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Man, I’d really love to see Matrix to become a standard. I’d love to use it as a major goto chat/communication tool but i get frustrated with UX. Pls pls, don’t

Man, I’d really love to see Matrix to become a standard. I’d love to use it as a major goto chat/communication tool but i get frustrated with UX. Pls pls, don’t screw it.

Arathorn 6y ago
We're doing our best to improve UX (it should be noticeably improved over the last year, unless we're kidding ourselves) - and we're doing our best not to screw it up :) But we need help! (hence looking for more folk to hire!)
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  The UI is constantly getting better and its way better than where it was a few years ago. Its at the point where I find its usable but not as nice as things like telegram.
  - behringer 6y ago
    It's still barely usable. 2 days I ago I tried to text my friend who was flying and the encryption failed, said the old "unable to decrypt". It's a good thing our conversation wasn't important. Had to switch to text messaging once again.
  - fishmaster 6y ago
    For me, Telegram is almost perfect when it comes to usability. Gifs, stickers, being able to send videos (as opposed to WhatsApp), setting a background for chats, etc.
- ognarb 6y ago
  The UI is finally getting usable. Thanks a lot of all the peoples involved in making it better. I switched a few weeks ago most of my communication from Telegram to Matrix and I hope I will be able to move my family to Element by the end of the year.
- TotempaaltJ 6y ago
  This is definitely true. The primary remaining issue I think is "perceived stability". The apps feel very finnicky, and oftentimes things work in unexpected and unexplained ways (especially around E2E encryption!) and it makes it pretty hard to onboard friends. Do you run UI/UX tests on these flows? Also under non-ideal conditions and potential semi-broken states? I'd love to see Element become a more stable application--it's definitely more important to convincing friends to use it than an extensive feature set.
IlIlI 6y ago
Yep ux is a huge problem for getting even tech-savvy people onto element. Would love to see it become a viable alternative to discord but its still far off.
- ahmedalsudani 6y ago
  Try fluffychat. It offers a more polished experience
doublerabbit 6y ago
I've been trying to get people to join "element" but it just makes the whole chat sound awkward "Hey, want to join me on element? compared to "hey, want to join me on riot". Element just doesn't have the same ring and sounds less exciting and dull. It's not even listed in search engines, especially DDG, so I then have to give them the URL which adds to the awkwardness. It was a bad move in my opinion. Sure sure, the old name had an conversational stance but it at least it had a flow. riot.im still sounds much better then element.io Anyway, with that aside. Thank you guys for creating something that works. It needs some polishing but I had my first voice call and to my surprised it just worked for both of us. I still get a few confused moments with the UX from my mother like where's the enter button, and why do I need to enter so many passwords but other than that it is a charm.
- rvz 6y ago
  Every time 'Element' (The Matrix chat app) gets a mention, it resorts into questioning the name or a disambiguation. The technology, product and pricing with the deals they are making with multiple governments and businesses is an excellent source of revenue and is very competitive at striking those deals. However the genericness of the name will be a problem with non-technical users and will always be an issue with Element which is a problem the parent has highlighted. The SEO on the name is terrible and doesn't come up on Google, Bing or DDG. The fustrating part? They were so close on deciding to rebrand everything and have ruined it on the name (for now). It's not too late though. I guess they will have rename Element again in order to expand into becoming a true WhatsApp alternative mindshare-wise. Right now the name is quite frankly unappealing, but everything else is the gold standard.
  - Arathorn 6y ago
    Folks, it's been like 3 weeks since we renamed Riot as Element, and (picking DDG) it's already the 18th hit from the top. Riot was 4th at the point we renamed it (second only to RG). Meanwhile it's already the top hit on the Play Store. So give it a few more weeks :) In terms of the name itself, I personally think "Let's talk on Element" is at least as catchy as "Let's talk on Riot", although it's touching to see folks missing the name Riot.
nerdponx 6y ago
Not just the UX. It's dog slow. I've never had a good experience using it, no matter how much I want to like it.
- cyphar 6y ago
  Have you tried it with a different homeserver (either hosted or some other community server)? Matrix.org has a fucktonne of users (~5 million from memory), and given how little funding they have it's shocking that they can afford to run a homeserver at all. I've run my own homeserver for the past few years and I haven't ever had any issues with performance (even when talking to people on Matrix.org).
  - pferde 6y ago
    I can attest to that. I run a Matrix homeserver for a small community, and it's blazingly fast all the time. Everyone should migrate off matrix.org sooner rather than later. I fully expect seeing regional public Matrix homeservers popping up here and there eventually, just like regional public Jabber servers did back in the day. Or, indeed like public e-mail providers did.
    - kroeckx 6y ago
      That's not my experience at all. It got better when I left some large rooms. But I still regularly get things like messages that the server is offline, taking a minute before the UI shows that my message was sent, after my laptop was suspended, it takes minutes before element becomes usable again. I run my own IRC bridge, and if they send more than 5 messages a minute I start losing messages and they get out of order.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
pantalaimon 6y ago
> Man, I’d really love to see Matrix to become a standard. I thought the same about XMPP 15 years ago. I think chat protocols are much like languages, it's almost inherent that in communication between people different standards and different communities form. Different groups of people use different messengers to (often unknowingly) express an identity. I've giving up on the hope that there will be one universal language / protocol to unite everyone.

