Back at FOSDEM we announced the idea of Matrix 2.0 - a series of huge step changes in terms of Matrix’s usability and performance, made up of Sliding Sync (instant login/launch/sync), Native OIDC(industry-standard authentication), Native Group VoIP (end-to-end encrypted large-scale voice & video conferencing) and Faster Joins (lazy-loading room state when your server joins a room).
Now, we’re excited to announce that as of today everyone can start playing with these Matrix 2.0 features. There’s still some work to bring them formally into the specification, but we’re putting it out there for folks to experience right now. Developers: watch this space for updates on the spec front.
Practically speaking, this means there are now implementations of the four pillars of Matrix 2.0 available today which you can use to power a daily-driver Matrix 2.0 client. The work here has been driven primarily by Element, using their new Element X client as the test-bed for the new Matrix 2.0 functionality and to prove that the new APIs are informed by real-world usage and can concretely demonstrably create an app which begins to outperform iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram in terms of usability and performance… all while benefiting from being 100% built on Matrix.
This sounds awesome. I had a few gripes with Matrix and this seems to fix some of the big ones. Maybe I’ll consider using it seriously when 2.0 is out.
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Been waiting for this… current matrix if you try to join a popular server (eg. the one it suggests joining when you first install element) it completely buries the server, then element times out and crashes. Apparently the 1.0 protocol tries to download the entire channel history.
v2.0 is supposed to fix this, so worth trying to install it again.
Yeah, my home server has been running for more than a few years, and has been in a few large rooms - it’s gotten to the point that connecting takes upwards to a minute on the old client.
With Element X it takes around 3 to 4 seconds, regardless of room size. It’s delicious.
Alas I can’t get elementx working. It logs in but there’s no search for channels so I can’t join a federated channel to do a speed test, so I’m left with a blank screen. Sure I’m missing something obvious.
On normal element I tried to join matrixhq, for testing…
That was 2 hours ago. It’s still going… the log is fascinating… it keeps trying to connect to servers that presumably used to run matrix but don’t any more. No idea how far back it’s trying to go… could be years…
I’ve given it 32GB and every processor I can throw at it so it shouldn’t crash this time. Will be interesting to see how long it actually takes if it completes.
Great news
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Does the native Group VoIP mean voice rooms like Discord are possible now? That feature is pretty much all that’s keeping me on discord as of now.
There is an experimental feature before 2.0 that makes a voice room an always on voice room so you join it without calling and can see people in it before joining.
I don’t get how this works in relation with Element X. Surely, installing and using Element X is not sufficient to use Matrix 2.0 protocols is it? I mean, it must depends on the room version and the like, right?
Element X implements most of the client side stuff mentioned above, but it doesn’t depend on a specific room version: instead, your homeserver must implement/run an additional service (a “sliding sync” proxy, a special binary written in Go that is deployed alongside Synapse) and then advertise that service’s existence.
If it does the latter, Element X will know where to connect and will function.
Note that this is only temporary so that people can make use of Sync V3 before it officially lands in Synapse. And it, technically, isn’t synapse exclusive either, as it’s its own thing.
OK, it’s clearer now, thanks for the explanation!
It depends on your server and whether they’ve/you’ve enabled SlideSync.
I know it’s stupid, but lack of gif picker is a no go for all my contacts. The idea of matrix is great, though. Sadly it’s missing all these cool features.
That’s not a Matrix feature, that’s a client feature.
Yes, should be targeted to Element X specifically.
Actually it would be much preffered to just use gifs from the keyboard. It would work across apps and do not bloat messengers.
My keyboard of choice (Florisboard) does not support gifs either.
Pretty impressed with Element/ Matrix overall. It feels like a more privacy focused Discord. There’s still some UI improvements I’d be keen on seeing, but overall it’s a really nice
This is all great, but does it have enforcable push to talk yet?
