This Week in Matrix

Matrix Live

Dept of Status of Matrix 🌡️

Thib (m.org) announces

The Matrix Conference 2024 now has a schedule!!

With more than 60 very high quality proposals, it's been difficult to select talks that would make it to the conference. We are thrilled to announce the schedule of the conference, and we're looking forward to listen to that fantastic line up tell us about the future of Matrix, Matrix in the public sector, Matrix in the wild, or the social impact of Matrix!

Check out the full schedule at https://2024.matrix.org/schedule/

If you're an organisation and want to get some visibility in the Matrix ecosystem, we have a few sponsorship packages left at https://2024.matrix.org/sponsor/ Don't forget to book your ticket to attend. Head to https://2024.matrix.org/register/ and tell us whether you want merch or not in addition to your ticket!

Dept of Spec 📜

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} says

Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals.

MSC Status

New MSCs:

• MSC4171: Service members

MSCs in Final Comment Period:

• No MSCs are in FCP.

Accepted MSCs:

• No MSCs were accepted this week.

Closed MSCs:

• No MSCs were closed/rejected this week.

Random MSC of the Week

It's a fairly quiet week as far as Spec Core Team pings are concerned. Let's bring back the random MSC of the week!

The random MSC of the week is... MSC2949: Proposal to clarify "Requires auth" and "Rate-limited" in the spec!

This proposal seeks to clarify the sometimes vague "Requires auth" and "Rate-limited" labels in the spec. Both are defined as a simple true/false, yet some endpoints will accept both authenticated and non-authenticated requests - returning varying content if the request was authenticated. The recommendation instead is for clients to pass authentication for all endpoints. This will also help with backwards-compatibility, if an endpoint is updated to change its behaviour based on the user making the request.

As for "rate-limited", whether an endpoint should be rate-limited or not and by what amount is really up to the implementation. In practice a homeserver should really rate-limit all endpoints to some degree, but by how much will depend on the use case.

MSC2949 proposes to make it clear that these labels are simply recommendations and to not be treated as absolutes. Alternative solutions include simply doing away with the labels, and instead providing clear guidance for request authentication and rate-limiting that covers all endpoints.

If you're a client author and would like to see the spec improve in this regard, jump into the discussion on the MSC PR and have your say!

Dept of Clients 📱

Element X iOS (website)

A total rewrite of Element-iOS using the Matrix Rust SDK underneath and targeting devices running iOS 16+.

Mauro Romito says

• RC 1.7.1 has been released
• Fixed some potential crashes
• Improved Element call video stability *Added some new languages
• Message pinning work has progressed further

Dept of Non Chat Clients 🎛️

Circles (website)

E2E encrypted social networking built on Matrix. Safe, private sharing for your friends, family, and community.

cvwright (FUTO) announces

For the past 2.5 years the Circles team at FUTO has been pushing toward a big public launch of the app along with a paid subscription service for accounts. Unfortunately it was determined that this will not be feasible. The remaining work required to build the current app into a viable mass-market commercial product is simply much more than the team can handle in the remaining time available.

So instead, FUTO has handed the codebase back to the development team. Source code for the app has been transferred to https://github.com/circles-project, where Circles will live on as a community open source project under the leadership of the current development team. The license has also been changed, from the (fairly restrictive) AGPL 3.0 to the extremely liberal Apache License 2.0, in order to encourage and facilitate contributions from the community. In the days and weeks ahead, we will also be transferring the project web page, the Google Play Store app, and the Apple App Store app to the new ownership. The Circles app in the main f-droid.org repository will stay where it is, but will be updated to remove its current FUTO branding. The Circles app in FUTO's own F-Droid repo will be removed.

For users with accounts on the circles.futo.org servers, and for the handful of users still on the old circu.li servers, FUTO has committed to keeping those instances online through the end of 2024. In the meantime, registration of new accounts has been disabled. A future build of the app will include an in-app message for those on the affected systems. The dev team hopes to be able to provide a hosted service again in the near future, for those users who are new to Matrix and need an account to use the app; please be patient as this will likely take us a few weeks to sort out.

FUTO has generously committed to supporting the Circles development team for the next few months. By the end of August, we hope to have the app in good shape with everything that it needs, so that it is ready to enter a sort of maintenance phase if necessary. At that point, we will have the app that I originally set out to build in early 2020. We still have some exciting features on the roadmap, so stay tuned over the next weeks as we put the last major pieces in place.

Thanks to everyone in the Matrix community and in the #circles:matrix.org room for your feedback and encouragement as we built this thing from the ground up. Thanks to FUTO for their generous support over the past 2.5 years, and for allowing us to keep the app alive going forward.

tldr - FUTO Circles is dead. Long live The Circles Project.

