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One thing I heard from some of my friends as a reason why they don't like using Matrix (via Element clients) was inability to use "stickers" like one can on Wha

One thing I heard from some of my friends as a reason why they don't like using Matrix (via Element clients) was inability to use "stickers" like one can on WhatsApp, iMessage and other messaging apps. Apparently, this was important enough for them to lose interest in the platform over it. I guess the bar is pretty high for consumer messengers these days?

Saris 8mo ago
Yeah having a messaging app I enjoy using is important. Good UI and fun features make something worth using, it's why telegram is still my most used messenger.
- wolvoleo 8mo ago
  Telegram is great indeed. I'm happily paying for premium for two reasons: first it's not expensive at all (2€ per month) and secondly it offers so many fun and useful features. I often buy it for friends too as a gift. They really have a good thing going. On most other platforms it's usually more the stick than the carrot (pay up or we bombard you with ads) and it's tons more expensive, eg Instagram alone costs 3x as much.
Anonyneko 8mo ago
This was definitely a little frustrating. Matrix protocol does have stickers technically, I've been following that PR since its inception. But when I last used it in practice, admittedly a few years ago, the UX was lacking. Adding and posting stickers was _not_ straightforward, in fact adding new stickers was restricted somehow. Not sure how it works now, and maybe that's just inevitable with a decentralized protocol.
- notpushkin 8mo ago
  It’s not inevitable – the sticker packs (as currently implemented) live on your homeserver. So in a sense, it is decentralized already, and it’s only a matter of designing and building an interface to manage those packs (and hopefully making stickers link back to the packs, for better discoverability). For now, you can override which server to use for the stickers. There’s an implementation that downloads Telegram sticker packs (but you have to specify which packs you want before deploying it).
riskable 8mo ago
It also doesn't handle animated/looping gifs or webp properly. They don't loop. To summarize the great big problem with Matrix: It's no fun. No fun at all.
- u1hcw9nx 8mo ago
  In a an work/purposeful communication it's a great feature not to have fun features. People how love messaging are the bane of professional communication. You need to tell them to shout up, and tone down, but you want to do it politely. Just one person in a group that sends haha and gif to response to every message in a group is painful to deal with. Two Apps is the solution.
u1hcw9nx 8mo ago
How is that not a feature? Differently designed apps for social and professional life is a good idea! A streamlined app focused only on essential functionality is the best way to ensure meaningful coordination. It is mentally taxing when critical work updates are buried under reactions, glitter, and casual banter. Moving memes and family updates to a dedicated 'leisure' app allows for a high-signal environment. Something that gets things done, but also something where quick reactions are painful to do would be perfect.
happysadpanda2 8mo ago
I don't know whether or not it is our instance at $dayjob that has a wonky setup, or if it is the elements client, or what (probably the client, as the problems all but disappear in the webb-ui version), but oh how many synchronization issues we are facing. threaded conversations not showing up, or randomly disappearing, clients getting stuck in message fetching loops, not actually fetching anything, notifications of new messages either not appearing, or not disappearing upon reading them, and ON TOP OF THAT no custom stickers/emojis/gifs... but those synchronization issues... if I want to be sure something reaches the rest of the team in a timely manner, I have reverted back to email
- Arathorn 8mo ago
  Matrix should categorically not have any sync issues; this is not normal. Something bad must be happening on the server; what server are you using and how are you running it?
  - AyyEye 8mo ago
    Lol, messages showing up randomly days later is par for the course for our tiny group chat, most of whom are on matrix.org. Sometimes element won't download messages for some rooms (or even all rooms) for days/hours. Matrix has gotten far less reliable over the years (and I used to run a few homeservers).
  - ezst 8mo ago
    I was like "oh common, that can't be a real comment, it's obvious to everyone how unstable this still is", then I saw that the comment was from Arathorn. You know, for half of the time you spend commenting over here to save face (or something), you could work with your users and see their firsthand experience for yourself.
    - Arathorn 8mo ago
      this is me working with my users and trying to understand their firsthand experience for myself :)
    - 8mo ago
notepad0x90 8mo ago
quite the opposite, Matrix clients lack their own unique character. they play the feature-catch-up game instead of being original.
- DANmode 8mo ago
  Productivity software and offerings in general should probably “come late to the party” and offer the most polished version of what everyone else is doing.
  - notepad0x90 8mo ago
    Yeah, but the originals they're copying from are also working hard to polish their own products, and they have more experience with user feedback regarding those features. For example: What if matrix could be used like email! now that would make it stand out won't it? i.e.: DANmode@danssite.net , you could post your matrix address like that, and matrix clients could resolve it using SRV records for matrix, and querying the correct homeserver designated on danssite.net. It could be marketed as an email replacement. You could ask sites to support it for registrations instead of email. Or.. what if it supported custom gif reactions, record yourself doing something, save it as a custom emoji, and you can use it in any chat. That's what I mean, lots of good ideas to pull from that makes it so that "use matrix because <it can do this better>" , instead of because it's more private or secure, or whatever.
    - DANmode 8mo ago
      > What if matrix could be used like email! now that would make it stand out won't it? i.e.: DANmode@danssite.net , you could post your matrix address like that, and matrix clients could resolve it using SRV records for matrix, and querying the correct homeserver designated on danssite.net. We are here.
lynndotpy 8mo ago
Not the primary use case for stickers, but what do you do when you're talking with someone for whom you're not literate in their language? Or someone who is not literate in any language? Stickers provide utility beyond beyond a fun way to communicate. Stickers, emoji reactions, voice notes, etc. are things we tend to see denigrated here, but are also non-optional features for a messaging app in the year 2016.
- timbit42 8mo ago
  2016?
  - hexfish 8mo ago
    I wish.
  - lynndotpy 8mo ago
    Not a typo, that's roughly my recollection for when stickers, reacts, and voice notes became broadly expected in messaging apps. I can't imagine seriously aspiring to get everyone I know to download a messaging app in the year 2026 that doesn't have these features at a minimum.
    - wolvoleo 8mo ago
      These days messaging apps have been translation features. Another thing that matrix/element is missing sadly. I remember reading a feature request and it was put off on the reasoning of "server-based breaks our encryption and client-based doesn't work well enough". Makes sense but I don't think the latter point is still true, and Matrix is too focused on encryption IMO. In large open rooms there's no point to it because anyyone who wants to can join anyway.
- wolvoleo 8mo ago
  Stickers are easily replaced by emoji and small images. In fact this is how the matrix bridges do it.
tourmalinetaco 8mo ago
Every other major client (FluffyChat, Cinny, Nehko, prolly others I’m not aware of) has sticker support, and the ones I mentioned work together seamlessly. Element is cripplingly slow and has an entire drama with a decade-long issue where they continually refuse working commits because they didn’t come from in-house. https://github.com/element-hq/element-meta/issues/339 https://github.com/element-hq/element-meta/issues/339

