Element
Element is a secure collaboration and messaging app based on the Matrix protocol. It’s decentralised to deliver digital sovereignty, and based on an open standard for ea...
- Freemium • Open Source
- Group Chat App
- Encrypted Chat App
- Video Calling App
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- Matrix.org
- Cloudron
- F-Droid
- FLATHUB
What is Element?
Element is a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) secure collaboration and messaging app.
It provides instant messaging, voice and video calls, screen sharing and file sharing; for 1:1s to huge chat rooms. It’s available to use across Web, Android, iOS, macOS, Windows & Linux.
Its decentralised design delivers digital sovereignty, enabling deployment on-premise or through any cloud provider.
Element Matrix Services (EMS) is the most popular SaaS for corporate use of Element. EMS provides fast performance and enterprise-grade add-ons.
Being Matrix-based, Element provides interoperability between traditional siloed apps. It can bridge into proprietary ‘walled garden’ systems such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and Discord to enable easy connections between different organisations.
End-to-end encryption is provided by default to keep users’ conversations and files safe. Cross-signed device verification uses QR codes or emoji comparisons to guard against imposters and eavesdropping.
Element is built on the 
Matrix.org open standard which provides bridges to other systems such as Slack, IRC and a lot more soon.
Element Screenshots
Element Features
- Decentralized
- End-to-End Encryption
- Privacy focused
- VoiP Calls
- Support for MarkDown
- File Versioning
- No Tracking
- Real time collaboration
- DRM Free
- Federated
- Team Collaboration
- Encrypted Chat
- Matrix Protocol
- Video Calling
- Federation
- Voice Chat
- Direct Messaging
- Instant Messaging
- Per-room avatars
- Custom widgets
- Community-based
- Self-hosted search
- LDAP support
- Multi Device Support
- FOSS
- Add-ons
- Moderation tools
- Active Directory integration
- Web-Based
- Simple import
- Mobile friendly
- Voice messages
- Message redaction
- Multiple languages
- Clean design
- Web Integaration
- Simple installation
- Read receipts
- User mentions
- Cross-Platform
- User Management
- Typing notifications
- Encrypted calls
- Text chat
- Video Conferencing
- Encrypted VoIP calls
- GitHub integration
- Integrated File Sharing
- Audio Conferencing
- Chat Bot
- Slack integration
- Server Moderation
- File Sending
- Server side history
- Cloud Hosting
Element information
- Developed byElement
- LicensingOpen Source (Apache-2.0) and Freemium product.
- PricingSubscription that costs between $3 and $4.
- Written in
- RatingAverage rating of 4.3
- Alternatives260 alternatives listed
Supported Languages
- English
- Albanian
- Basque
- Bulgarian
- Catalan; Valencian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Esperanto
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Norwegian Bokmål
- Norwegian Nynorsk
- Persian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Chinese
- Sinhala, Sinhalese
- Slovak
- Slovene
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Thai
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
- Welsh
Apple AppStore
- Updated
- 3.53 avg rating
GitHub repository
- 9,345 Stars
- 1,631 Forks
- 4481 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Tags
- Group Chat
- Security & Privacy
- Bridging
- Live Chat
- Enterprise
- Encrypted
- Decentralised Encrypted Chat
- Social Network
- data-sovereignty
- workplace-messenger
- on-premise
- secure-messaging
- Matrix
- digital-sovereignty
- Chat Rooms
- interoperability
- Matrix Client
- decentralised-messaging
Recent user activities on Element
- worsening4512liked Elementwo
richard_smetthinks Threema is an alternative to Element- richard_smetthinks Matrix.org is an alternative to Element
This excellent project is in beta but it has already the following features:
It's exciting to see what this will be in a year from now. There are still a few niggles to sort out:
*Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't have to be like that. Turtl and other show text in encrypted clients can be searchable. Have an index file, decrypt it locally and search it locally. Don't understand why it's not done more often.
Also, I'm quietly hoping that ghastly green colour won't be the default and put people off. (Don't worry - you can pick different colours for different rooms.)
Does it have Team Viewer-like remote control, Teams-like file history and ability to lock contact lists, i.e. contacts controlled by admin only? Looking for something for a little business.
Reply written ago
#coth -no, it has no remote control (yet), but Wire has (or only viewer, i am not sure) try it
Reply written ago
Riot recently came out of beta: https://medium.com/@RiotChat/the-big-1-0-68fa7c6050be alt. http://archive.fo/iuZfj Now that we're at a full-fledged release, I can say that New Vector's done a wonderful job. The interface was admittedly quite messy during the beta. The settings were extensive, but were a pain to navigate through and understand. After the update, however, the interface is much more focused and cleaner. Also, it loads a little faster.
As usual, Riot keeps all its previous features, like end to end encryption and voice and video chatting (although I must admit that I haven't used them, because no friends...this is really a recurring theme in my reviews, geez).
As of this writing, I have yet to find the Linux 1.0 version, but I did find it currently on Windows. EDIT: It just entered the software repository for Ubuntu, about an hour after this review. Other distros will probably get it soon.
Anyways, if you're looking for an open source alternative to things like Discord or Slack, give Riot a shot!
[Edited by TerrifiedTyphlosion, February 17]
Actually i think it is very complicated for skype-like users.
I hope they change something on it to be more efficient.
Are you ignoring the null key of RC4 cipher used by Skype for years?
Microsoft monitoring doesn't bother you?
Reply written ago
I don' use Skype or M$. I was talking about their users.
Reply written ago
Since (15.07.2020) Riot updated to Element, verification participant and UI are much better now. Its worth a second look!
Reply written ago
@relaud
Yeah i've seen that, nicely done. I hope they do something about the database 'cleanup' too.
Reply written ago
Undoubtedly future of messaging. Works really well for a protocol that was newly released.
The desktop app is not native, it's a real resource-hog. I really hate web based apps.
I like Element because it’s ease to use 💙
indipendent, you can selfhost it