Dept of SDKs and Frameworks 🧰

Trixnity (website)

Multiplatform Kotlin SDK for developing Clients, Bots, Appservices and Servers

Benedict says

This week, the Trixnity project has seen several notable improvements. With a valuable contribution from David Phillips, several Endpoints have been fixed. Additionally, a new feature now allows for individual timeouts when calling getTimelineEvent in parallel, addressing the previous issue where the first call defined the timeouts for all subsequent parallel calls. The MatrixRegex helper-object for matching various Matrix identifiers has been cleaned up, too.

Several bugs have also been resolved. Parsing and scanning of mentions are now more reliable. The incorrect calculation of canLoadBefore and canLoadAfter in the Timeline, particularly in rooms with upgrades, has been fixed. Furthermore, JavaScript streams are now closed correctly.

simplematrixbotlib (website)

simplematrixbotlib is an easy to use bot library for the Matrix ecosystem written in Python and based on matrix-nio.

imbev says

simplematrixbotlib v2.12.0

An easy to use bot library for the Matrix ecosystem written in Python.

Many thanks to saces, DavidCruciani, charlhakeem, Dreamsorcerer, subDesTagesMitExtraKaese, and others for their contributions!

Git repository: https://codeberg.org/imbev/simplematrixbotlib

Python package: https://pypi.org/project/simplematrixbotlib/2.12.0/

Matrix room: https://matrix.to/#/#simplematrixbotlib:matrix.org

• Reexport typing via py.typed
• Use Python 3.9 as minimum version
• Add config option to not spam decryption error on invite
• Add API for leaving and forgetting rooms
• Add API for sending polls
• Add API for administration
• Add API for sending location
• Add reply_to to send_markdown_message
• Improve configuration for device_name
• Add encryption support for send_image_message
• Improve reply/formatted message match handling
• Add config option to do the first sync full
• Fix minor bugs

matrix-rust-sdk (website)

Next-gen crypto-included SDK for developing Clients, Bots and Appservices; written in Rust with bindings for Node, Swift and WASM

bnjbvr says

No updates for the last two months? Here comes a large one, then!

• sdk: when using sliding sync, the rooms are now sorted client-side, instead of relying on the list of updated rooms returned by the server. This is more robust in the presence of encrypted rooms, for which the server cannot inspect rooms, and decide by itself whether an event is worth bumping a room to the top of the list or not.
• sdk: we added an observable send queue to each room, available with Room::send_queue(). A send queue will retry sending events in the background, in the same order events were added to a room. It's also observable and will notify updates whenever it tried multiple times sending an event and failed (which could be a sign that network is down); in that situation, it will stop trying to send subsequent events. To-be-sent events are stored on disk and thus remembered across SDK restarts. Unsent events can be aborted and edited too.
• sdk-ui: The Timeline API is now making use of this send queue by default. If you're using it, don't forget to observe the send queue errors at the global level!
• sdk: experimental support for a simplified version of sliding sync is in. It's not ready for prime time yet, but expect to hear about it in the upcoming months!
• sdk: add support for authenticated media requests. Huge thanks to @zecakeh for spearheading the implementation in both Ruma and the SDK!
• sdk: A new Room API to save and restore message drafts has been added; follow the breadcrumbs around Room::save_composer_draft().
• sdk: the Matrix server version and list of unstable features are now fetched at most once per week, and then cached on disk. It's also possible to force-empty this cache, using Client::reset_server_capabilities().
• sdk: it's now possible to set a maximum number of concurrent network requests being carried over at the same time, using RequestConfig::max_concurrent_requests(). Thanks to @gnunicorn for this contribution!
• sdk: the SDK is now compatible with the new MatrixRTC membership format (MSC4143).
• sdk-ui: The unable-to-decrypt (UTD) hook now stops double-reporting events after the SDK restarted.
• crypto: decrypted events now have a shield state that indicates whether they can be safely trusted or not.
• sdk-base: pinned events can now be fetched in a room, using Room::pinned_events().
• sdk: it's now possible to easily reset cross-signing keys with Client::encryption().reset_cross_signing().
• And your usual big load of bug fixes (a lot of them in the crypto area, making it more reliable and more robust, which should help reducing unable-to-decrypt issues), refactorings, CI improvements, new capabilities at the FFI layer, you name it!

Now it's time for the Summer break for me. Have a nice one, and keep on supporting your local crab programming language 🦀

Elm SDK (website)

A more consistent alternative to the matrix-js-sdk, written in Elm.