Saris 8mo ago

Yeah having a messaging app I enjoy using is important. Good UI and fun features make something worth using, it's why telegram is still my most used messenger.

wolvoleo 8mo ago
Telegram is great indeed. I'm happily paying for premium for two reasons: first it's not expensive at all (2€ per month) and secondly it offers so many fun and useful features. I often buy it for friends too as a gift. They really have a good thing going. On most other platforms it's usually more the stick than the carrot (pay up or we bombard you with ads) and it's tons more expensive, eg Instagram alone costs 3x as much.

Anonyneko 8mo ago

This was definitely a little frustrating. Matrix protocol does have stickers technically, I've been following that PR since its inception. But when I last used it in practice, admittedly a few years ago, the UX was lacking. Adding and posting stickers was _not_ straightforward, in fact adding new stickers was restricted somehow. Not sure how it works now, and maybe that's just inevitable with a decentralized protocol.

notpushkin 8mo ago
It’s not inevitable – the sticker packs (as currently implemented) live on your homeserver. So in a sense, it is decentralized already, and it’s only a matter of designing and building an interface to manage those packs (and hopefully making stickers link back to the packs, for better discoverability). For now, you can override which server to use for the stickers. There’s an implementation that downloads Telegram sticker packs (but you have to specify which packs you want before deploying it).

riskable 8mo ago

It also doesn't handle animated/looping gifs or webp properly. They don't loop. To summarize the great big problem with Matrix: It's no fun. No fun at all.

u1hcw9nx 8mo ago
In a an work/purposeful communication it's a great feature not to have fun features. People how love messaging are the bane of professional communication. You need to tell them to shout up, and tone down, but you want to do it politely. Just one person in a group that sends haha and gif to response to every message in a group is painful to deal with. Two Apps is the solution.

u1hcw9nx 8mo ago

How is that not a feature? Differently designed apps for social and professional life is a good idea! A streamlined app focused only on essential functionality is the best way to ensure meaningful coordination. It is mentally taxing when critical work updates are buried under reactions, glitter, and casual banter. Moving memes and family updates to a dedicated 'leisure' app allows for a high-signal environment. Something that gets things done, but also something where quick reactions are painful to do would be perfect.

