Matrix

Greetings :)

I have been actively looking for a good free open source Discord alternative with end-to-end encryption for a while now, and I have come to the conclusion, that Matrix with a client like Element might be a good choice. My only problem with Matrix (using the Element client), is that while there are voice and video call rooms, they work as they would in a traditional messenger or Skype/Teams/Zoom/etc. The use case of my friends and I is to have Discord-like voice channels where one can drop in casually and even stay there alone for hours while others see who's currently on the channel and choose whether to join or not, depending on who's on the voice channel.

Is it planned to have this functionality in Matrix or Element in the future? I could only find this issue on GitHub regarding my use case. And if not, is there a Matrix client that has this functionality? And if not, would it be possible to add this functionality by only changing the code of the Element front-end?

Edit/Update: I have raised this question in the #element-web:matrix.org Matrix room. I got an answer: The use case or feature I have described is still being developed and an experimental version is available as a Beta feature.

• On the browser the experimental feature is under: Settings → Labs → New Video rooms
• On the desktop app it's under: Settings → Labs → Join the Beta (joining the Beta enables the "New video rooms")

From when I tested it, the experimental feature shows the amount of people currently connected to the video/voice call/channel, but not who those users are. I assume that will be added in future.

Either way, thanks for the community for clearing that up for us. As soon as this feature is in the official version, I will try getting my friends from Discord to Matrix. In an initial transition phase probably with Discord-Matrix-bridges.

I am interested in trying out matrix, but my first impression seems to reveal that by default, there may be some privacy or anonymity pitfalls if I use matrix.

Examples:

• using an instance I don't host means the host is trusted with my data
• self hosting might reveal a lot of information about me. Most likely, it is registered to a domain that has my info and could potentially be traced back to me.
• When self-hosting, being one of few users, basic analysis of my activity could reveal a lot about me, since all that activity could be easily identified as belonging to a single person

Now I understand not all threats could be mitigated, but my worry is that both self hosting or not have significant gaps. What's the most privacy and anonymity conscious way to use Matrix?

Element has been working with Meta since the end of last year to help test their DMA interoperability (given we’re probably the world leader in interoperable end-to-end-encrypted communication) - and Matrix announced last month at FOSDEM that Element has successfully integrated 1:1 chats between Matrix and WhatsApp via the DMA APIs, while maintaining end-to-end encryption (having implemented full Signal compatibility in vodozemac). We’ve also formally requested interoperability with WhatsApp, as of yesterday.

Are there any Android apps that let you easily switch between Matrix Logins? I would like to have a personal account for friends and family, and a separate one for my online presence. I am not seeing this feature in the element client.

It time to switch :
#messenger #whatsapp -> #signal #matrix (@signalapp, @matrix)

I am trying to use matrix as my primary instant messenger but facing issue in setting up encryption. Whenever I login on any new client all my old messages remain encrypted and became unusable.I tried entering security key but still unable to restore messages.

Hi,
I know this is a stupid request, but I recently moved a small community from discord and my users want to add memes to their conversations... is there some integration that adds this to a synapse server?
Thanks!

Hi, I have a small server to sustain a small community (discord like, but for internal consumption). My users also lurk into some big external communities...
I am looking admin resources to keep my instance small... something like the possibility to remove old data, etc. I know I can log in the database and do stuff, but I'd prefer something more human friendly ;)
Thanks!

I want to host my own server, but I would like to know what I should know?

Like for saving notes or messages just to myself.

Element for Android doesn't support searching in encrypted channels and I think you can't use E2EE in the browser at all(?), plus basically every other client has even more drawbacks when it comes to E2EE.

My team recently tried RocketChat, but E2EE is obviously an afterthought for that project as it has even more limitations than non-Element Matrix clients (no searching, no pinning, no file upload, no edit, etc.). Plus Jitsi integration seems to be buggy right now (at least on my Windows installation).

What else is out there that's not on my radar? Is Matrix with Element really the best option right now? Is there no project that puts E2EE above all else?

Edit: Should be self-hostable and (FL)OSS.

The official announcement was mentioned in Matrix's blog post:

Next release 0.4.2 should also be published on F-Droid with push support using UnifiedPush.

In other news, thanks to Joshua, NeoChat now supports push notifications based on UnifiedPush.

Interestingly, the Element X issue regarding implementing UnifiedPush, has not been updated, and there is no related merge request that I can find. NeoChat appears to have their changes buried in merge requests.

Since I recently set up a decently powerful homelab, with a bunch of services running on docker behind traefik, I thought it would have been cool to try out selfhosting a matrix homeserver for personal use (at the beginning it will be just me, potentially it will extend to some friends and/or a small organization of around 20 people working together). At first I was thinking about going with Dendrite, but then I've seen it still doesn't support Threads, nor Matrix 1.5 API and that despite the announcement of a couple of months ago its repo hasn't yet be moved to the new element-hq GitHub as it happened with Synapse. This made it seem kinda like a "2nd class citizen" compared to Synapse, and therefore made me think if the latter would have been a better option to selfhost. And then I bumped into Conduit.rs so now I have 3 option to be undecided about!