Bram reports

Now that the major part of the API has been defined, smaller API endpoints are rolling out like cookies in a cookie factory! 🍪🍪🍪 This week's new SDK version comes with a load of new features. Using the Elm SDK:

• You can now read & write global account data
• You can now read & write account data per room
• You can now send both message & state events to rooms
• You can now invite, kick & ban other users

📰 View the docs 🐘 Share it on the Fediverse 🗨️ Join the conversation

Dept of Ops 🛠

matrix-docker-ansible-deploy (website)

Matrix server setup using Ansible and Docker

Slavi reports

Thanks to Michael Hollister from FUTO, the creators of the Circles app, matrix-docker-ansible-deploy can now set up synapse-usage-exporter - a small Flask-based webservice which can capture usage statistics from Synapse (via HTTP PUT) and then make them available for Prometheus to scrape.

To learn more see our Enabling synapse-usage-exporter for Synapse usage statistics documentation page.

Matrix Federation Stats

Aine reports

collected by MatrixRooms.info - an MRS instance by etke.cc

As of today, 9676 Matrix federateable servers have been discovered by matrixrooms.info, 2959 (30.6%) of them are publishing their rooms directory over federation. The published directories contain 161397 rooms.

Stats timeline is available on MatrixRooms.info/stats

How to add your server | How to remove your server

Dept of Ping

Here we reveal, rank, and applaud the homeservers with the lowest ping, as measured by pingbot, a maubot that you can host on your own server.

#ping:maunium.net

Join #ping:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

#ping-no-synapse:maunium.net

Join #ping-no-synapse:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

That's all I know

See you next week, and be sure to stop by #twim:matrix.org with your updates!

Matrix Live

Dept of Spec 📜

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} says

Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals

MSC Status

New MSCs:

• MSC4171: Service members

MSCs in Final Comment Period:

• No MSCs are in FCP.

Accepted MSCs:

• No MSCs were accepted this week.

Closed MSCs:

• MSC3572: Relation aggregation cleanup
• MSC1840: Typed rooms

Spec Updates

We have just one MSC this week from the Tuesday pings. Get it below.

• MSC4163: Make ACLs apply to EDUs (merge)
  • There is one outstanding concern on this MSC for improved clarity, however the author appears to have already addressed this point. Looks like it's only a matter of time before FCP beigns on this one.
  • Requires 1 more tick from the SCT (Started the week needing 6)

Once again, thank you to everyone who is writing PRs against matrix-spec, especially Johennes and Kladki who combined have had lots of PRs (and MSCs!) created and merged recently. Cheers!

Dept of Servers 🏢

Synapse (website)

Synapse is a Matrix homeserver implementation developed by Element

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} announces

This week we released Synapse v1.111.0 (v36? 🤖) and with it came increased support for Authenticated Media and native Sliding Sync. Again, please note that native sliding sync is still experimental, and we do not (yet) advise trying it yet unless you're a developer. Finally, with the additional authenticated media endpoints in place, Synapse now declares support for Matrix v1.11 to clients.

Other changes include forcing deactivated users to forget all rooms they were in (which was preventing garbage collection of rooms they were in) and improved support for OIDC with an experimental implementation of MSC3861: delegate authentication via OIDC.

See the full changelog for all the details.

Dept of Clients 📱

Fractal (website)

Matrix messaging app for GNOME written in Rust.

Kévin Commaille reports

Did you miss us? Only two weeks after our beta release, we are ready to release Fractal 8.rc.

Here are the main goodies since Fractal 8.beta:

• Draft messages are persisted in the database, allowing to restore them after a restart
• A banner appears when synchronization with the homeserver fails too many times in a row
• Links in room descriptions are detected in most places
• Collapsed categories in the sidebar are remembered between restarts, with the “Historical” category collapsed by default
• The history media viewers show properly when they are loading or empty

As usual, this release includes other improvements, fixes and new translations thanks to all our contributors, and our upstream projects.

It is available to install via Flathub Beta, see the instructions in our README.

As the version implies, it should be mostly stable and we expect to only include minor improvements until the release of Fractal 8.

If you want to spend your summer or winter coding, solving our issues is a great place to start!

FluffyChat (website)

The cutest instant messenger in the [matrix].

Krille-chan announces

FluffyChat v1.21.2 has been released 🚀 and is right now available in all AppStore (except F-Droid). This release brings several 🐞 bug fixes and a 🚨 security fix.

Rooms without a known last message are no longer jumping around in the room list and the last message in the room list now also decrypts when keys are coming afterwards.

Also a (security related) bug, where the app tried to load images from arbitrary urls, has been fixed. Therefore I encourage all users to install the update. If you are using a fork, please check if it is also affected.

Element X iOS (website)

A total rewrite of Element-iOS using the Matrix Rust SDK underneath and targeting devices running iOS 16+.

Mauro Romito announces

• Rich text editor has been improved significantly, and predictive inline text has been restored
• Element Call stability fixes
• Simplified Sliding Sync is being tested on the app, and is currently testable on nightlies
• Message pinning work has been started
• Fixed invites on the join room screen

Element X Android (website)

Android Matrix messenger application using the Matrix Rust SDK and Jetpack Compose.

ganfra announces

• EX Android v0.4.16 is now available in the Play Store.
• Element Call stability (including Picture in Picture)
• Performance improvements, most notable when opening/closing rooms.
• Improvements in the text composer.
• And several bug fixes.

