Will Hunt

Matrix has already got the solid framework of many bridge and bot implementations, but has always been missing that polish to make the bridges more accessible.

In this talk, Will will explain how we're going to build our bridges with an all-new interactive interface and replacing old bot command interfaces with widget based interfaces.

Matrix (https://matrix.org) is an open protocol for secure, decentralised communication - defining an end-to-end-encrypted real-time communication layer for the open Web. Historically the network has been made up of newly written native Matrix clients, or bridges to 3rd party existing chat systems (e.g. Slack, Discord, Telegram).

This year, however, we added production-grade native Matrix support for the first time to a major 3rd party chat system: Gitter (https://gitter.im) over the course of about 5 weeks. This talk will explain how we did it it, and show how easily other existing chat systems can extend their reach into the whole Matrix ecosystem; breaking open those walled gardens forever.

With the European Commission proposing to mandate interoperability for big tech "gatekeepers" (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip202347), it's never been more relevant to understand how best to expose existing communication silos via open communication APIs such as Matrix.

Between October & December 2020 we happened to go through precisely this process - designing how best to make Gitter natively speak Matrix such that Matrix users can natively participate in all Gitter conversations, using it as the reference example of linking an existing large-scale chat silo into Matrix. Do you try to natively speak the Matrix server-server API? Or do you embed a homeserver (if so, which one?) and use the Application Service API? Where do you store the data, and how do you minimise duplication between your existing service and Matrix? How do you scale to a userbase of millions of users? How do you handle end-to-end encryption?

In this talk, we'll answer these questions; and show how we're at the point where Matrix has matured enough that it could actually be used to add open communication APIs to the tech giants if they ever found themselves in need.

Matrix is an open source project developing an open protocol and network for decentralised end-to-end-encrypted communication, providing a viable open alternative to the proprietary communication silos of WhatsApp, Slack, Discord and friends. One of Matrix's main goals is to provide a highest-common-denominator open network which can bridge together existing communication silos. In this talk, we'll show off Bifröst, our new application framework for building bridges, and demonstrate high quality bridging with XMPP, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, and more!

Matrix owes its name to the idea of binding together existing communication platforms into an open 'matrix' in which they can interoperate. Over the last year the wider Matrix ecosystem has been focusing increasingly on bridging, with lots of exciting development happening around:

• Bifröst - a TypeScript application framework for building bridges, including high quality XMPP support via xmpp.js and freeform protocol support via libpurple
• Slack - matrix-appservice-bridge, including bridging edits, reactions, threads, and full DM support via "puppetting"
• WhatsApp - mautrix-whatsapp, a fully functional WhatsApp bridge (using the API from WhatsApp Web)
• Discord - matrix-appservice-discord, with experimental puppetting support for full
• IRC - matrix-appservice-irc

We'll explain all the flavours of bridging available these days (from bot-based, virtual users, puppetted, gatewaying etc) and show off Bifröst providing full gatewayed bridging between Matrix & XMPP (so that anyone in Matrix can reach anywhere in XMPP and vice versa), as well as double-bridging (e.g. IRC<->Slack via Matrix) - and generally illustrate how Matrix can be used to heal fragmented communities which have ended up shattered between Slack, Discord, IRC and other platforms.

(Will Hunt has replaced Matthew Hodgson as the speaker.)