This Week in Matrix 2025-12-19

🔗Matrix Live S11E18 – Happy Holidays!

🔗Dept of Status of Matrix 🌡️

🔗Website & Content WG Report

HarHarLinks says

Only 2 weeks later we are back with a quick wrapup of recent activities on the website before the holidays.

• Jack S. has been supporting us greatly in shipping a million updates to all kinds of ecosystem projects as well as finding and fixing some smaller issues and contributions.
• We cleaned up the blog categories a bit, slowly working towards clearer definition of what goes where.
• salixh5 checked the status of and contributed an update to the LINE bridge during a Matrix Stammtisch.
• anoa updated our footer social media icons to include the Foundation's Bluesky profile.
• We have updated the homepage to fulfil the platinum membership perk.
• andybalaam contributed documentation on how to hide images by default using different Matrix clients via the T&S R&D WG.
• The T&S team announced policyserv, the SCT published Matrix v1.17, and the Events WG shared the latest news about the upcoming FOSDEM 2026.
• We greatly simplified the website contribution workflow by updating the PR template and introducing more automated checks via linters. More about that is on the horizon and looking for contributors!
• The effort to tag issues we are looking for help for continues. You can already find 30 to get involved with using the help wanted tag!

The website office hour is on holidays and will return in its regular slot on 8th January! In the meantime, you can still find us in the #matrix.org-website:matrix.org room and of course keep sending PRs! See you again at TWIM next year.

🔗Dept of Spec 📜

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} reports

Here's your weekly spec update! The heart of Matrix is the specification - and this is modified by Matrix Spec Change (MSC) proposals. Learn more about how the process works at https://spec.matrix.org/proposals.

🔗MSC Status

New MSCs:

• MSC4390: Room Blocking API
• MSC4389: Image ordering within packs

MSCs in Final Comment Period:

• MSC4356: Recently used emoji (merge)

Accepted MSCs:

• No MSCs were accepted this week.

Closed MSCs:

• No MSCs were closed/rejected this week.

🔗Spec Updates

Matrix v1.17 was released this week! Featuring improvements to application services, a flurry of clarifications and finally dropping the old system of user mentions in favour of intentional mentions. It also ships with two highly-requested additions to the spec website itself; a version picker drop-down and a endpoints table of contents!

See the v1.17 release blog post for the full changelog.

Otherwise if you'd like something to do to fill the time over the holidays, why not peruse the list of open proposals? 🎄📖

🔗Dept of Trust & Safety ⚖️

🔗Introducing policyserv

Jim announces

Hello from the Trust & Safety team! Earlier this week we revealed that we're open-sourcing the implementation of policy servers we use to protect rooms like TWIM.

Please:

• poke around the code
• deploy your own
• sign up to use our policy server to protect your rooms
• send us bug reports, feature requests and (ideally) pull requests

Join us in the new #policyserv:matrix.org room for more!

🔗Dept of Servers 🏢

🔗Synapse (website)

Synapse is a Matrix homeserver implementation developed by Element.

Andrew Morgan (anoa) {he/him} reports

We're pausing our regular releases for the holiday season. Expect them to start back up again in early January with a 1.145.0rc1.

🔗Homeserver Deployment 📥️

🔗Element Server Suite (website)

Element Server Suite (ESS) is a backend hosting solution for Matrix-based communications that supports self-hosted and fully managed deployments.

Ben BZ announces

ESS Community 25.12.2, ESS Pro 25.12.2, 25.10.4 & 25.4.15 Security Releases

ESS has released a set of critical security updates to address an issue (tracked as ELEMENTSEC-2025-1670) affecting all versions of ESS Community and ESS Pro. ESS Classic and other Synapse-based deployments are not affected. ESS Community 25.12.2, ESS Pro 25.12.2, ESS Pro 25.10.4 LTS, and ESS Pro 25.4.15 LTS or later all contain the fix.

