Matrix
Matrix is a modern, federated communications platform. In addition to all of the chat features – including encryption and VoIP – that one might expect, Matrix has robust ‘bridging’ extensibility. On our homeserver, users can communicate with those on platforms such as WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, Signal and more, in one app.
Login & Registration
This service utilises Aenead ID. You will be redirected to sign-in or register using Aenead ID from your Element client.
We provide an Element webclient for your convenience at https://element.aenead.net/. Alternatively, Element provides desktop and mobile clients.
When signing in, ensure that you change the homeserver to “aenead.net”, and click “Sign in with Aenead ID”.
Element X (Sliding Sync)
Element X does not yet support logging in with your Aenead ID; an application password is thus necessary to login. This application password can be used to gain access only to your Matrix account, and is not necessary when using your Aenead ID.
To setup an application password:
- If you are signed in to https://element.aenead.net/, sign out
- Navigate to https://element.aenead.net/#/forgot_password
- Enter your email address. You will be emailed an authentication link.
- Once authenticated, return to your original window, and select “next”.
- Enter your desired password.
If you have any difficulties in obtaining an application password, please reach out in the Aenead Services room. An administrator can create a temporary password for you, to use the password change functionality instead.
Bridges
Most bridges can be signed into by sending “login” to the bot. For detailed instructions on how to sign-in, click on the bridge card.
Matrix Protocol
Matrix is an open standard for interoperable, decentralised, real-time communication over IP. It can be used to power Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling, Internet of Things communication - or anywhere you need a standard HTTP API for publishing and subscribing to data whilst tracking the conversation history.
The aim is to provide an analogous ecosystem to email - one where you can communicate with pretty much anyone, without caring what app or server they are using, using whichever client app & server you chose, and use a neutral identity system like an e-mail address or phone number to discover people to talk to.
There are a couple core concepts to Matrix, which we’ve described below.
- Instead of having a single ‘Discord network’, where all guilds and users are registered, the Matrix network is decentralized. Homeservers act like ‘nodes’ in the Matrix network, and are what comprises it.
- Users can register to a homeserver. All users have a ‘Matrix ID’ (MXID), in the format “@user:example.com”. MXIDs are comparable to discord tags (which include a username and discriminator, in the format ‘user#0000’).
- Rooms are like channels in Discord, and are where all communication happens. Rooms can exist between multiple homeservers. Rooms can either be public or private.
- Spaces are collections of rooms. Spaces do not actually contain rooms, they only organize them. Practically, however, spaces are comparable to Discord guilds.
- Spaces can contain other spaces, which are referred to as ‘sub-spaces’. These are comparable to categories in guilds on Discord. Some clients (such as Cinny) allow sub-spaces to be displayed as categories, just like Discord.
Clients
We recommend users use the popular Element client, as it’s the most feature-full. Element has apps for the web, desktop and mobile.
Please refer to https://matrix.org/clients/ for a comprehensive list of alternative clients.
Noise Suppression
Although noise suppression and echo cancellation are included in the Element client, some clients still don’t have this functionality. Instead, we recommend using the following tools.
Windows: Krisp, NS Plugin, VoiceMod
Linux: EasyEffects, NoiseTorch, NS Plugin
Unified Application (Ferdium)
We appreciate that users may not want to run yet another program in the background, and while we recommend using Element as your one-stop-shop for communications with bridging (read above), this may not always be possible.
Instead, we recommend using an application like Ferdium, which allows users to use all of their web services in a single desktop applications.
Technical Information
- Homeserver URL: https://synapse.aenead.net/
- Sliding Sync (v3) URL: https://msync.aenead.net/