Dept of VoIP 🤙

Element Call (website)

Native Decentralised End-to-end Encrypted Group Calls in Matrix, as a standalone web app

Timo K. says

This week, the Element VoIP team presents a new release. (Just a small one for now)

Release version v0.5.18

v0.5.18 has fixes that users get "magically" muted. Since real magic does not exist, there is an explanation to it: Whenever a call has 8 or more participants, we want the default to be that the microphone is muted. This condition was reactive, but now this only happens once at the start of a call. The much bigger change in this release (and one of the big achievements this week) is that Element Call v0.5.18 supports the new event format from MSC4143 (MatrixRTC), which allows us to implement reliable call memberships So updating to this version will be the minimal requirement to be compatible with MSC4143 (MatrixRTC). It is still using the old format from MSC3401 by default. Only if it is configured to use the new version in the config, or if someone else is using the new version v0.5.18, it will also send the new event format. This is an exciting milestone where the first part of reliable call memberships reach production. The new layout is testable? For all of you that don't like small preparation steps but want to see and feel how things evolve, there is even more exciting news. We merged a big project into the dev branch of element call: call.element.dev. All the UI logic was refactored and allows for elegant rxjs (reactive programming using Observables) code. It is easy and elegant to create new layouts based on the new architecture, and writing tests for this code is much easier thanks to the introduction of an MVVM architecture. So be invited to play around with call.element.dev. We just reached the point where it is fully usable, fast and fun. Even though we are not yet feature complete, it already feels more snappy and fixes a couple of long awaited issues like everybody's all time favorite: Spotlight layout is still jumpy and erratic

Dept of SDKs and Frameworks 🧰

tulir announces

All mautrix-* bridges and libraries as well as gomuks have been updated to support Matrix v1.11 authenticated media https://mau.fi/blog/2024-07-mautrix-release/

Elm SDK (website)

A more consistent alternative to the matrix-js-sdk, written in Elm.

Bram announces

This week, beta 3.4.0 has been released, which introduces the /sync implementation. This is massive, because it means that this Elm SDK version has the minimum necessary features to build a functional Matrix client! 🎉🎉🎉 Expect clients with zero runtime errors soon.

If you're unfamiliar with Elm, stay tuned, because Elm is interoperable with JavaScript. I'm talking to a few friends of mine who might help me turn the Elm SDK into a capable competitor to the existing matrix-js-sdk. For now, however, the focus is to add all the other features you'd expect from an SDK.

📰 View the docs 🐘 Share it on the Fediverse 🗨️ Join the Matrix conversation

Dept of Bots 🤖

maubot/reactbot challenge!

HarHarLinks reports

Hi TWIM! 👋 I generally like to have fun, and one of the things that I enjoy is solving puzzles. Also, I like Matrix, and some of you might know that I am an avid collector of Matrix powered gadgets that might be useful, annoying the users in my rooms fun, somewhere in between, or maybe even both! In fact, I'm planning to show off some of that at The Matrix Conference in 2 months. In the meantime, I thought maybe you too like fun, so let's do something in the meantime! Which leads me to the maubot/reactbot challenge!

In case you have been living under a rock and are somehow not aware, maubot is a wonderful plugin-powered bot framework for Matrix. There is a popular plugin called reactbot that essentially does what you'd expect based on its name: It will read any message sent into a room and react to it according to some rules that you configure for it. We even have an instance running in this here #thisweekinmatrix:matrix.org room (hiiii Cookie Bot!! 🍪❤️)!

The rules to configure the reactbot are somewhat limiting at first look but actually very flexible and allow you to create some of your own simple Matrix bot by writing YAML and perhaps regex instead of real code™️! Let's ignore whether this is a good thing, and look at some examples instead: at https://github.com/maubot/reactbot/tree/master/samples you can find some absolute essentials like explanations about FOSS software as well as less serious stuff like sending threaded messages to troll users without thread aware clients.

I've blabbered on enough, so here goes: I challenge you to submit your fun/crazy/weird/amazing reactbots (i.e. config snippets) as code blocks via the Matrix room #reactbot-challenge:matrix.org so everyone can check them out and vote on the most fun/crazy/weird/amazing/best one! Here is a simple one of mine as an example to start turning the gears in your heads:

templates:
    reaction:
        type: m.reaction
        variables:
            react_to_event: '{{event.content.get_edit() or event.event_id}}'
        content:
            m.relates_to:
                rel_type: m.annotation
                event_id: $${react_to_event}
                key: $${reaction}

rules:
    schnapszahl:
        matches:
        - ^(?:.*[^0-9.,])?([0-9])(?:[.,]?\1)+(?:[^0-9.,].*)?$
        template: reaction
        variables:
            reaction: 🥃🔢

It will react with "🥃🔢" to any repdigit, which in German we call Schnapszahl (schnapps number).

