The Scratch Team has quietly announced that they are working on Scratch 4.0, which is planned to include generative AI and a “re-imagined online community”.

There is very little information so far, though I am sure we will learn more as time goes on.

Thoughts about the tech side of what this will mean?

Hopefully a new forums engine, going off of the “reimagined online community”. I think that comments are pretty sophisticated as it is.


It’s possible they’d go more on the social side, adding rejected suggestions such as live message, typing indicator and online indicators.


I kinda suspected this for some reasons I can’t share, but there was lots of buildup, at least from my point of view on certain things that I’m involved in.

This is so cool! I really hope if they add AI they will have solved some of the problems outlined in their blog post about it

redspacecat wrote:

This is so cool! I really hope if they add AI they will have solved some of the problems outlined in their blog post about it

I have to say I am a bit lost in the AI criticism. It’s not like it takes your art. It takes inspiration from art. The SAME THING humans do.



Also the ST is definitely going to regret having this get out

Now you have to wonder what blocks they will add…

han614698 wrote:

redspacecat wrote:

This is so cool! I really hope if they add AI they will have solved some of the problems outlined in their blog post about it

I have to say I am a bit lost in the AI criticism. It’s not like it takes your art. It takes inspiration from art. The SAME THING humans do.



Also the ST is definitely going to regret having this get out

AI takes parts of images and mixes them to match a prompt, like a collage, without viewing the art in a different way than the original. Most artists usually try to look at the art from a different perspective.

han614698 wrote:

Hopefully a new forums engine, going off of the “reimagined online community”.

i wouldn’t bet on a “scratch 4.0” launching with a forum.

also, i don’t think people should be put off by the mention of “creative AI”. the scratch team is 100% aware of people’s concerns about AI and creativity. i trust that they are going to implement “AI” tastefully, and not just throw an “AI project generator” into the editor

Jeffalo wrote:

han614698 wrote:

Hopefully a new forums engine, going off of the “reimagined online community”.

i wouldn’t bet on a “scratch 4.0” launching with a forum.

Do you mean the forums will go away, or that they just wont update them for 4.0?

You're telling me I left for half a year and ended up missing this?

What we all need (less than one year left to go, heh!):
1. New blocks, in particular:
< message () received in past () seconds >
( Characters () to () in () )
( If <> then () else () )

2. Easier collaboration
In Scratch, collaboration is extremely difficult without spamming remixes or providing spoilers. In particular, the lack of private messaging, inability for multiple scratchers to work on a single project, and ban of multiple-user owned accounts appear to be ST's solution AGAINST collaboration (with the flimsy excuse of “moderation issues”)

3. Zebra striping
When 2 blocks of the same colour are inside each other, they should alternate between normal and high-contrast colour palettes. This will make it easier to distinguish between nested blocks (especially the operators).

So “re-imagined online community”? Not a chance.
AI? There goes the “create” part of Scratch's motto.

Haycat2009 wrote:

(#10)
What we all need (less than one year left to go, heh!):
1. New blocks, in particular:
< message () received in past () seconds >
( Characters () to () in () )
( If <> then () else () )

2. Easier collaboration
In Scratch, collaboration is extremely difficult without spamming remixes or providing spoilers. In particular, the lack of private messaging, inability for multiple scratchers to work on a single project, and ban of multiple-user owned accounts appear to be ST's solution AGAINST collaboration (with the flimsy excuse of “moderation issues”)

3. Zebra striping
When 2 blocks of the same colour are inside each other, they should alternate between normal and high-contrast colour palettes. This will make it easier to distinguish between nested blocks (especially the operators).

So “re-imagined online community”? Not a chance.
AI? There goes the “create” part of Scratch's motto.

This isn't the suggestions forum

mrsrec wrote:

Thoughts about the tech side of what this will mean?

I think this will probably be an update to the 3.0 codebase, not a complete rewrite like 3.0 was. The developers are working on converting the currently separate editor components (GUI, VM, blocks, …) to a monorepo and updating to a new version of Blocky, which wouldn't make much sense if they were planning to start the development of a completely new version in the near future.

Jeffalo wrote:

han614698 wrote:

Hopefully a new forums engine, going off of the “reimagined online community”.

i wouldn’t bet on a “scratch 4.0” launching with a forum.

Neither would I, but what else would “re-imagined online community” mean?



