Whatever happened to matrix.org/vector/riot.im/element.io? (side note: most confusing branding ever :-/). Element seemed to be picking up some momentum a few months back. There was recent news that they acquired gitter too [1]. These days I only hear about slack exodus and discord this and discord that, though. If I get it right, from all the group messengers that appeared around 6 years ago, the only one with an ope…
Matrix is doing pretty well (although I might be biased, being project lead). For instance, the entirety of the German military announced moving over to Matrix using a fork of Element a few days ago: https://sifted.eu/articles/european-armies-matrix/ , and there are several other (very) major governments beyond France & Germany who are switching to Matrix in order to get end-to-end-encrypted interoperable comms that…
> "In terms of naming, it's really not hard: Matrix is the protocol..."
First time I read that it was clarifying. Second time I read it it reminded me - naming is important. Always think about customers and don't dismiss things that confuse customers / end users. I 100% want to see y'all succeed. But this customer friction area and similar ones are not to be overlooked. If I were you, I'd focus 100% on the best way to surface Matrix's value to others. That's all we're looking for.
is awesome. A CLI client that is reliable and cutting edge would be awesome (looks like some contenders - I'd love to see one in Clojure or Rust but that's just me..). Bridges with other providers like Slack etc. would be a good way to make in-roads into the Slack user base - would get developers using it for work, and then able to switch over, etc.
Most users of Slack, etc., are getting a little tired of it. We'd love something new - and something we could customize more! Awesome. But you have to position yourself as: (a) a strong, stable, growing alternative with a strong customer focus and appreciation (knowing that if you want to be Linux v. Microsoft and not GNOME/KDE v. macOS/Windows - i.e., succeed in the Enterprise outside of Europe, you have to be a new kind of customer obsessed than what has come before) (b) a low risk alternative to start experimenting with.
Biggest focus should be developers creating enterprise apps (like the German army). That's the sweet spot it seems like to get exponential traction. If you can tap into engineers who are using Slack/Teams/etc. and get them to build more clients, etc... it could be really good.
I.e., implement the difficult parts of Slack really, really well (again be Linux OS v. Microsoft OS - and let hypervisors and whatever else innovate on top of your platform -- and not try to boil the ocean with UI features, etc. - which I feel like is just difficult to compete with - there's a mountain of engineers in Cupertino who are going to out-innovate on a stronger platform with a lot more advantages.. but something like the Linux kernel.. is key).
YMMV, just one person's thoughts.