Element Web

Overview

Element is the best-known app for Matrix, an open chat network where people on different servers can talk to each other, much like email. This is the web version: you open it in a browser, sign in to a Matrix server, and chat. It keeps no messages itself. Your account and your rooms live on the Matrix server you sign in to, such as a Tuwunel app on this box.

Features

• Private chats and group rooms, with end-to-end encryption
• Threads, replies, reactions, polls, and message search
• Share files, images and voice messages
• Verify your other devices and keep a backup of your encryption keys
• Spaces to group rooms for a family, a club or a project
• Works with any Matrix server, yours or a public one like matrix.org

Setting up

You need an account on a Matrix server. If you run Tuwunel on this box, type its web address in the "Default homeserver" setting when you install Element, or pick it on the sign-in page with "Edit" next to the server name. Then sign in, or create an account if the server allows it.

Good to know

Element sends your messages to the Matrix server you sign in to, not to this app. If you leave the "Default homeserver" setting empty, the sign-in page starts on matrix.org, a public server run by the Matrix.org Foundation, and your browser contacts it as soon as the page opens.

Some features call outside services from your browser, and only when you use them: group video calls use Element's public Jitsi server, a shared location loads map tiles from MapTiler, and widgets, bots and sticker packs come from Element's integration service. If your Matrix server names its own video call or map service, Element uses that instead. No usage data or crash reports are sent.

Your encryption keys are kept in your browser. Set up a recovery key when Element offers it, or you can lose your old encrypted messages when you sign out or clear your browser.

Element needs the secure https address that a hosted box gives each app, so it is offered on hosted boxes only.