happysadpanda2 8mo ago

I don't know whether or not it is our instance at $dayjob that has a wonky setup, or if it is the elements client, or what (probably the client, as the problems all but disappear in the webb-ui version), but oh how many synchronization issues we are facing. threaded conversations not showing up, or randomly disappearing, clients getting stuck in message fetching loops, not actually fetching anything, notifications of new messages either not appearing, or not disappearing upon reading them, and ON TOP OF THAT no custom stickers/emojis/gifs... but those synchronization issues... if I want to be sure something reaches the rest of the team in a timely manner, I have reverted back to email

Arathorn 8mo ago
Matrix should categorically not have any sync issues; this is not normal. Something bad must be happening on the server; what server are you using and how are you running it?
- AyyEye 8mo ago
  Lol, messages showing up randomly days later is par for the course for our tiny group chat, most of whom are on matrix.org. Sometimes element won't download messages for some rooms (or even all rooms) for days/hours. Matrix has gotten far less reliable over the years (and I used to run a few homeservers).
- ezst 8mo ago
  I was like "oh common, that can't be a real comment, it's obvious to everyone how unstable this still is", then I saw that the comment was from Arathorn. You know, for half of the time you spend commenting over here to save face (or something), you could work with your users and see their firsthand experience for yourself.
  - Arathorn 8mo ago
    this is me working with my users and trying to understand their firsthand experience for myself :)
  - 8mo ago

notepad0x90 8mo ago

quite the opposite, Matrix clients lack their own unique character. they play the feature-catch-up game instead of being original.

DANmode 8mo ago
Productivity software and offerings in general should probably “come late to the party” and offer the most polished version of what everyone else is doing.
- notepad0x90 8mo ago
  Yeah, but the originals they're copying from are also working hard to polish their own products, and they have more experience with user feedback regarding those features. For example: What if matrix could be used like email! now that would make it stand out won't it? i.e.: DANmode@danssite.net , you could post your matrix address like that, and matrix clients could resolve it using SRV records for matrix, and querying the correct homeserver designated on danssite.net. It could be marketed as an email replacement. You could ask sites to support it for registrations instead of email. Or.. what if it supported custom gif reactions, record yourself doing something, save it as a custom emoji, and you can use it in any chat. That's what I mean, lots of good ideas to pull from that makes it so that "use matrix because <it can do this better>" , instead of because it's more private or secure, or whatever.
  - DANmode 8mo ago
    > What if matrix could be used like email! now that would make it stand out won't it? i.e.: DANmode@danssite.net , you could post your matrix address like that, and matrix clients could resolve it using SRV records for matrix, and querying the correct homeserver designated on danssite.net. We are here.

lynndotpy 8mo ago

Not the primary use case for stickers, but what do you do when you're talking with someone for whom you're not literate in their language? Or someone who is not literate in any language? Stickers provide utility beyond beyond a fun way to communicate. Stickers, emoji reactions, voice notes, etc. are things we tend to see denigrated here, but are also non-optional features for a messaging app in the year 2016.

timbit42 8mo ago
2016?
- hexfish 8mo ago
  I wish.
- lynndotpy 8mo ago
  Not a typo, that's roughly my recollection for when stickers, reacts, and voice notes became broadly expected in messaging apps. I can't imagine seriously aspiring to get everyone I know to download a messaging app in the year 2026 that doesn't have these features at a minimum.
  - wolvoleo 8mo ago
    These days messaging apps have been translation features. Another thing that matrix/element is missing sadly. I remember reading a feature request and it was put off on the reasoning of "server-based breaks our encryption and client-based doesn't work well enough". Makes sense but I don't think the latter point is still true, and Matrix is too focused on encryption IMO. In large open rooms there's no point to it because anyyone who wants to can join anyway.
wolvoleo 8mo ago
Stickers are easily replaced by emoji and small images. In fact this is how the matrix bridges do it.

tourmalinetaco 8mo ago

Every other major client (FluffyChat, Cinny, Nehko, prolly others I’m not aware of) has sticker support, and the ones I mentioned work together seamlessly. Element is cripplingly slow and has an entire drama with a decade-long issue where they continually refuse working commits because they didn’t come from in-house. https://github.com/element-hq/element-meta/issues/339 https://github.com/element-hq/element-meta/issues/339