Zulip's Google Summer of Code 2025

This summer, 12 contributors completed the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program with the Zulip development community. This was the 10th consecutive year that Zulip participated in GSoC; over 130 contributors have now completed one of our formal internship programs, primarily through Google Summer of Code and Outreachy.

“Participating in GSoC has been the best thing to happen to me in college — it transformed everything, including how I see myself.” — Maneesh Shukla

Our welcoming community is fully committed to helping bring up the next generation of open-source contributors from a wide range of backgrounds. Our experienced contributors, including many internship program alumni, have dedicated thousands of hours to mentorship.

We have also invested into making Zulip’s code uniquely readable, well tested, and easy to modify. Beyond that, we have written an extraordinary 185K words of documentation on how to contribute to Zulip, with topics ranging from practical Git tips to essays on important architectural decisions.

This is why our 2025 GSoC participants were able to contribute major improvements to the Zulip product. Together, this year’s GSoC participants wrote 900 commits that have already been merged into Zulip!

“Zulip is, in my opinion, a great example of how open source should be done. From the readily available documentation and guides that help new contributors get up to speed, to the efficient communication within the Zulip community, it provides an environment where you can truly see yourself grow as a software engineer.” — Pratik Chanda

It’s impossible to describe here all the great work that’s been done, but here are some highlights.

Web app features for all users

• Dozens of improvements to the experience of copying, pasting, and selecting text. (Apoorva Pendse)
• Redesigning banners and buttons across all modals and settings panels. (Maneesh Shukla)
• Making it easy to report problematic messages to moderators. (Pieter Cardillo Kwok)
• Fixing dozens of small issues across the web app. (Pratik Chanda)
• An option to convert long pasted text into an uploaded file. (Kislay Udbhav Verma)
• A splash screen for drag-and-drop file uploads. (Aman (whilstsomebody))

“Working with Zulip as a GSoC contributor has been an invaluable learning experience. I improved my ability to write readable, modular, and optimized code.” — Apoorva Pendse

“My experience this year has been incredibly fulfilling. This program has equipped me with the skills and confidence to engage with other projects that could benefit from my contributions.” — Kislay Udbhav Verma

Administrative features

• An option to create channels without topics, for a simplified experience. (Kunal Sharma)
• Permissions to move and delete messages can now be assigned to any combination of groups, roles, and individual users for each channel.
• Permission to resolve topics can also be assigned for each channel. (Kumar Aniket)
• Administrators can now configure a custom welcome message to be sent to new users in their organization. (Saubhagya Patel)

“Contributing to Zulip has been especially rewarding, knowing that my work is part of a real-world product used by people every day.” — Kunal Sharma

“The support and warmth from everyone in the community were exceptional. Every step has contributed to my growth: mastering Git commands, understanding the value of well-crafted commit messages, and learning how industry-level code is written.” — Kumar Aniket

“I’ve learned how to communicate my thoughts clearly and collaborate effectively, which has helped me grow as a developer.” — Saubhagya Patel

Backend improvements

• Migrating direct message recipient data structures to a new model, in preparation for adding features like pinning and hiding direct message conversations. (Mohammad Reza Kianifar)
• Adding a backend for views in the left sidebar, in preparation for making it customizable which views are shown. (Aditya Kumar Kasaudhan)

“Working on this project has been one of the most impactful experiences of my career. I learned a great deal about large-scale migrations, the rebase Git strategy for managing PRs and commits, and Zulip’s development practices and architecture.” — Mohammad Reza Kianifar

“I’ve mastered Git workflows, learned about PR stacking and code reviews, full-stack skills and developed a stronger sense of how to prioritize tasks effectively.” — Aditya Kumar Kasaudhan

Mobile app

• Making it possible to view other users’ status messages, and set your own. (Sayed Mahmood Sayedi)
• Showing read receipts. (Sayed Mahmood Sayedi)

“The guidance I received gave me both technical growth and the confidence to take ownership of my contributions. Zulip’s clear documentation and welcoming communication style made it easy to collaborate and feel part of something meaningful.” — Sayed Mahmood Sayedi

Parting thoughts

We’re truly proud of everything our GSoC 2025 participants have been able to accomplish, and are looking forward to their continuing contributions in the coming months and years! If you are eligible, please join us for the next GSoC program!

“Zulip has shaped me in ways no textbook could. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to review my own work critically, address feedback thoughtfully, and communicate effectively within a global developer community.

GSoC with Zulip was not just about code—it was about growth, confidence, and the joy of being part of a community building something real and impactful.” — Aman (whilstsomebody)

Acknowledgements

We are truly grateful to all the community members who stepped up to mentor GSoC participants this summer, and help the program run smoothly:

Abhigyan Khaund, Afeefuddin, Chris Bobbe, Dinesh Chidipothu, Gaurav Pandey, Greg Price, Karl Stolley, Kenneth Rodrigues, Lauryn Menard, Mounil Kamlesh Shah, Nehal Sharma, Prakhar Pratyush, Puneeth Chaganti, Rohitt Vashishtha, Ryan Rehman, Sahil Batra, Sanchit Sharma, Sashank Ravipati, Satyam Bansal, Sayam Samal, Sujal Shah, Sumanth Rao, Suyash Vardhan Mathur, Vaibhav Rabber, Varun Singh, Vinit S, Vishnu KS

We are also incredibly grateful to Google for organizing and funding this unique mentoring program, which helps bring up the next generation of open-source contributors. It is an invaluable contribution to Zulip and hundreds of other participating open-source projects, as well as the open source community at large.