Suggestions for Go version – mobile-friendly UI, QR code sharing, and Chinese language support

[hinory]

Dear Etherpad Developer,

Thank you so much for creating such a useful and lightweight tool! It has been a great help for many users.

Over the past year, voice input has exploded in popularity in China. More and more people prefer to dictate text using their voice, but the experience on PC is often frustrating. As a result, many are looking for tools that enable seamless collaboration between PC and mobile devices. Etherpad fits this need perfectly—it’s lightweight, real-time, and open source.

I’ve been using etherpad-lite for a while and really enjoy it. The setup process is a bit technical, which is fine for me, but it’s quite challenging to recommend to non-programmer friends. Recently I discovered the Go version, and it runs smoothly—great work!

While using it, I have a few suggestions that might significantly improve the user experience, especially for people who collaborate between PC and mobile:

Mobile‑friendly interface
When I open Etherpad on my phone browser, it still shows the desktop layout. A dedicated mobile template would make font sizes and scaling much more comfortable. This small change would greatly enhance usability on mobile devices.

Share with QR code
It would be wonderful if the sharing page could display a QR code. Mobile users could then simply scan the code with their browser and jump straight into collaborative editing. This would make joining a pad almost instant and friction‑free.

Chinese language support
The Go version doesn’t seem to support Chinese yet. I’ve looked through the settings several times but couldn’t find a Chinese option. Adding language support would make Etherpad more accessible to a huge number of potential users in China and other regions.

The first two suggestions, in particular, would make a big difference for people who want to use both PC and mobile together. With the growing trend of voice input, I believe Etherpad could become an even more popular choice for cross‑device collaboration.

Thank you again for your excellent work. I hope these suggestions are helpful, and I look forward to future updates!

Best regards,
A happy Etherpad user

[SamTV12345]

Thank you for the feedback. I will have a look at the chinese support. Is it available in Etherpad-Lite?
Yes the frontend is still the same as before, so it is probably as user friendly as Etherpad-Lite. I think I will start straightaway with the QR code display. This sounds quite useful to implement.

[hinory]

Thank you for your reply! Etherpad-Lite has excellent Chinese language support and provides a great user experience. The only minor drawback is that the setup process is a bit more involved—it’s better suited for setting up a site for multiple users to collaborate. For my friends, I’ve been recommending the Go version as a Windows application; it’s very convenient, secure, and offers good privacy.

Over the past few days, I noticed an error on the Etherpad (Go version) front‑end page, and the share tab couldn’t be closed. After testing, I found it was an issue with my device—when I switched to another device, everything worked fine. I suspect it might be caused by incompatibility with the input method (IME) on my phone.

By the way, as AI becomes more widely adopted, people are increasingly seeking efficient input methods. Etherpad is an excellent tool for collaborative input between PC and mobile—voice input on mobile is fast, while on PC it’s easy to format text and add other content. I wish Etherpad continued growth and improvement!

[SamTV12345]

It's added in v0.5.0. Enhoy working with QR codes :)