Dept of Events and Talks 🗣️

Yan reports

From the passionate team that has brought you numerous Matrix community events, we're thrilled to invite you to another cozy and engaging experience! 🌟✨

Join us for a delightful gathering where you can connect, share, and enjoy the warm community spirit.

Can't wait to see you there! 💖

#MatrixCommunity #CozyEvent #JoinUs

Codename: “Matrix Re-Treated”

Event Overview

Join us for Workation-Nation 0.1, a unique event dedicated to exploring and developing the Matrix communication protocol. This innovative gathering combines focused work sessions, collaborative workshops, and recreational activities in the picturesque setting of Krems, Austria.

Event Details

Date: Monday, 19th August 2024 to Monday, 2nd September 2024

Location: A charming breakfast pension near the city center and close to a river, in Krems Austria, close to Vienna

About Krems

Nestled in the heart of the Wachau Valley, Krems is a historic town known for its stunning landscapes, vineyards, and cultural heritage. It offers a perfect blend of natural beauty and modern amenities, making it an ideal location for a workcation. Explore medieval architecture, enjoy local wines, and immerse yourself in the vibrant local culture.

Daily Schedule

• 8:00 - 9:00: Breakfast
• 9:00 - 16:00: Concentrated Work Time
• 16:00 - 18:00: Open Workshops
• 19:30: Dinner Together

Bergfest

Celebrate Bergfest with us. On the first weekend (24th - 25th August) featuring:

1. Live Music
2. Presentations
3. More engaging activities and surprises

Workshops

Organized by Datanauten with active participation from attendees, our workshops are designed to inspire creativity and collaboration. Workshops include:

1. From You For You: Peer-led sessions on diverse topics
2. Walk to Krems: Explore the local area on foot
3. Pottery (Töpfern): Get hands-on with clay
4. Water Kefir (Wasserkefir): Learn to make this probiotic drink
5. Kimchi Making: Spice Up Your Life: Master the Art of Kimchi!
6. Mind and Hand Activities: Engaging tasks that stimulate both intellect and creativity
7. HackAway: Some creactive experience

Prices

Base Package 49€ per day and person:

• Shared food: Delicious hands-on BreakFast and Dinner everyday
• Shared workspace: Desk, Chair, Internet, Whiteboard ... ask for more
• Shared sleepspace: A bed in a 2 bed room or flat with bathroom

Exclusive Package 81€ per day and person:

• All the above + Exclusive sleepspace: A room and bath only for you

Feel free to bring your family, kids, or friends! We will find special deals.

Activities for Families and Friends

Explore the beautiful region with a variety of activities:

• Biking through scenic routes
• Visiting local museums
• Wine tasting at traditional Heurigen taverns
• Hiking in the picturesque Wachau Valley
• Swimming in the river Danube
• Discovering the historic town of Krems
• Enjoying day trips to Vienna

Food and Catering

We will cook together, creating a communal dining experience and accommodating all dietary requirements.

Transportation

• From Vienna:

  If you arrive by plane or train in Vienna, we can arrange to pick you up.

• From FrOSCon:

  There is a direct or luggage transport from FrOSCon on August 18th.

Flights:

Be quick to booking; currently, a return flight from London is below €200.

Sponsors

The sponsoring by the Matrix community is allowing us to offer you these special prices.

Registration

Register by emailing [email protected]

or contact Yan Minagawa on Matrix

Contact Info

1. @yan:datanauten.de
2. Phone: +49 175 5550564
3. Email: [email protected]

Partial attendance

If you can only come for a limited time, consider coming for the first week and the weekend (19th - 25th August) or the weekend and the second week (24th August - 1st September). Please understand that we will favour bookings by full time attendees.

Additional Information

This is a prototype event where we going to the process of experimenting and improving. Please feel free to request anything you need to make this event even better!

Matrix Federation Stats

Aine announces

collected by MatrixRooms.info - an MRS instance by etke.cc

As of today, 9627 Matrix federateable servers have been discovered by matrixrooms.info, 2949 (30.6%) of them are publishing their rooms directory over federation. The published directories contain 161259 rooms.

Stats timeline is available on MatrixRooms.info/stats

How to add your server | How to remove your server

Dept of Ping

Here we reveal, rank, and applaud the homeservers with the lowest ping, as measured by pingbot, a maubot that you can host on your own server.

#ping:maunium.net

Join #ping:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

#ping-no-synapse:maunium.net

Join #ping-no-synapse:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

That's all I know

See you next week, and be sure to stop by #twim:matrix.org with your updates!

Matrix Live

Dept of Spec 📜

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} says

Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals.

