Matrix is an open source standard for offering decentralized, encrypted and real-time communication systems. Finally, after five years of work, it has left its beta phase. Its main objective, as they tell us, is to solve the problem of fragmented IP communications, thus allowing users to send messages to other users without the need to use the same app. In other words, they are sold as a decentralized conversation store, instead of a messaging protocol.
In Matrix, each message sent passes through the local server of each of the participants in the conversation. Its creators affirm that this is the best way to democratize the control of users over their communications, without there being a single point of control through which messages pass.
Similarly, they talk about their long-term goal is to create a generic HTTP messaging system with data synchronization across the web, allowing users to communicate globally regardless of the application or server they are using.
As announced on its website, Matrix has finally come out of its beta phase, and opens the way to its use in new applications and services. Similarly, Synapse (its Matrix implementation for homeservers) has also left its beta phase, and allows users to see and execute the Matrix code on their own local server.
Matrix is no longer a beta, and you can try it on mobile and PC
From Matrix they assure that their standard is already stable, so that anyone can use it to implement it in their services. In the same way, they comment that they have focused on this stability , so no profound changes have been made with respect to the previous version. Among some of the current changes, we find the use of X.509 certificates (ITU-T standard for public key infrastructures) in the servers or mainly, corrections of some errors found in previous versions.
In the same way, they announce some of the most relevant characteristics that will end up arriving , according to Matrix, “as fast as they can”. Among them we can see the editable messages activated by default (they are already present in Synapse and Riot, but they are not very stable), reactions, live tracking of the statistics of the room, compatibility with small local servers… Finally, from Matrix They announce the creation of the Matrix.org foundation, to ensure that it continues to be a non-profit project for the future.
How can I prove it by myself?
Matrix can be tested through Synapse, whose installation guide is found on its website, and it mainly goes through installing your repository and following the instructions indicated. For those who do not want to complicate, we have the Riot application, available for browser, PC, macOS, iOS, Google Play and F-Droid.
Riot, at the interface level is a messaging application to use. It has a weight of 68.8 megabytes in iOS and only 28.70 megabytes in Android. As for PC, the DMOS of macOS occupies something more than 84 megabytes in disk and 69 megabytes in the case of the executable exe for Windows.
The project highlights that it is a modern way to communicate, and that, as in other messaging applications, we can send messages, share files, make voice and video calls… All this safely, and enjoying the standard Matrix 1.0.
Via | Mixx.io