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Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

element.io

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Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#61

Post by motiejus »

I have replaced Hangouts, WhatsApp and Messenger front-ends on my phone and laptop with Element. I have been running the Matrix bridges for each[1] and am donating monthly to the creator. It's worth it.

So far the "network effects" have been coincidental: one small group of colleagues registered on matrix.org after one more colleague from our small circle turned out to have a home server. There are 7-ish of us now, 2 with their home servers (myself and the "other colleague"), and 5 with accounts on matrix.org.

To go "native", I see one lacking point with discoverability: I don't know of a way to discover my "contacts" whether they use Matrix without asking them first. Which is not true in any other messaging apps I have tried: Signal and WhatsApp use my address book and their phone numbers, Messenger is tied to my "friends". However, although Matrix allows entering phone and e-mail identifiers, I haven't seen an easy way to "find" them. Any pointers?

Overall, Synapse is easy to install and run. Took about two evenings to configure synapse + 3 bridges (whatsapp, messenger, hangouts).

[1]: https://matrix.org/bridges/

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#63

Post by Steltek »

iotku wrote: post #34
Steltek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the gold rush for decentralized, censorship-resistant platforms for the Right to jump to. This is bad for any mainstream ambitions by the Matrix team. If it becomes the next Gab/Parler, normal people will avoid being associated with it. I know this association would absolutely sink my friends exploring the platform further while we're exploring alternatives for when Google Hangouts is decommissioned.

>If it becomes the next Gab/Parler, normal people will avoid being associated with it. Matrix's policies are pretty well enough to keep them pretty far out of contention for such a comparison https://matrix.org/legal/code-of-conduct#definitions > I know this association would absolutely sink my friends exploring the platform further while we're exploring alternatives for when Google Hangouts is decommissioned. Should…

You may as well say, "There's nothing wrong with Gab/Parler/Voat as long as you stay away from the political discussions". It doesn't matter. Your technical and logical distinctions are minor and irrelevant to most people compared to an overwhelmingly negative reputation.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#64

Post by RL_Quine »

stryan wrote: post #59
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So whats the idea for matrix to scale? If they want more people to join servers other than matrix.org, how will it happen?

Besides what others said, I believe you can now shard Synapse and scale horizontally (part of why matrix.org has gotten faster recently).

Matrix.org still has message latency of over 30 seconds pretty regularly unfortunately.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#65

Post by snvzz »

arghwhat wrote: post #50
antpls wrote: post #45

For anyone wondering how it compares to Signal privacy wise: Signal works with a contact list, for private 1 to 1 and private groups. You need a phone number to use it, and they claim to encrypt almost all metadata, such as message senders. Signal claims they cannot read the content nor the history of users actions (but you have to trust them on that, they claim to use SGX enclave stuff, but can anyone technically ve…

Matrix: Every home server involved in the chat stores the message, and messages on matrix are therefore most considered permanent. As matrix is federated, every user can be on their own homeserver, which will be storing a copy of all messages seen by that user. E2E is more recent and optional. Most rooms are not E2E, and have browsable history. Signal: Only E2E, with clients themselves storing the only copy of messag…

>E2E is more recent and optional. Most rooms are not E2E, and have browsable history.

E2E is actually turned on by default, as of about one year ago.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#66

Post by kubanczyk »

generalizations wrote: post #44
johnchristopher wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are migrating en masse from WhatsApp to Signal and Telegram. I am pretty sure it's ruffling some feathers considering the vocal people defending and promoting Matrix and federation in every Signal thread and considering this informal poll: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25669864 Telegram 806 points Zom 3 points Viber 15 points Threema 69 points Signal 1699 points Discord 102 points Matrix (added after 25…

Far as I can tell, matrix needs to focus harder on the user experience. It was a pain to get set up on.

I've installed Element on Android last week and created a fresh matrix.org account. No tech skills required so far.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#67

Post by iotku »

Steltek wrote: post #63
iotku wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If it becomes the next Gab/Parler, normal people will avoid being associated with it. Matrix's policies are pretty well enough to keep them pretty far out of contention for such a comparison https://matrix.org/legal/code-of-conduct#definitions > I know this association would absolutely sink my friends exploring the platform further while we're exploring alternatives for when Google Hangouts is decommissioned. Should…

You may as well say, "There's nothing wrong with Gab/Parler/Voat as long as you stay away from the political discussions". It doesn't matter. Your technical and logical distinctions are minor and irrelevant to most people compared to an overwhelmingly negative reputation.

>You may as well say, "There's nothing wrong with Gab/Parler/Voat as long as you stay away from the political discussions".

It's just a fundamentally different system than what you're comparing it to and has many well established communities that aren't what you appear to be alluding to.

>It doesn't matter. Your technical and logical distinctions are minor and irrelevant to most people compared to an overwhelmingly negative reputation.

Are there any major situations involving matrix that you can point to?

I'm not aware of any major issues and just because it's not one of the major social media platforms (arguably not even social media depending on your definition) doesn't mean it's inherently bad.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#68

Post by m-p-3 »

13415 wrote: post #62
rq1 wrote: post #57

Worth to be noted: the app and the underlying protocol are protected against unilateral removal or blocking decisions from different app stores or cloud providers.

How?

I guess with the openness of the source code, the multiple clients available, and the ability to host your own instance (Synapse) it would be kinda hard to make it completely inaccessible.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#69

Post by suyash »

antpls wrote: post #45

For anyone wondering how it compares to Signal privacy wise: Signal works with a contact list, for private 1 to 1 and private groups. You need a phone number to use it, and they claim to encrypt almost all metadata, such as message senders. Signal claims they cannot read the content nor the history of users actions (but you have to trust them on that, they claim to use SGX enclave stuff, but can anyone technically ve…

Element looks like more of a hassle specially for non tech savvy users in my family circle, I'm trying to get them to move to Signal from WhatsApp / FB Messenger.

Re: Element – All-in-one secure chat app for teams, friends and organisations

#70

Post by monopoledance »

Shared404 wrote: post #47
monopoledance wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both sound better than 'element' to me. "Comms app" isn't exactly what I expect to be 'atomic', or 'simple', either. Aaand "Element Matrix Services"? bitch, please... XD 'Element' is so un-cybery, feels dated. First association is Bam Margera and teenage skateboard consumer culture. The uncool one, lacking punk rock and attitude. Such a 2000s word. Anyway, naming things is hard and annoying, so I am glad they found s…

I agree. I believe the change in name was at least partially to make it easier for IT to sell to management. I don't envy the person trying to convince their manager to switch to Riot.

But 'vector' sounds fine and cyber. Or 'scalar'.

They could at least go with 'LMNT' (leet manager's new tool) and make the logo a cyber ambigram, like this: ` |_|\|\|¯| `.

As you can see, I do sympathize with their struggles XD

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