Therefore, here I am asking for your preferences and advices: which is your favourite one / which one would you recommend for my use-case?

I put a @protonmail #matrix server on my #wishlist

There are a lot of us wanting a proton chat https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/945460-general-ideas/suggestions/7255107-proton-chat-messaging-app

What's the state of this? 👀

@matrix

I'm curious about the state of matrix this year at #FOSDEM #fosdem2024 on 3./ 4. February @matrix

Does anyone know of a matrix client that is able to run on very old iOS version, namely 10.3.4 ?

Here, I am going to complain about my problems in Matrix :) I’m liking its vision and features and I want to use it but I’ve got lots of problems while using it. Is it just me or general thing? I’ve tried Element, Element X, Fluffy Chat and Cinny so far.

My problems are;

• I got message notification but it did not showed on chat page with Element. I had to use another client.
• I couldn’t accept private chat invite from someone in Element X, I’ve used Cinny to accept it.
• Couldn’t use group tag? (like #group@server) someone send me to join to that chat group in Element, Element X and Fluffy Chat. Cinny worked tho.
• I was not able to verify Cinny session with other devices. It stuck in loading screen.
• Some messages says “waiting for this message” in Element (and X) but I can see them in Fluffy.
• Message threads are only working with Element. It doesn’t works on Fluffy and Element X. Didn’t tried Cinny.
• I can’t browse older messages in chat groups. It just stays in loading.

Probably there are other problems too that I don’t remember. Why are these apps (or Matrix) this broken? Or am I doing something wrong? 😑

Question: Are there any cross-platform matrix clients which prevents any messages from being sent/received that are not end-to-end encrypted?

I really like the idea of Matrix, but--as a general rule--I don't use communication platforms that allow for unencrypted messages to be sent. The risk for accidental user-error is too great, especially if rolled-out to non-technical users. IMHO, it's just better to have users install apps that cannot, under any circumstances, transmit messages that are not end-to-end encrypted.

So, I'm wondering if there is an app for Matrix available that simply doesn't allow users to send or receive messages that are not end-to-end encrypted. Note: I'm not looking for a user-configurable option to enable/disable this. I want it to entirely block the possibility for messages to be sent or received if they are not going to be end-to-end encrypted.

Do any such apps exist? Ideally ones for all of Linux, Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone?

Hello everyone,

I just got a Pi4b 8gb model and was looking to set up a matrix instance on it.

Right now it would just be for me and a few close friends. Maybe eventually federating to bigger rooms.

Does anyone have any up to date guides on the best way to set this up? Thank you.

UPDATE:

Hello everyone. So after many hours of tinkering, I can confirm you can run Dendrite on the pi4.

I decided to go with the Docker version of Dendrite with Postgresql.

Generally, the official guide got me most of the way through: https://matrix-org.github.io/dendrite/installation

Some important notes I would like to make however, for anyone reading this post in the future:

1. I used the Raspberry Pi OS-Lite 64 bit.
2. I used Caddy for a reverse proxy, which I admit I had never heard of. I highly recommend saving yourself from the trouble, if possible and you're new like me, and just edit/use the example configuration rather than try to follow the bits and pieces of the Caddy instructions throughout the rest of the guide.
3. If you want to use an external storage drive to hold the Matrix/Jetstream storage, for the love of God set it up to automount and change the Docker data directory config to use it BEFORE you actually get the image/container up and running.
4. Related to point 3, the docker container seems a bit fragile (which is to be expected). Changing file structures, trying to change data directory, database changes, etc. will basically force the Matrix instance to start all over again and you'll have to readd your users, rooms, etc. that you made while testing.
5. Here is the big one that caused me to nearly rip my hair out before I realized what was going on. I also self-host Nextcloud via Nextcloudpi, which uses ports 80/443. Matrix + Dendrite + Docker use ports 80/443 too. I could not figure out how to get Dendrite to use any other ports, and did not want to learn how to use the reverse proxy just to jankily set it up. So instead I just changed my Nextcloudpi's config files to use different ports.
6. Some changes to the dendrite.yaml config did not seem to take affect just with a container restart. I had to reboot the entire pi.
7. Unless you fully own the domain and its dns records (I use the same one I made through NOIP when configuring my nextcloud instance), do not try to make a subdomain such as matrix.your-url.com to redirect matrix traffic. LetsEncrypt did not play well with it.

Having said all of that... Performance seems okay! It's just my wife and I so far, but we can chat, upload 1gb files, voice call, and screen share with virtually no lag. If that changes in the future as we add users and possibly federate, I will update this post.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10459323

Live coding Matrix in Rust #owncast #streaming #coding #rust #matrix

Find Andy's previous recordings at: https://diode.zone/a/andybalaam/video-channels

Does anyone know if a good server/ room to discuss LoRa/ Meshtastic projects?