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.
Matrix v1.19 released this week! Check out the release blog post for the full details. Exciting improvements include allowing clients to look up and display rooms you have in common with another user, custom emoji and sticker packs and proper history sharing when joining encrypted rooms.
Otherwise the spec process is red hot with many new MSCs opened this week. Remember that anyone can contribute a review to an MSC, so why not take a look at the list of open proposals and weigh in on any that strike your fancy?
A Stammtisch ("regular's table") is a German meetup format where those with a shared interest meet regularly for discussion, exchange, and socialising.
Find more community organised events at https://matrix-community.events!
Please join me in welcoming andypiper to the Foundation. Andy will be your next Thib and will take over TWIM, Matrix Live, being the community liaison, organizing the conference, and much more. Welcome Andy!
The actual real extended deadline (for real) to submit a talk to Matrix Conf is on 30th June, that is next Tuesday as of writing. The competition is fierce, with more than double the amount of submissions than we can accept, but if you want to throw your hat in the ring, now is the best time!
And that’s a wrap for this 2026 Governing Board election season! 🏁
We are super excited to announce our new and re-elected Governing Board members: congratulations all, and welcome!
Representatives of the Ecosystem members
Kim Brose (Matrix Community Events)
Nico Werner (Nheko-Reborn)
Jade Ellis (Continuwuity)
Representative of the Platinum member
Neil Johnson (Element Creations)
Representatives of the Spec Core team
Alexey Rusakov
Richard van der Hoff
Representatives of the Guardians
Matthew Hodgson
Ross Schulman
Representatives of the Individual members
Max
Mathieu Velten
Representatives of the Silver members
Yoan Pintas (DINUM)
Niklas Zender (Famedly)
We will also welcome a new Governing Board member who joined as a replacement of his ex-colleague at Automattic: (single Gold member): Nick Mills-Barrett!
Also a huge thank you to all of those who will be leaving the board, your support was greatly appreciated.
And that’s a wrap for this 2026 Governing Board election season! 🏁
After 49 days of ramping up, we have reached the end of the process and are now ready to announce the 12 freshly (re)elected Governing Board members.
After one year of setting things up (2024), the last year (2025) has been the first year in which the Governing Board was able to truly deliver concrete value, figuring out the blueprints for highly functioning Working Groups, aligning on expectations of engagement from Governing Board members, feeding back on the Foundation’s decisions and clarifying the processes and frameworks in general. This meant that with greater clarity on expectations we have seen a few board members stepping down, leading to a deeper rework of the Governing Board during these elections than we initially predicted (and would predict in the future). However, with clearer expectations being set and a bigger ecosystem, we are now confident that everyone who has thrown their name in the hat is ready to execute and support the Foundation’s mission.
So without further ado, I would like to congratulate and welcome our newly elected Governing Board members, whether it is their first or second term on the Board!
🚥 Only a few hours left before kick-off! The voting for the Governing Board election is starting tonight, and is open until the 12 June. All eligible voters should keep an eye out for an email from OpaVote.
Check out our blog post and election page for details and links to the candidates lists.
📅 This year’s schedule is as follows:
✅ Announcement on Monday 27th April
✅ Nominations from Saturday 2nd May to Friday 15th May
✅ Campaigning from Saturday 16th May to Friday 29th May
➡️ Voting from Saturday 30th May to Friday 12th June
◻️ Results announced on Monday 15th June
📢 The election is running for the following constituency groups:
Platinum Members – 1 seat (in cycle)
Ecosystem Members – 3 seats (in cycle)
Spec Core Team – 2 seats (in cycle)
Guardians – 3 seats (in cycle)
Silver Members – 2 seats (out of cycle, GB members stepped down)
Individual Members – 1 seat (out of cycle, GB member stepped down)
So if you are a member of one of these groups keep an eye out for your voting email or get in touch if you haven't received it by Monday!
At midnight tonight representatives of the Platinum members, Silver members and Ecosystem members, as well asIndividual members, Spec Core Team members and Guardians will be able to start voting to choose the representatives of their constituency on the Governing Board!
This is the penultimate milestone in our election schedule and runs until the 12th of June 11:59pm UTC:
✅ Announcement on Monday 27th April
✅ Nominations from Saturday 2nd May to Friday 15th May
✅ Campaigning from Saturday 16th May to Friday 29th May
➡️ Voting from Saturday 30th May to Friday 12th June
◻️ Results announced on Monday 15th June
All voters should keep an eye out for an email from OpaVote, the platform we will be using to run the election.
A big thank you again to all our candidates who have stepped up to drive the growth of Matrix, and good luck to all!
I, for one, am looking forward to announcing the results in two weeks!
