Open WebUI v0.12.3, released on 16 October, gives the self-hosted AI interface end-to-end encrypted chats: direct messages and private group channels can now hold a temporary encrypted session, with messages encrypted in the browser with MLS and only passed through the server without being saved. The feature is off by default. The newest release in the busy 0.12 line also removes a long-standing Google Drive verification wall for self-hosted installs and makes Redis streaming lighter.
The encrypted chats
The flow, as the release notes describe it: a member picks Encrypted Chat in the channel menu; the other members see “Encrypted chat in progress” with a Join link; messages of up to 16 KiB are encrypted in the browser with MLS and “only passed through the server without being saved.” Participants verify each other by comparing codes and can see when others are typing. The temporary part is the design, not a limitation: the chat “is cleared when you leave or reload and ends when channel membership or access changes.”
What admins must do
Encrypted channels are off by default. Administrators enable them under Admin Settings > General > Encrypted channels, or with ENABLE_ENCRYPTED_CHANNELS, and hand out access through the new Encrypted Channels permission (USER_PERMISSIONS_FEATURES_ENCRYPTED_CHANNELS). The requirements are firm: websocket connections, websocket server logging turned off, and HTTPS in production.
Also in the release
The Google Drive picker now asks only for access to the files a user picks instead of read access to their whole Drive, so self-hosted installs “no longer need Google’s restricted-scope verification” and users no longer see the “Google hasn’t verified this app” warning. Drive remains an external service; the change removes a verification hurdle, not the dependency.
Redis streaming is lighter too: with Redis, a streaming reply is stored under its own key and new text is appended instead of rewriting the whole reply into a shared hash on every update, and with room channels on, each instance only subscribes to the rooms of the people connected to it. Room-channel deployments also need a Redis permission update: PUBLISH, SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE and PING on the &socketio channels.
Upgrading
One behavior change to plan for: model skills now send their full instructions with every message, so deployments that attached skills to models only to keep them available should remove them to avoid the extra prompt length. The notes also carry the fix list, including audit-log coverage for API-key requests, an OAuth token-refresh fix, and tool servers that recover after an outage.
My read
The encrypted chats are the right feature for a server that sits between a household and its models: the browser holds the keys and the conversation is not saved to the server. It is a session by intent, not a secure inbox, and the encryption story is the project’s own description so far, with no third-party assessment attached. Even without it, the Google Drive fix and the lighter Redis make this release worth taking.
Source: the v0.12.3 release notes and the project repository.