Cross-signing and end-to-end encryption by default (matrix.org)

Article summary

Matrix has launched end-to-end encryption by default for private conversations, after three years of development and testing. This feature is now enabled for all new private conversations in the Riot client. The Matrix team has also implemented cross-signing, which allows users to verify their own logins and devices. The team plans to continue improving the user experience and performance of the platform.

Main themes

• end-to-end encryption
• user experience
• self-hosting
• performance
• conversation view
• threading and discussion format
• video conferencing scalability
• mobile app development
• platform comparison

What commenters say

• Some users find the current conversation view in Riot to be poorly designed and difficult to use.
• Threads, similar to those found in Slack, are a highly desired feature in Matrix and Riot, but some users disagree on their usefulness.
• The difficulty of setting up and maintaining a self-hosted Synapse server is a significant barrier to adoption for some users.
• Matrix and Riot have made significant progress in terms of usability and performance, but still lag behind other platforms like Discord and Slack in some areas.
• The trade-offs between scalability and end-to-end encryption in video conferencing are a subject of debate.
• Some users prefer a more compact and customizable conversation view, similar to those found in IRC clients.
• The decision to rewrite the Android app from scratch rather than incrementally migrating the old codebase was a deliberate choice to improve the app's architecture and performance.