The issue only has an impact when federation APIs are exposed to an untrusted network. Deployments that are not currently federating, or that only federate in a closed, trusted federation, are not impacted. These deployments should not enable public federation without first applying this update.

We advise you to apply the update as quickly as possible; apologies for the bad timing of the release given the holiday season.

🔗Dept of Clients 📱

🔗Element X iOS (website)

A total rewrite of Element iOS using the Matrix Rust SDK underneath and targeting devices running iOS 17+.

Mauro Romito reports

• Spaces Feature - Massive effort to build comprehensive space support (discovery, exploration, settings, members management)
• Security & Verification - User verification requests, identity pinning, encryption authenticity warnings
• Experimental Threads Support - Support for threaded messaging with drafts, media, proper rendering and permalinking
• Design Refinements - Continuous UI/UX improvements across the app, redesigned various screen to make the UI look great, and the UX simple.
• iOS 26 Liquid Glass - Support for latest iOS version and a UI that is responsive to the new liquid glass interface.
• Performance & Quality - Regular bug fixes and SDK updates, various features like event caching were enabled to keep EX as the fastest Element client ever.
• Accessibility - Accessibility has become a key feature of the app, and a framework to regularly test it has been built to ensure that the app is always provide an accessible UX.
• Room pills - Now also room permalinks are pillified, a great way to both show clearly were the permalinks is leading to, but also detect if such permalinks is valid, or a phishing attempt.
• Moderation Tools - User reporting, blocking, banning capabilities, and the possibility of turning on and off media previews or invite avatars to protect yourself from offensive content.

This was a very productive year focusing on collaborative features (spaces), security, and bringing the app up to modern iOS standards!

🔗Dept of SDKs and Frameworks 🧰

🔗matrix-rust-sdk (website)

Your all-in-one toolkit for creating Matrix clients with Rust, from simple bots to full-featured apps, with bindings to Swift, Kotlin, WebAssembly, Go and more, sponsored by Element.

Ivan 🦀 announces

Bonjour everyone! Winter is about to become official here. Sun has entered sleepy mode. And most of the team is about to do the same. Here are the last new features or bug fixes for this year, but before, a note.

We would like to thank you for all your support, your great patches, your great comments, your patience, and your encouragement. It warms our heart and that's what drives us daily. You're the reason we are working every day. Please keep pushing Matrix forwards, the world needs a better communication platform more than ever.

🔗Threads

Next year will start with a deeper focus on Threads to have persistent storage and much more. For the moment, we had a single new feature.

• #5848 Thread subscription updates are bundled, improving the stress on the stores.

🔗Latest Event

The Latest Event is more stable than ever, and we believe the project is finished. Enjoy it!

• #5932 Redacted and redaction events are now handled in a more expected way. Redacted events are no longer displayed as a Latest Event, even as “Message removed”.
• #5938 The Latest Event wasn't supporting “high-traffic”/pressure very well because the channels were too small. It's now fixed.
• #5947 The Latest Event API is lazier, make it more resilient to asynchronous edge cases.
• #5968 Sometimes a local Latest Event was in a sending mode, and was never exiting this mode despite the event was sent! We call them “sticky”. This problem had its roots in asynchronous runtime craziness, and was quite random, but it's now fully fixed.
• #5969 and #5977 These patches better define “erasable” Latest Event values, to handle with confidence the redaction of events.

🔗Event Cache

The Event Cache has a new superpower: R2D2. It's the funny name for the Redecryption API. It now better supports key backups and is able to automatically redecrypts in-memory events when needed. It's fully automatic and all API relying on the Event Cache will benefit from it.

• #5961 Let R2D2 listens to key backup state changes, and report when a backup becomes available.
• #5976 Let R2D2 redecrypts and updates encryption info of in-memory events automatically.

🔗Send Queue

The Send Queue is the API responsible to send events. Now it talks with the Event Cache.

• #5936 Do you remember last week when we announced the Send Queue is saving the sent events directly inside the Event Cache? Well, it came with a bug. This is the fix: the encryption information are correctly inferred.

