Element (software)


Element is a free and open-source software instant messaging client based on the Matrix protocol.
Element supports end-to-end encryption, groups, channels and sharing of files between users. It is available as a web application, as desktop apps for all major operating systems and as a mobile app for Android and iOS.

History

Element was originally known as Vector when it was released out of beta in 2016. The app was renamed to Riot in September of the same year.
In 2016 the first implementation of the Matrix end-to-end encryption was implemented and rolled out as a beta to users. In May 2020, the developers announced enabling end-to-end encryption by default in Riot for new non-public conversations.
In April 2019, a new application was released on the Google Play Store in response to cryptographic keys used to sign the Riot Android app being compromised.
In July 2020, Riot was renamed to Element.

Technology

Element is built with the Matrix React SDK, which is a React-based software development kit to ease the development of Matrix clients. Element is mostly built around web technologies and also uses Electron, a software framework to create desktop applications from web applications, to distribute their desktop clients for Windows, MacOS and Linux. The Android and iOS clients are developed and distributed with their respective platform tools.
On Android the app is available both in the Google Play Store and the free-software only F-Droid Archives, with minor modifications. For instance the F-Droid version doesn't come with the proprietary Google Cloud Messaging plug-in.

Features

Element is able to bridge other communications into the app via Matrix, such as IRC, Slack, Telegram and others. Also it integrates voice and video peer-to-peer and group chats via WebRTC.
Element supports end-to-end encryption of both one-to-one and group chats.

Reception

In the media, Riot was sometimes perceived as an alternative to Slack, WhatsApp or other instant messaging clients.
In 2017, German computer magazine Golem.de called Riot as "mature" and "feature-rich", while criticizing its key authentication at the time to be "anything but user-friendly" for many communicatees with multiple devices each. A co-founder of the project, Matthew Hodgson, assured the key verification process was a "placeholder" solution to work on. In 2020, a cross-signing feature was added to the apps to make the verification process simpler.