Element

This excellent project is in beta but it has already the following features:

• end-to-end encryption
• markdown support
• private/public chatrooms
• room members by link and/or invitation
• themes
• various notification levels
• file sharing
• voice & video conferening (I haven't tested this personally)

It's exciting to see what this will be in a year from now. There are still a few niggles to sort out:

• not all files upload correctly (size limit for the beta?)
• pasted text appears twice when you enter it in a chat room (but correctly once you hit enter)
• not all webpages are previewed correctly
• searching chat room text is slow (unencrypted rooms)
• searching chat room text doesn't work (encrypted rooms)*

*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.)

Actually i think it is very complicated for skype-like users.

• E2E encryption requires action from both sides it is not enabled by default (not private at all)
• File transfer and Video Calls should be P2P and not limited by the server

I hope they change something on it to be more efficient.