We’ve launched a brand new version of Element, called Element Home! It’s the Element app, but faster, personalised and under your control - all packaged up so you don’t have to worry about how it works! You can just enjoy the fact you know you chose someone you trust (us!) with your data. So that you know, here’s what’s going on behind the scenes with Element Home; in practice you’re getting your own fully managed, dedicated server alongside your Element app.

Channel your excitement! Element Matrix Services (EMS), our Matrix hosting platform, is formally launching Slack Bridging! Having soft-launched Slack Bridging last year, EMS already provides bridges to Slack for a wide range of customers and thousands of simultaneous users.

We’re delighted to announce that Element Matrix Services (EMS), our flagship Matrix hosting platform, has launched a fully managed bridge for text-channels in Discord. Discord Bridging brings interoperability between Matrix-based apps and the Discord chat platform. The fully-hosted bridge is now available within EMS via the Integrations tab of the EMS host management dashboard. A single bridge deployment currently supports up to 20 rooms by default, each with unlimited use.

Two unconnected events in the first week of 2021 have sped the adoption of decentralised real time communication. WhatsApp is being sucked dry by its data mining owner The first was an update to WhatsApp’s privacy policy. Rarely has a privacy policy managed to generate quite so much media coverage. Perhaps the first working day of the year wasn’t such a good time to bury bad news after all.

There’s much excitement today as Element Matrix Services (EMS), our digital sovereign Matrix-hosting platform, is now providing hosting for a fully managed bridge for Telegram that supports both direct and group messaging.

Wow! Yesterday the EU published the Digital Markets Act, a legislative proposal seeking to protect the fundamental rights of users in the digital world. This proposal has the potential to be a major catalyst for the emergence of a unifying communications layer for the open web. Indeed the Digital Markets Act is pushing interoperability between messaging apps, which is a major win for consumers.

Considering leaving Slack’s silo for a more open and secure world? We hear you! Element Matrix Services (EMS), the high-performance Matrix hosting solution from Element, is releasing a new service to help organisations migrate from Slack to Element; the Slack Migration Wizard.

It’s been a busy year for Element. At a glance, so far this year we’ve: As an open source project, we’ve always strived to default to transparency, working on features in the open with our vibrant open source community. Historically, most of this discussion has happened in our public repositories, like Element Web, or in rooms on Matrix. However, most of this discussion is quite granular.

Like proud parents, we’re delighted to announce that Gitter now has true native connectivity with Matrix. It’s only been two months since Gitter joined Element, so already going native is pretty quick work. Matrix users now appear in Gitter like any other user, although with their Matrix ID and a Matrix flair (icon) next to their username. Likewise, Gitter users now appear as native within Matrix, but with their Gitter username, display name and avatar.

Element is delighted to see BWI and Bundeswehr launch a Matrix-based communications platform, BwMessenger, in the iOS and Android app stores. BwMessenger is the latest Matrix-based messenger to be made available, joining many others including the French government’s Tchap platform and - of course - Element, the flagship Matrix app. BwMessenger is the new standardized, secure and device-independent messaging service for the Bundeswehr.