- Imagine a world...
- ...where it is as simple to message or call anyone as it is to send them an email.
- ...where you can communicate without being forced to install the same app.
- ...where you can choose who hosts your communication.
- ...where your conversations are secured by E2E encryption.
- ...where there’s a simple standard HTTP API for sharing real-time data on the web.
This is Matrix.
Matrix is an open source project that publishes the
Matrix open standard for secure, decentralised, real-time communication, and its Apache licensed
reference implementations.
Maintained by the non-profit Matrix.org Foundation, we aim
to create an open platform which is as independent, vibrant and evolving as the Web itself... but for communication.
As of June 2019, Matrix is out of beta, and the protocol is fully suitable for production usage.
Messaging
Matrix gives you simple HTTP APIs and SDKs (iOS, Android, Web) to create chatrooms, direct chats and chat bots, complete with end-to-end encryption, file transfer, synchronised conversation history, formatted messages, read receipts and more.
Conversations are replicated over all the servers participating in them, meaning there are no single point of control or failure. You can reach any other user in the global Matrix ecosystem of over 40M users, even including those on other networks via bridges.
End-to-End Encryption
Matrix provides state-of-the-art end-to-end-encryption via the Olm and Megolm cryptographic ratchets. This ensures that only the intended recipients can ever decrypt your messages, while warning if any unexpected devices are added to the conversation.
Matrix’s encryption is based on the Double Ratchet Algorithm popularised by Signal, but extended to support encryption to rooms containing thousands of devices. Olm and Megolm are specified as an open standard and implementations are released under the Apache license, independently audited by NCC Group.
VoIP
With the advent of WebRTC, developers gained the ability to exchange high quality voice and video calls – but no standard way to actually route the calls.
Matrix is the missing signalling layer for WebRTC. If you are building VoIP into your app, or want to expose your existing VoIP app to a wider audience, building on Matrix’s SDKs and bridges should be a no-brainer.
Bridging
Matrix owes its name to its ability to bridge existing platforms into a global open matrix of communication. Bridges are core to Matrix and designed to be as easy to write as possible, with Matrix providing the highest common denominator language to link the networks together.
The core Matrix team maintains bridges to Slack, IRC, XMPP and Gitter, and meanwhile the wider Matrix community provides bridges for Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts, Signal and many more.
IOT, VR and more...
Matrix can handle any type of real-time data, not only messaging and VoIP.
By building bridges to as many IoT silos as possible, data can be securely published on the Matrix network. IoT solutions built on Matrix are unified, rather than locked to specific vendors, and can even publish or consume Matrix data directly from devices via ultra-low bandwidth transports (100bps or less)
Meanwhile AR and VR vendors are recreating the silos we’ve seen in instant messaging rather than working together towards an open ecosystem. Matrix can be the unifying layer for both communication and world data in AR and VR.
How does it work?
Matrix is really a decentralised conversation store rather than a messaging protocol. When you send a message in Matrix, it is replicated over all the servers whose users are participating in a given conversation - similarly to how commits are replicated between Git repositories. There is no single point of control or failure in a Matrix conversation which spans multiple servers: the act of communication with someone elsewhere in Matrix shares ownership of the conversation equally with them. Even if your server goes offline, the conversation can continue uninterrupted elsewhere until it returns.
This means that every server has total self-sovereignty over its users data - and anyone can choose or run their own server and participate in the wider Matrix network. This is how Matrix democratises control over communication.
By default, Matrix uses simple HTTPS+JSON APIs as its baseline transport, but also embraces more sophisticated transports such as WebSockets or ultra-low-bandwidth Matrix via CoAP+Noise.
The clients are all participating in the same Matrix room, which is synchronised across the three participating servers.
curl -XPOST
-d '{"msgtype":"m.text", "body":"hello"}'
"https://matrix.alice.com/_matrix/client
/v2/rooms/ROOM_ID/send/m.room.message
?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"event_id": "$YUwRidLecu:alice.com"
}
The server then signs the JSON including the signatures of the parent objects to calculate a tamper-resistent signature for the history.
curl –XPOST –H 'Authorization: X-Matrix origin=alice.com,...' –d '{
"ts": 1413414391521,
"origin": "alice.com",
"destination": "bob.com",
"pdus": [{
"event_id": "$YUwRidLecu:alice.com",
"content": {
"body": "hello world",
"msgtype": "m.text"
},
...
"pdu_type": "m.room.message",
"signatures": {
"matrix.org": {
"ed25519:auto": "jZXTwAH/7EZ..."
}
},
"sender": "@alice:alice.com"
}]
}' https://matrix.bob.com:8448/_matrix/federation/v1/send/916d...
- Validate the message signature to protect against tampering with history
- Validate the HTTP request's auth signature to protect against identity spoofing
- Validate whether Alice's historical permissions allow her to send this particular message
curl "https://matrix.bob.com/_matrix/client
/v2/sync?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"next_batch": "s72595_4483_1934",
"rooms": [{
"room_id": "!KrLWMLDnZAyTapqLWW:alice.com",
"events": {
"batch": [{
"event_id": "$YUwRidLecu:alice.com",
"type": "m.room.message",
"content": {
"body": "I am a fish",
"msgtype": "m.text",
},
"origin_server_ts": 1417731086797,
"sender": "@alice:alice.com"
}],
},
}]
}
Alice, Bob and Charlie's homeservers all have different views of the message history at this point - but Matrix is designed to handle this inconsistency.
At this point Alice and Bob are in sync, but Charlie's room history has split - both messages 2 and 3 follow on from message 1. This is not a problem; Charlie's client will be told about Bob's message and can handle it however it chooses.
This effectively merges the split in history and asserts the integrity of the room (or at least her view of it).
An Open Standard
Simple pragmatic RESTful HTTP/JSON APIs by default
Open specification of the Matrix standard
Fully decentralised conversations with no single points of control or failure
End-to-end encryption via Olm and Megolm
WebRTC VoIP/Video calling using Matrix signalling
Real-time synchronised history and state across all clients
Integrates with existing 3rd party IDs to authenticate and discover users
Maintained by the non-profit Matrix.org Foundation
Group conversations, read receipts, typing notifications, presence...
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