Flipper Devices said it will continue the development of the Flipper Zero firmware, with more reliance on community contributions and a smaller internal team.
New devices
The announcement came after Flipper decided on building new devices such as Flipper One open Linux platform, where the organization shifted to the community’s help to finish development.
Besides this, Flipper also launched a Buy Bar device for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to reduce interruptions, which will be open for sale on July 14 in the US, U.K, Canada, and Europe.
Limited production
Flipper Devices said that the genuine firmware for the Flipper Zero portable pen-testing device will still continue, but full-time feature production ends now.
The first major stable release- Flipper Zero Firmware 1.0, was announced in September last year, after three years of development. The latest stable launch is variant 1.4.3, out since December last year.
By then, the company felt that the firmware was matured, with APIs and a stable SDK and all features implemented safely.
Backlash from community
Recently, the team hinted that firmware development was shut down, resulting in strong backlash from people. “We've seen the strong reaction from the community over the idea that we've stopped developing the Flipper Zero firmware,” Flipper said in a blog post. "We want to address this and let you know that we've heard all your feedback and have decided to rethink our approach to maintaining the project and engaging with the community," Flipper added.
Flipper's response
To address the concerns, Flipper has made a new technique for the project that depends on closer communication with supporters to keep firmware development in process.
The project will continue with a few resources and in a new way to communicate with the community, such as:
- Interactions will only happen via GitHub Discussions, where new requests may be voted too.
- Flipper Zero requests will be seen weekly.
- Community pull requests will be considered with strict review guidelines.
- Firmware modifications to require compulsory integration and regression analysis, and will be open to the community.
“We're moving all requests from the Flipper Zero community to GitHub Discussions. Now you can 🤚 vote for feature requests that really matter, so we can see what the community actually wants and prioritize them,” Flipper said.