and better performance overall. On the web side, the transition also introduces WebAssembly (WASM). WASM allows Rust code to run in the browser with near-native performance. This means that the same SDK logic, from encryption routines to previews and file parsing, can be shared seamlessly across desktop, mobile and web. It reduces duplication, ensures that critical security code is consistent everywhere, and gives us more room to innovate in the browser.
In the long run, this unified Rust foundation will completely replace the TypeScript SDK.
Team update - new developer for mobile
On September 1st, we welcomed a new developer to the team who will be focusing entirely on the mobile apps. This addition is an important step for us. The mobile clients are one of the most widely used entry points into Filen, and having a dedicated developer means we can deliver improvements more quickly and respond to feedback faster.
The onboarding process is currently underway. While it takes time for a new developer to get fully comfortable with the codebase and workflows, we already expect the pace of bug fixes and feature updates to increase over the next months. This will also help us avoid bottlenecks as the mobile apps continue to grow in importance.
Infrastructure - preparing for Black Friday
As every year, the holiday season will bring a sharp spike in usage, and we are preparing our infrastructure accordingly. This includes stress testing, optimizing database queries, tuning caching layers, improving CDN delivery, and strengthening monitoring and rate-limiting systems. These steps make sure that performance remains stable and user experience is smooth, even under heavy load.
Black Friday also comes with some important reminders regarding our plans. Pro lifetime plans will return one last time during Black Friday, but not in discounted form. The Starter lifetime plan (100 GB) will remain available, but the focus moving forward will be on monthly and yearly subscriptions. As explained in our May update, this shift is necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. Lifetime plans have played their role, but the subscription model allows us to maintain and expand Filen in a way that is stable for both users and the company.
Marketing campaign - awareness over fear
Our "test marketing campaign" is now entering the concrete preparation phase, and this is one of the most exciting initiatives of the year. We are working with a German media agency that is coordinating the creative direction, distribution strategy and content production. With their help, we are onboarding a diverse group of influencers from North America, the UK and Germany.
The core focus is brand awareness rather than aggressive sales. Filen has always positioned itself as a long-term, sustainable service with privacy and security at its core. We want the campaign to reflect that. Instead of fear-driven messaging or negative comparisons with competitors, the campaign will showcase how Filen fits naturally into everyday digital life.
Influencers will present their real workflows with Filen: how they back up data, collaborate on projects, or manage personal documents in a secure and privacy-conscious way. We made a deliberate decision to only work with partners who actually use Filen. That way, their recommendations are based on real experience, which makes the content more authentic and trustworthy.
We believe this approach not only builds trust but also creates long-term recognition. By focusing on digital consciousness and responsible technology use, we can connect with people who care about more than just pricing or short-term deals.
In parallel, development on the new affiliate tool is still progressing. We had originally planned to launch it earlier this year, but as with many things, priorities shifted toward critical projects like the sync engine rewrite and the Rust migrations. The affiliate program remains an important piece of our growth strategy, and once it is ready, it will provide creators and community members with a smoother way to share Filen and benefit from referrals.
Looking ahead
With the mobile rollout pending store approval, the Rust migration expanding into the web and CLI, a new developer strengthening the mobile team, infrastructure being scaled for Black Friday, and the marketing campaign about to launch, the next months will be packed with activity. These parallel efforts lay the groundwork for a stronger, faster and more widely known Filen.
Thanks for reading, and as always, thank you for your feedback and support.
-Team Filen