🔗IndexedDB support

• #5933 Encrypted stores are now fully supported for IndexedDB, fixing bugs for the Event Cache and the Media stores.
• #5946 All stores (State, Event Cache, Media, and Crypto) are all exposed to IndexedDB \o/.

🔗Crypto

• #5955 Allow a focused Timeline to replace UTD (Unable To Decrypt) after redecryption.
• #5943 Add forwarder_data to InboundGroupSession and pickle.
• #5970 Fix bug in TimelineEvent::from_bundled_latest_event where the session_id was erased.

🔗Dept of Events and Talks 🗣️

🔗FOSDEM

Thib says

The Matrix Foundation and Community will be present at FOSDEM, and we have updates for you!

• We will kickstart our FOSDEM presence by a Hackathon in HSBXL on Friday, 30 January. Some fantastic mentors signed up and are willing to give their time to help newcomers get on the right track!
• We will have a booth on Saturday and Sunday. We already have a solid Events Working Group organizing it, but we're looking for volunteers to help us take shifts at the booth. You can sign up on our volunteering platform (see link in blog post).
• The Decentralised Communication Devroom we coordinate on Sunday now has a schedule!

Of course, don't forget to register for the hackathon or for helping at the booth!

Find all the details in our blog post update

🔗Matrix Community Workation 2026 · Asia Edition

Yan 't' Minagawa says

This week we shared the outline for the Matrix Workation 2026 (Asia Edition) - a community-focused workation bringing Matrix people together across the world.

🔗What’s planned

• Jan 30 – Feb 1: Matrix Hackathon & FOSDEM in Brussels
• Feb 3 – Mar 6: Matrix Workation on Koh Phangan, Thailand, with flexible participation across multiple periods
• Mar 9 - Mar 10: represent Matrix at the FOSSASIA in Bangkok
• From mid-March: Optional continuation with community coworking in Hoi An, Vietnam

🔗How it works

• Shared costs (accommodation, coworking, scooters) are pooled at roughly €60 per person per day, with full transparency via a shared CryptPad
• Participation is possible per period or as a longer stay
• A gentle daily rhythm: light mornings, a shared working window 11:00–17:00, daily syncs, and async-friendly collaboration across time zones

🔗Why Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan offers a rare combination of calm, nature, and reliable infrastructure. Surrounded by jungle, beaches, and waterfalls, it’s an ideal place to slow down, think clearly, and share knowledge. Between focused work sessions, the island invites movement and connection — swimming, hiking, yoga, Muay Thai, local food markets, shared meals, and long conversations at sunset.

Goals

• Share Matrix knowledge, experiences, and best practices in a relaxed, human-scale setting
• Create space for learning, mentoring, and cross-project exchange
• Combine meaningful collaboration with the asian based matrix community

Links

• order your ticket
• matrix room for general infos
• talk to yan or nadine
• matrix room for other workation nation events
• cryptpad for more detailed information
• Fossasia
• Matrix @ Fosdem

🔗Matrix Federation Stats

Aine [etke.cc] says

collected by MatrixRooms.info - an MRS instance by etke.cc

As of today, 11861 Matrix federateable servers have been discovered by matrixrooms.info, 3230 (27.2%) of them are publishing their rooms directory over federation. The published directories contain 16731 rooms.

The most popular server software among the online servers is:

• synapse: 10137 (85.5%)
• conduit: 480 (4.0%)
• dendrite: 365 (3.1%)
• continuwuity: 324 (2.7%)

Stats timeline is available on 📊 MatrixRooms.info/stats

🧩 Integrations with apps and servers | 👉 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	tuwunel.love	177
2	codestorm.net	186
3	vibb.me	230
4	shork.ch	233
5	muoi.me	318.5
6	nerdhouse.io	344
7	tomfos.tr	353
8	uwu.possums.lgbt	355.5
9	melthecat.dev	392
10	halogen.place	420.5

🔗That's all I know

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

To learn more about how to prepare an entry for TWIM check out the TWIM guide.