Is anyone else using Element (formerly Riot.im (formerly Matrix))...? 

I'm hoping to minimize my reliance on Telegram. I mean, I've wanted to do that since before I started using it, for so many reasons, but everyone's primary reason for staying there seems to be... stickers, I guess?

Element seems to be the best alternative for many reasons such as server federation, a web client that isn't a second-class citizen, trusted encryption, and the like. It can also bridge with Telegram, IRC, Slack, and quite a few other things.

Is anyone else using this? Is there some catch I'm not seeing or any particular reason to steer clear?

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re: Is anyone else using Element (formerly Riot.im (formerly Matrix))...? 

@ElectricKeet 🖐🏽 🎒

It's kinda janky in a lot of ways and it lacks a lot of the straightforward community features of something like Discord, but it functions pretty all right for DMs and group chats

one of the instances we're on has a Matrix homeserver (Matrix is the chat thing, Element (formerly Riot.im) is the standard client software) so we're currently online through there.

re: Is anyone else using Element (formerly Riot.im (formerly Matrix))...? 

@packbat I did already deal with a little jank in my early testing with my spouse. It's way too easy (at least with the Android client) to set up a chat that tries to be encrypted but fails, and without "developer mode" turned on, the error message isn't "hey goofus you gotta verify keys with the other party" but "waiting for message and it could be a while"... indefinitely. And only sometimes? We fixed it, but if has confusing issues that early in the user experience, it's gonna be a hard sell to folks.

But I really want it to work!

re: Is anyone else using Element (formerly Riot.im (formerly Matrix))...? 

@ElectricKeet *nods*

we had to move homeservers at one point and our attempts to copy+paste someone's account name into the "DM this person" thingy just straight-up failed - we had to manually type it or it wouldn't work

we don't have a lot of problems with it but we have some seriously janky problems with it

- 🎒

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