MSC Status

New MSCs:

• MSC4170: 403 error responses for profile APIs
• MSC4169: Backwards-compatible redaction sending using /send
• MSC4168: Update m.space.* state on room upgrade
• MSC4167: Copy bans on room upgrade
• MSC4166: Specify /turnServer response when no TURN servers are available
• MSC4165: Remove own power level on deactivation
• MSC4164: Leave all rooms on deactivation
• MSC4163: Make ACLs apply to EDUs

MSCs in Final Comment Period:

• MSC1840: Typed rooms (close)

Accepted MSCs:

• MSC4159: Remove the deprecated name attribute on HTML anchor elements

Closed MSCs:

• No MSCs were closed/rejected this week.

Spec Updates

Lots of new MSCs this week - thank you to everyone proposing new ideas or clarifications to the spec!

We have just one MSC this week from the Tuesday pings. Get it below.

• MSC3572: Relation aggregation cleanup (disposition: close)
  • Since this MSC was written, it has been shown that having (unstable) prefixes in the unsigned field of events is useful. Hence the general consensus from the SCT has been to close this MSC as it stands.
  • Needs 1 checkmark from the SCT (started the week needing 2).

Continue reading…

Matrix Live

Dept of Status of Matrix 🌡️

Thib (m.org) announces

The enthusiasm around The Matrix Conference is simply mind-boggling! In less than 2 weeks, the project leads of state-sponsored deployments, key digital rights activists and the Matrix community at large sent us more than 60 high-quality proposals 🤯

We're really excited to help the key players in the ecosystem meet in Berlin, and I can't wait to see the fantastic talks people are working on. While the team works on producing a proper schedule for it, organisations that want to increase their brand awareness in the Matrix Ecosystem can still sponsor the conference. Let your marketing department know, pass them our sponsorship brochure!

Continue reading…

Matrix Live S09E32 - QR Code Login & Translations

This week at Element, Benoit walks us through how he checks that the translations are consistent in Element, and Hugh tells us everything about the awesome QR Code Login in Matrix Auth Service!

Dept of Servers 🏢

Synapse (website)

Synapse is a Matrix homeserver implementation developed by Element

Till announces

This week we released Synapse v1.110.0rc2, which contains experimental support for account suspension, report room API, more native Sliding Sync functionality and more.

Check out the release notes for more details! Also, if you can, please test v1.110.rc2 in non-critical environments.

(Note: I've linked to rc1 release notes, since all the changes are in rc1, which unfortunately was only partially released due to a packaging issue. rc2 fixes this.)

Dept of Bridges 🌉

tulir says

I haven't posted anything on TWIM for a long time, so I decided to make a blog and write a post to cover things that happened in the past ~6 months: https://mau.fi/blog/2024-h1-mautrix-updates/

We also haven't TWIMmed anything about Beeper since the new Android app release in March. While everyone probably already heard about Beeper being acquired by Automattic, more recently we published a brief roadmap about app rewrites and the local bridges that my post mentions: https://blog.beeper.com/2024/06/04/2024-beeper-roadmap/

Dept of Clients 📱

Nil: A futuristic iOS Matrix client

mszpro announces

Introduction

Nil, an iOS Matrix client. It has all basic Matrix features like encryption, rich notification, in-app registration support, etc.

But what's special is that it comes with features like GIF by Tenor, RSS feeds, chat room folders, customizable message reaction emojis, system Memoji and sticker picker.

Plus, Nil allows you to download an AI model and run it locally on your device (currently supporting Microsoft Phi and Meta Llama 3). There is absolutely no online API calls, and you can casually chat with local AI, ask it to summarize latest messages within a group, or ask for reply suggestions for a specific message.

Future plan

I just released the first build of the Nil app. I wanted to get it to the world as quick as possible so there might be some bugs and features missing, but I will try my best to fix them and add more features gradually.

WatchOS and VisionOS app are coming very very soon! Features like message replies, threading, and spaces are coming next week.

Currently only for iOS, but might be an Android version in the future if I get time to work on it. And I also intend to add other features like session management in the upcoming weeks. If there is any features you'd like to see in the app, just let me know and I will code it!

Links

Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/nil-futuristic-matrix-chat-client

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/nil-for-matrix/id6499088265

Story behind Nil

I have a passion for self-hosting and developing all the applications I use. Five years ago, I hosted my first Synapse server to communicate with family and friends. I began developing my own Matrix client, Nil, in early May 2024.

After a month filled with coding, coffee, and tea, I submitted Nil to the App Store by the end of June. My vision for Nil is to provide a user experience comparable to major chat applications but on Matrix, a decentralized platform.

