Discussion: Matrix Integration

[sunjam]

Specific discussions should take place in the subtickets.

This is a discussion thread for matrix.org integration as mentioned in meta thread #687. Also mentioned in chat meta thread #294 #395. Matrix has been announced as the base platform for the upcoming Librem 5 phone.

[GoetheG]

An interesting idea you have, @sunjam. The college society I volunteer for, tested a lot of different collaboration software. We tested Slack, Mattermost, Riot.im/Matrix, Rocket.Chat, stackfield, Threema Work. From my non computer scientist point of view, it would be the best solution to closely cooperate with Rocket.Chat. I know that Rocket.Chat has not a PHP basis. But I honestly think that this is the best solution from a user experience perspective. Rocket.Chat can be installed on an own server and can also be hosted somewhere. I have NETWAYS in mind.

And for guys like me, who just want to have a good looking and working peace of software, which is easy to update and to install, Rocket.Chat seems to be the way to go. Matrix is not easy to use. It's for professional coders only. What makes Nextcloud really special is it's simplicity. I can easily install Nextcloud within my web hosting service and just use it. Great work you do by the way @nickvergessen. And Matrix is not easy anything. I was shown the installation process on a test server. It's really horrible.

And if we really want people to switch from Skype and Slack and Dropbox, that this open source society should deliver not only a good looking software, but an 'easy to handle' software too.

[natrius]

@GoetheG
In my opinion the matrix synapse server is not hard to install. It seems complicated, i understand that, but its not that hard and it just works out of the box afterwards, without much hasseling around.
But i have not tried rocket.chat.
The usage of matrix itself its easy too - but that should not be point of this discussion.

@Topic
I would appreciate the integration of Matrix.

[violoncelloCH]

I would rather go for implementing a matrix compatible api at least for federation. This would open a possibility to connect to matrix instances from within nextcloud talk. Or maybe it could even be possible to implement matrix's client api so existing matrix clients like riot could be used with nextcloud talk

[GoetheG]

When I posted my first comment I didn’t know anything about Nextcloud Talk. Is there maybe anything planned?

I wish there were some easy way to connect Rocket.Chat with Nextcloud. That would make Nextcloud a real collaborative solution. But it seems that Nextcloud is building a completely new “messenger” from scratch.

[nickvergessen]

Well we want everyone, that runs Nextcloud, to be able to also run Talk with as many features as possible.
When looking into the federation of chats/calls, we will surely think about all this again and what the best way is to achieve this.

[sunjam]

What @violoncelloCH mentioned is really interesting. I had not thought of Talk being supported by Riot, which is a front end for the backend Matrix Synapse server. There are actually many client front end implementations being used. It would be fascinating if these front ends could be used with Nextcloud Talk.

[entfrickler]

Or if we had a matrix bridge which integrates Nextcloud Talk into the Riot client / Matrix network.

[matthiasbeyer]

As a user, I'd vote against a centralized solution like Slack, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Threema.. and would explicitely vote for Matrix, because it is federated.

Just my 2ct.

[sunjam]

Definitely some confusion in that last response. Matterbridge (linked in another request), can interconnect these services via python. Threema and Slack are proprietary services. Mattermost is FOSS. Rocket.chat and Matrix are both Federated and FOSS. Hope this helps.

…

On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 6:37 AM Matthias Beyer ***@***.***> wrote: As a user, I'd vote against a centralized solution like Slack, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Threema.. and would explicitely vote for Matrix, *because* it is federated. Just my 2ct. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#809?email_source=notifications&email_token=AANUKZX2C4BMURFH7OBHNBTQDVXH3A5CNFSM4E4KOWUKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD36WB2Y#issuecomment-519921899>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AANUKZU2G5LIQV4ORRR7SCTQDVXH3ANCNFSM4E4KOWUA> .

[gtbuchanan]

I was all for this integration initially, but recently discovered the following privacy issues with Matrix:

matrix-org/synapse#4540
https://github.com/libremonde-org/paper-research-privacy-matrix.org

A new protocol called "The Grid" is being proposed and developed to address these issues:

https://gitlab.com/thegridprotocol/home
https://gitlab.com/kamax-io/grid/gridepo

Seems to be led by one dev at the moment, though.