Please consider more than just features when making this decision. Gitter has a very different user experience from Element at the moment. Gitter's default la

Please consider more than just features when making this decision. Gitter has a very different user experience from Element at the moment. Gitter's default layout is clean, information-dense and distraction-free. There is no "x has left/joined the room" spam, very little unnecessary whitespace, a bare minimum of icons (no "seen by", no miniature avatars in quotes and @callouts), and a more subdued color palette (emphasis is provided primarily by bold font rather than by different colors). That's not to say that Element is bad, because it isn't. But for focused technical discussions, Gitter is much better in my opinion. I've tried the "modern" compact and IRC layouts, but unfortunately they don't really solve these problems. Mostly they are the same amount of distraction packed into a more condensed form.