Element / Matrix

Element is the flagship client for the Matrix open-standard decentralized communication protocol, built by New Vector Ltd. — the company founded in 2017 by the original creators of Matrix. What makes Element architecturally unique is that it connects to a federated network of independently operated homeservers rather than a single centralized platform. The matrix.org homeserver is the largest and most prominent public instance, but organizations can — and many do — run their own homeservers to retain full data sovereignty while still federating with the wider network.

Matrix and Element have seen significant adoption among governments, defense agencies, and enterprises that require end-to-end encrypted communication without vendor lock-in. France's government runs its own homeserver for inter-ministerial communications; Germany's armed forces and several European public sector organizations have followed suit. For everyday users, Element offers end-to-end encrypted rooms, spaces, voice and video calls, and bridges to other platforms like Slack, Discord, and IRC — all through an open protocol.

Element outages affecting the matrix.org homeserver typically appear as message sending failures ("Your message failed to send"), rooms not loading their history, federation errors preventing messages from arriving from external homeservers, voice and video calls dropping immediately on connection, and key verification ceremonies failing for encrypted rooms. Users on self-hosted homeservers may see federation timeouts when trying to reach matrix.org rooms or users during a matrix.org degradation event.

Outage.gg monitors Element and matrix.org server status through community-submitted reports. If messages are failing to send or rooms are returning errors, check the live status page to see whether the matrix.org homeserver is experiencing a wider outage and get notified when federation is restored.