Man, I’d really love to see Matrix to become a standard. I’d love to use it as a major goto chat/communication tool but i get frustrated with UX. Pls pls, don’t screw it.

Arathorn 6y ago

We're doing our best to improve UX (it should be noticeably improved over the last year, unless we're kidding ourselves) - and we're doing our best not to screw it up :) But we need help! (hence looking for more folk to hire!)

Polylactic_acid 6y ago
The UI is constantly getting better and its way better than where it was a few years ago. Its at the point where I find its usable but not as nice as things like telegram.
- behringer 6y ago
  It's still barely usable. 2 days I ago I tried to text my friend who was flying and the encryption failed, said the old "unable to decrypt". It's a good thing our conversation wasn't important. Had to switch to text messaging once again.
- fishmaster 6y ago
  For me, Telegram is almost perfect when it comes to usability. Gifs, stickers, being able to send videos (as opposed to WhatsApp), setting a background for chats, etc.
ognarb 6y ago
The UI is finally getting usable. Thanks a lot of all the peoples involved in making it better. I switched a few weeks ago most of my communication from Telegram to Matrix and I hope I will be able to move my family to Element by the end of the year.
TotempaaltJ 6y ago
This is definitely true. The primary remaining issue I think is "perceived stability". The apps feel very finnicky, and oftentimes things work in unexpected and unexplained ways (especially around E2E encryption!) and it makes it pretty hard to onboard friends. Do you run UI/UX tests on these flows? Also under non-ideal conditions and potential semi-broken states? I'd love to see Element become a more stable application--it's definitely more important to convincing friends to use it than an extensive feature set.

IlIlI 6y ago

Yep ux is a huge problem for getting even tech-savvy people onto element. Would love to see it become a viable alternative to discord but its still far off.

ahmedalsudani 6y ago
Try fluffychat. It offers a more polished experience

doublerabbit 6y ago

I've been trying to get people to join "element" but it just makes the whole chat sound awkward "Hey, want to join me on element? compared to "hey, want to join me on riot". Element just doesn't have the same ring and sounds less exciting and dull. It's not even listed in search engines, especially DDG, so I then have to give them the URL which adds to the awkwardness. It was a bad move in my opinion. Sure sure, the old name had an conversational stance but it at least it had a flow. riot.im still sounds much better then element.io Anyway, with that aside. Thank you guys for creating something that works. It needs some polishing but I had my first voice call and to my surprised it just worked for both of us. I still get a few confused moments with the UX from my mother like where's the enter button, and why do I need to enter so many passwords but other than that it is a charm.

rvz 6y ago
Every time 'Element' (The Matrix chat app) gets a mention, it resorts into questioning the name or a disambiguation. The technology, product and pricing with the deals they are making with multiple governments and businesses is an excellent source of revenue and is very competitive at striking those deals. However the genericness of the name will be a problem with non-technical users and will always be an issue with Element which is a problem the parent has highlighted. The SEO on the name is terrible and doesn't come up on Google, Bing or DDG. The fustrating part? They were so close on deciding to rebrand everything and have ruined it on the name (for now). It's not too late though. I guess they will have rename Element again in order to expand into becoming a true WhatsApp alternative mindshare-wise. Right now the name is quite frankly unappealing, but everything else is the gold standard.
- Arathorn 6y ago
  Folks, it's been like 3 weeks since we renamed Riot as Element, and (picking DDG) it's already the 18th hit from the top. Riot was 4th at the point we renamed it (second only to RG). Meanwhile it's already the top hit on the Play Store. So give it a few more weeks :) In terms of the name itself, I personally think "Let's talk on Element" is at least as catchy as "Let's talk on Riot", although it's touching to see folks missing the name Riot.

nerdponx 6y ago

Not just the UX. It's dog slow. I've never had a good experience using it, no matter how much I want to like it.

cyphar 6y ago
Have you tried it with a different homeserver (either hosted or some other community server)? Matrix.org has a fucktonne of users (~5 million from memory), and given how little funding they have it's shocking that they can afford to run a homeserver at all. I've run my own homeserver for the past few years and I haven't ever had any issues with performance (even when talking to people on Matrix.org).
- pferde 6y ago
  I can attest to that. I run a Matrix homeserver for a small community, and it's blazingly fast all the time. Everyone should migrate off matrix.org sooner rather than later. I fully expect seeing regional public Matrix homeservers popping up here and there eventually, just like regional public Jabber servers did back in the day. Or, indeed like public e-mail providers did.
  - kroeckx 6y ago
    That's not my experience at all. It got better when I left some large rooms. But I still regularly get things like messages that the server is offline, taking a minute before the UI shows that my message was sent, after my laptop was suspended, it takes minutes before element becomes usable again. I run my own IRC bridge, and if they send more than 5 messages a minute I start losing messages and they get out of order.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

pantalaimon 6y ago

> Man, I’d really love to see Matrix to become a standard. I thought the same about XMPP 15 years ago. I think chat protocols are much like languages, it's almost inherent that in communication between people different standards and different communities form. Different groups of people use different messengers to (often unknowingly) express an identity. I've giving up on the hope that there will be one universal language / protocol to unite everyone.