In the category of decentralization, Nil isn't my first project. Last year, I indie developed Sora, a cutting-edge app that integrates Mastodon, Misskey, and Bluesky. It features a local AI algorithm for predicting user interests and curating posts. Given the absence of a central server for data aggregation and query processing, discovering content that aligns with individual preferences can be challenging. However, with advanced neural engines and language analysis, Sora provides a seamless browsing experience on local iOS devices, enhancing user engagement across the Fediverse.

Thank you for your consideration!

Dept of VoIP 🤙

Element Call (website)

Native Decentralised End-to-end Encrypted Group Calls in Matrix, as a standalone web app

Andrew F says

New Element Call release

Hello from the VoIP team! We have a new Element Call release v0.5.17, which is mainly a bug fix release. It adds:

• Knocking support for guest access (still PoC quality and disabled by default)
• A fix for our password encoding issue that was breaking some calls in the SPA
• Fix audio/video device flickering
• Remove excessive footer space. We know that the app "wastes" a lot of screen space currently, and we're happy to share that we're working on new designs to reduce this.

It is available now on https://call.element.io.

If you experience any issues, please share your feedback in #webrtc:matrix.org.

BigBlueButton interoperability

This week we also got the chance to present the inner working of the BigBlueButton Element interoperability (BigBlueButton's MatrixRTC compatibility and Element web integration) at the BigBlueButton World conference. The recording is here!

Dept of Encryption 🔐

Sumner Evans says

I have been working on stabilizing goolm for use with mautrix-go. Goolm a replacement for libolm and vodozemac written in pure Go. Once goolm is stabilized cgo will no longer be necessary for compiling mautrix-go with encryption support. In order to stabilize goolm, I wanted to test goolm and libolm against one another to test compatibility. It took a lot of effort to set up the infrastructure to be able to do this, and I wrote a blog post about the process and some of my findings here: https://sumnerevans.com/posts/programming/differential-fuzzing-libolm-goolm/ (I wrote it a couple weeks ago, but didn't get around to posting it on TWIM until now).

Dept of SDKs and Frameworks 🧰

Trixnity Messenger (website)

Multiplatform Kotlin SDK for developing messengers on top of Trixnity

Benedict reports

We released Trixnity Messenger SDK 2.0 last week, adding a huge amount of features (like room export, global notification settings any many more). The API is also way more stable now, so check it out and build your own messenger the fast way.

Trixnity (website)

Multiplatform Kotlin SDK for developing Clients, Bots, Appservices and Servers

Benedict announces

Trixnity 4.4.0 brings several exciting updates. Streaming support for media in the Kotlin browser target now allows encrypted media to be processed sequentially, reducing memory usage. A new media store, trixnity-client-media-opfs, has been introduced, utilizing the Origin Private File System. Additionally several fixes have been implemented.

Dept of Events and Talks 🗣️

FrOSCon

Nico says

You want to practice for the Matrix conference? FrOSCon is just before the Matrix conference and has a Matrix devroom (and stand). If you are in the area or want to join us, please come around at the 17th and 18th of August.

We are also still looking for talks in the dev room. Do you have an interesting project you want to introduce? Did you dig into some corner related to Matrix and maybe have something to share? Or do you just want to practice your talk before presenting at the Matrix conference? Don't hesitate to join us! The audience might be smaller, but that also makes giving a talk a lot less scary!

If you have any ideas on what to present, feel free to contact Oleg, Kim / HarHarLinks or join #FrOSCon:fiksel.info. We are looking forward to your proposals and hope to see many of you at FrOSCon!

Matrix User Meetup Berlin

saces reports

Next Matrix user meetup 3.7.2024, 8 pm @ c-base

Meet other matrix users, chat about Matrix, the rest, and everything else, discuss your Matrix ideas, sign each other in persona, and maybe spice the evening with a good mate or beer.

Also when the bbq is lit you may wish you brougth your favorite item :)

Every first Wednesday of the month in the c-base at 8pm ('til the next pandemic).

Matrix room: #mumb:c-base.org

Matrix Federation Stats

Aine reports

collected by MatrixRooms.info - an MRS instance by etke.cc

As of today, 9623 Matrix federateable servers have been discovered by matrixrooms.info, 2939 (30.5%) of them are publishing their rooms directory over federation. The published directories contain 161084 rooms.

Stats timeline is available on MatrixRooms.info/stats

How to add your server | How to remove your server

Dept of Ping

Here we reveal, rank, and applaud the homeservers with the lowest ping, as measured by pingbot, a maubot that you can host on your own server.

#ping:maunium.net

Join #ping:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

#ping-no-synapse:maunium.net

Join #ping-no-synapse:maunium.net to experience the fun live, and to find out how to add YOUR server to the game.

That's all I know

See you next week, and be sure to stop by #twim:matrix.org with your updates!

Matrix Live

Dept of Status of Matrix 🌡️

Thib (m.org) announces

Heads up that The Matrix Conference Call for Proposals is open until Wednesday 26 June, 10am Anywhere on Earth (23:59 CEST)!

