Flipper Zero Reaches a Major Milestone with Firmware 1.0 — and Gains JavaScript Powers, Too

Flipper Devices has announced a major milestone for its pocket-sized multi-functional electronics tool, the Flipper Zero: the release of firmware version 1.0, which improves performance, adds support for running JavaScript apps, and even lets you listen in on walkie-talkie transmissions.

"Meet the first major release of Flipper Zero firmware — version 1.0," Flipper Devices' Ruslan Nadyrshin and Alexey Zakharov writes of the milestone launch. "In this release, we have completed work on many features that have been in development for 3 years and are now stable."

The Flipper Zero was unveiled four years ago as a precursor to a more powerful device known as the Flipper One. Its crowdfunding success, however, has led its creators to refocus on adding new features to the Zero instead — providing everything from an official app store to a video game module with TV output, built in partnership with Raspberry Pi using the RP2040 microcontroller. An ecosystem of third-party accessories has also emerged, offering everything from location-tracking capabilities to radiation monitoring — while the Government of Canada has proposed a ban on the devices due to concerns they could be used to steal cars, something which is only partially true.

The 1.0 firmware release rolls together more stable versions of features that had been added in earlier builds — such as an official app store, accessible from the companion mobile app, and the ability to load individual apps from storage without them having to be built into the firmware at flash time — with some shiny new functionality, not least of which is a completely rewritten Near-Field Communication (NFC) subsystem claimed to be three times faster than its predecessor. The Bluetooth subsystem has also been improved, doubling its performance, while firmware updates over Bluetooth are now compressed to improve transfer times by 40 percent.

Other improvements include an expansion to the sub-gigahertz radio subsystem, which now supports a total of 89 protocols — and the unexpected inclusion of the ability to listen-in on unencrypted walkie-talkie conversations. "The sound quality isn’t perfect," Nadyrshin and Zakharov admit, "but if speaking loudly enough into the walkie-talkie, you can hear the voice through the Flipper Zero piezo speaker."

The biggest change, though: support for running JavaScript. "We've added a scripting engine to the firmware," the pair explain, "allowing you to run apps written in JavaScript, one of the most common programming languages. This also makes development much easier compared to using C/C++, as you don't need to set up a development environment on your computer and learn the Flipper Zero firmware SDK. JavaScript support is based on the mJS scripting engine. Originally designed for microcontrollers, mJS utilizes system resources efficiently and operates relatively quickly. It requires less than 50k of flash space and 2k of RAM."

The full list of new features is available on the Flipper Devices blog; the update is live now, and can be installed through the companion mobile app or qFlipper desktop app.