diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 3cab8f42..11b03f0e 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1283,7 +1283,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "fractal"
-version = "5.0.0-alpha1"
+version = "5.0.0-beta1"
 dependencies = [
  "ashpd",
  "async-stream",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 0939c27f..35e899ea 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "fractal"
-version = "5.0.0-alpha1"
+version = "5.0.0-beta1"
 authors = ["Julian Sparber <julian@sparber.net>"]
 edition = "2021"
 rust-version = "1.65"
diff --git a/data/org.gnome.Fractal.metainfo.xml.in.in b/data/org.gnome.Fractal.metainfo.xml.in.in
index efe87d69..4fa80137 100644
--- a/data/org.gnome.Fractal.metainfo.xml.in.in
+++ b/data/org.gnome.Fractal.metainfo.xml.in.in
@@ -51,7 +51,38 @@
   </content_rating>
 
   <releases>@development-release@
-    <release version="5~alpha1" type="development" date="2022-09-25" urgency="high">
+    <release version="5~beta1" type="development" date="2023-05-16">
+      <description>
+        <p>Fractal 5.beta1 is the first beta release since the rewrite of
+          Fractal to take advantage of GTK 4 and the Matrix Rust SDK. It is the
+          result of over two years of work.</p>
+        
+        <p>New features since Fractal 5.alpha1:</p>
+        <ul>
+          <li>Joining room by ID, by alias or with a Matrix URI</li>
+          <li>Creation of direct chats</li>
+          <li>Sending and displaying read receipts, read markers and typing
+            notifications</li>
+          <li>Notifications on new messages</li>
+          <li>Highlight messages with mentions</li>
+          <li>Added media file history viewers in the room details, thanks to
+            our GSoC intern Marco Melorio</li>
+          <li>Displaying the other user’s avatar as a room avatar for direct
+            chats</li>
+        </ul>
+
+        <p>Of course, there are a also a lot of less visible changes, fixes and
+          translations thanks to all our contributors, and our upstream
+          projects.</p>
+        
+        <p>As the version implies, this is still considered beta stage and might
+          trigger crashes or other bugs but overall should be pretty stable.</p>
+        
+        <p>A list of blocking issues for the release of version 5 can be found
+          in the Fractal v5 milestone on GitLab.</p>
+      </description>
+    </release>
+    <release version="5~alpha1" type="development" date="2022-09-25">
       <description>
         <p>Fractal 5.alpha1 is the first release since Fractal has been
           rewritten to take advantage of GTK 4 and the Matrix Rust SDK.
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 54a23832..8b29506f 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 project('fractal',
         'rust',
-        version: '5.alpha1',
+        version: '5.beta1',
         license: 'GPL-3.0-or-later',
         meson_version: '>= 0.59')
 
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ gnome = import('gnome')
 base_id = 'org.gnome.Fractal'
 
 major_version = '5'
-pre_release_version = 'alpha1'
+pre_release_version = 'beta1'
 
 dependency('glib-2.0', version: '>= 2.72') # update when changing gtk version
 dependency('gio-2.0', version: '>= 2.72') # always same version as glib