Make some room in your schedule today, in the weekend or early next week to send your best proposals. We're interested in various types of talks: why your Matrix project is exciting, the (technical or non-technical) problems it solves, how Matrix fits in your organisation or community, exciting topics you want to tackle but need to find partners for, and more.

Whether you want to submit a short or long talk, or a workshop idea, head to http://2024.matrix.org to get all the conference details, or https://cfp.matrix.org to submit a proposal!

Continue reading…

Dept of Status of Matrix 🌡️

Thib (m.org) reports

The Matrix.org Foundation and the Matrix Community Summit team are pleased to announce The Matrix Conference!

It is meant to be the place where the ecosystem at large meets. From individual hackers to organisations working with Matrix, from the Governing Board to public sector representatives we expect the whole community to gather for an exciting event that shapes the future of Matrix!

A particular thank you to HarHarLinks, Yan and Nadine as well as Plain Schwarz who all contributed to the organisation.

Find all the details about the conference and the venue at https://2024.matrix.org and submit your proposals at https://cfp.matrix.org.

Continue reading…

Matrix Live S09E30 — The Account Migrator

The Foundation is hard at work to let you move your Matrix account around. Tadzik walks us through a pragmatic solution to several problems we have.

Foundation

Policy and Regulations blog series

Denise [away] says

we're starting a policy and regulation blog series over on the Foundation's blog. Over the next few months I'll be covering various pieces of legislation that are already in place, as well as incoming regulation, and what it all means for Matrix.

https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/regulatory-update/

Dept of elections 🗳️

Josh Simmons (he/they) says

The votes have been counted! Introducing the first elected Governing Board of the Matrix.org Foundation 🎉

Thanks to everyone who ran and everyone who voted, and congratulations to those who have been elected!

This is a huge milestone for Matrix, and now we can tackle the challenges we face with greater community involvement: https://matrix.org/blog/2024/06/election-results/

Continue reading…

Matrix Live

Dept of Spec 📜

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} reports

Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals.

MSC Status

New MSCs:

• MSC4148: Permitting HTTP(S) URLs for SSO IdP icons
• MSC4147: Including device keys with Olm-encrypted events

MSCs in Final Comment Period:

• MSC4115: membership information on events (merge)

Accepted MSCs:

• No MSCs were accepted this week.

Closed MSCs:

• No MSCs were closed/rejected this week.

Spec Updates

This last week's focus was primarily spent on ensuring MSCs are moving towards Final Comment Period (FCP; the step before an MSC is accepted) at a healthy pace. Below are the MSCs which were on Tuesday's pings, and their current status:

• MSC3916: Authenticated media
  • Needs just 2 more checkmarks SCT members to enter FCP (started the week needing 6).
• MSC4138: More methods in CORS
  • Needs 1 more checkmark from the SCT to enter FCP (started the week needing 1).
  • Currently blocked on clarified text regarding its scope.
• MSC2781: Removing reply/edit fallbacks
  • Needs just 2 more checkmark from the SCT to enter FCP (started the week needing 2).
  • Currently blocked on some clarified behaviour and process ordering.
• MSC2867: Marking rooms as unread
  • Needs checkmarks from 3 more SCT members to enter FCP (started the week needing 3).
  • Currently blocked on ensuring that this addition to spec doesn't make notifications more complicated.

Client and server developers are encouraged to review these MSCs in particular because they're on a path to being included in the next spec version. This doesn't have to mean implementing them, but if there's something which doesn't sound quite right in the proposal text then leave a comment on the diff to raise a concern. The SCT will take these comments into consideration as the MSC enters FCP - the 5 day countdown to ensure any last comments are considered before the proposal is accepted into the spec as stable.

Next week's focus will largely be the same as usual: we'll focus on unblocking Matrix 2.0 MSCs/features as a priority, and MSCs which require more checkboxes to enter FCP will be raised for prompt review. We're always on the lookout for MSCs ready for FCP, but can sometimes miss something - let us know in #sct-office:matrix.org if it looks like something is ready to go but hasn't caught our eye yet.

Continue reading…

Matrix Live

Dept of elections 🗳️

Josh Simmons (away, back May 9th) says

Voting continues in the Governing Board elections, and we're close to having 100% turnout in every constituency except Individual Members! Check your email inbox for an email from [email protected] and please cast matrix-orgyour ballot today.

Separately, we're very pleased to welcome NeoChat and Cinny as our latest Ecosystem Members!

Do you have a community that's centered around Matrix? Or an organization that is aligned with our mission? Perhaps you're part of a company that profits from the use of Matrix. Whichever describes you, become a member today. Your involvement helps us ensure we get representative feedback and the financial support we need to continue stewarding the specification.

Continue reading…