This Week in Matrix 2024-06-28

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.

Rank	Hostname	Median MS
1	conduwu.it	222.5
2	doctoruwu.uk	234.5
3	girlboss.ceo	267
4	h.hackclub.app	374
5	uwu.sulian.eu	377
6	codestorm.net	381
7	plocki.org	398
8	awawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaw.gay	411
9	sulian.eu	457
10	puppygock.gay	663

#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.

Rank	Hostname	Median MS
1	conduwu.it	84
2	girlboss.ceo	110.5
3	doctoruwu.uk	122.5
4	awawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaw.gay	187.5
5	h.hackclub.app	197
6	uwu.sulian.eu	202.5
7	transfem.dev	221.5
8	sulian.eu	232.5
9	puppygock.gay	353.5
10	d3v0.me	446.5

That's all I know

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