Riot is a chat client/app - not a social media client/app in the strict sense. It is one of many clients/apps that uses the matrix protocol. I guess the neare

Riot is a chat client/app - not a social media client/app in the strict sense. It is one of many clients/apps that uses the matrix protocol. I guess the nearest analogous clients/apps to Riot would be WhatsApp and good ol' IRC. In WhatsApp you might have groups, whereas IRC has rooms...and Riot leverages the "different rooms" concept for different chats. I would say Riot is a bit closer conceptually to IRC than WhatsApp...Because...Riot - and every other client/app that leverags the matrix protocol - is designed to be decentralized, or at least federated...so much in the same vein as good ol' email. I hope this nickel tour helps. ;-)