Re: Matrix as a replacement for Telepathy



On 25/08/2017 14:10, David Woodhouse wrote:

On Fri, 2017-08-25 at 14:00 +0100, Matthew Hodgson wrote:

From memory, the sort of modern features which Matrix has which the API doesn't handle include:

 * Infinite scrollback serverside history
 * Synced history across multiple devices
 * Server side search
 * Server side notification settings 
 * Read receipts
 * Read-up-to markers
 * Multiway voip
 * Promoting 1:1s to group chats and vice versa
 * Native end-to-end encryption (verifying keys, devices, sharing keys, etc)
 * Encrypted file transfers
 * Redacted msgs

 And upcoming shortly:
 * Reactions / upvotes / downvotes 
 * Editable msgs
 * Pinned messages
 * Threading
Matrix isn't the only protocol that supports many of those.

I'm no fan of Telepathy, certainly — the complete lack of error
reporting was what caused me to ditch it and stick with Pidgin for
corporate Lync users. When users are completely unaware that they
aren't reachable on IM, or why, that's a total UX fail.

But I still think we're better off with a *generic* framework, even if
we have to drag it into the 21st century, than tying ourselves into a
single protocol.

You do have to consider that Matrix is intended as a generic protocol, though.  The reason it's called Matrix is because it tries to matrix together as many existing silos as possible - but doing the bridging serverside on decentralised bridges.  The best way to sum it up is https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/841424770025545730.

That said, I totally agree that such a telepathy replacement should also have the option of supporting other protocols natively rather than via Matrix bridges.  But it might make sense to take inspiration for the API to be similar to Matrix's (given it's been built for the whole purpose of abstracting multiple protocols, whether that abstraction is done serverside or clientside).


Of course if you want to go and make a lovely shiny UI for your single
protocol, nobody should dissuade you from that. But to talk about it as
a "replacement for Telepathy" doesn't make sense to me.
-- 
Matthew Hodgson
Matrix.org


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