One other thing: through some YAB stuff, the ST said they notes that “adding users to work on projects” is the most widely wanted Scratch feature.

han614698 wrote:

(#13)
One other thing: through some YAB stuff, the ST said they notes that “adding users to work on projects” is the most widely wanted Scratch feature.

So a rejected suggestion is the most wanted scratch feature?

How much of those people are asking for turn-based collaboration, which isn't rejected? How much is asking for real time which is rejected? How much are asking for other types of adding users to work on projects?

Haycat2009 wrote:

What we all need (less than one year left to go, heh!):
1. New blocks, in particular:
< message () received in past () seconds >
( Characters () to () in () )
( If <> then () else () )

2. Easier collaboration
In Scratch, collaboration is extremely difficult without spamming remixes or providing spoilers. In particular, the lack of private messaging, inability for multiple scratchers to work on a single project, and ban of multiple-user owned accounts appear to be ST's solution AGAINST collaboration (with the flimsy excuse of “moderation issues”)

3. Zebra striping
When 2 blocks of the same colour are inside each other, they should alternate between normal and high-contrast colour palettes. This will make it easier to distinguish between nested blocks (especially the operators).

So “re-imagined online community”? Not a chance.
AI? There goes the “create” part of Scratch's motto.

<message received in past () seconds> is a bad idea because you might want to check like every frame or even multiple times per frame, and also frames might lag. SInce last checked by this block is better.

I genuinely have the feelings its just a 3.0 update not like the rewrite 3.0 was
although I really dislike the new ai feature since I self taught how to code and having a ai just takes that away

LukasDoesCode wrote:

You're telling me I left for half a year and ended up missing this?

This was literally just found.

Anyways, guessing at what features will be added is purely speculation, and for all we know Scratch 4.0 could include none of them. The ST quietly let it slip that they are working on 4.0 (or at least will in 2025), not that 4.0 will contain any one thing.

Also keep in mind that the community found out about Scratch 3.0 in 2016, three years before it was released. Just because the ST is starting to work on 4.0 in 2025 (which is stated in that PDF), while it may not be finished for many years.

For those here who are hopeful that rejected suggestions will be added, keep in mind that many of them are rejected for moderation reasons (usually being that the ST doesn't have the resources to police it). Considering that I don't see any Community Moderator listings on the jobs page, I have a feeling that they will stay rejected.

Jeffalo wrote:

(#7)
also, i don’t think people should be put off by the mention of “creative AI”. the scratch team is 100% aware of people’s concerns about AI and creativity. i trust that they are going to implement “AI” tastefully, and not just throw an “AI project generator” into the editor

lol yeah i wouldn't want to see the trending page flooded with a bunch of generic platformers all with the prompt “super cool and fun platformer” and “platformer with spikes and pits”

but an ai assistant could be added, I made a suggestion on that

however, something about this whole thing feels off, it's almost as if it's either a troll by st themselves, or some random person/hacker put it on there because its… weird.

scratchcode1_2_3 wrote:

Jeffalo wrote:

(#7)
also, i don’t think people should be put off by the mention of “creative AI”. the scratch team is 100% aware of people’s concerns about AI and creativity. i trust that they are going to implement “AI” tastefully, and not just throw an “AI project generator” into the editor

lol yeah i wouldn't want to see the trending page flooded with a bunch of generic platformers all with the prompt “super cool and fun platformer” and “platformer with spikes and pits”

but an ai assistant could be added, I made a suggestion on that

however, something about this whole thing feels off, it's almost as if it's either a troll by st themselves, or some random person/hacker put it on there because its… weird.

It’s literally on scratch.org - not fake:

han614698 wrote:

(#20)

scratchcode1_2_3 wrote:

Jeffalo wrote:

(#7)
also, i don’t think people should be put off by the mention of “creative AI”. the scratch team is 100% aware of people’s concerns about AI and creativity. i trust that they are going to implement “AI” tastefully, and not just throw an “AI project generator” into the editor

lol yeah i wouldn't want to see the trending page flooded with a bunch of generic platformers all with the prompt “super cool and fun platformer” and “platformer with spikes and pits”

but an ai assistant could be added, I made a suggestion on that

however, something about this whole thing feels off, it's almost as if it's either a troll by st themselves, or some random person/hacker put it on there because its… weird.

It’s literally on scratch.org - not fake:

yeah i know but its still suspicious