Note: This article covers the information about Matrix for WordPress from Matrix.org
If you work with companies, then you probably join their online communities or forums to keep up with what's going on and learn about new clients. You'll find many clients prefer apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, WhatsApp, Skype, or traditional email to email conversations with Yahoo and Gmail.
But what if you could have a single app to handle all your messaging, group chats, forums, and client communities across many encrypted but decentralized servers? The Matrix Foundation has made this possible using the Matrix protocol.
What Is Matrix?
Matrix is an Apache-licensed, open-source project that publishes Matrix open standards for secure, decentralized real-time communication over IP.
Think of Matrix as a messaging app because it is decentralized compared to WhatsApp and iMessage, which are controlled and managed by Facebook and Apple. Matrix is designed to interoperate with other communication systems, and it currently supports more than 30 clients, bridges, servers, and bots.
It has become highly adaptable as an advanced open-source program with over 30 programming languages supported, including Java and Objective-C.
How Does Matrix Work?
To connect to a Matrix chatroom, a user must connect to the home server (created by other Matrix servers). Participants can host their server, control data, customize the server, and bridge to other chat networks such as IRC, XMPP, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.
Each message sent in a chat room will synchronize across the other servers that participate in that room. If one server goes offline, it will not affect the other participating servers, likewise the members. Once the server returns online, it will be automatically updated to real-time events and messages in the chat room.
Matrix comes with a promise of unification among individual servers regardless of their complex encryption and uses case. To fully utilize its capabilities, get to understand the below listed:
Bridges
Matrix allows its users to bridge existing platforms into a unified communications system. Bridging is a core feature of Matrix and is designed to easily adapt to multiple programming languages for developers to integrate and link their preferred network.
Some of the most used bridges are Slack, IRC, XMPP and Gitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, and many more.
Messaging
Matrix comes with simple HTTP APIs and SDKs, available for developers on IOS, Android, and the Web. Messaging features include chatrooms, direct chats, chatbots, end-to-end encryption, and file transfer. The messaging app also extends capabilities like file transfer, securitized conversation history, and read receipts, to meet modern standards.
With WebRTC, Matrix can be used to exchange high-quality voice and video calls. Matrix can also be extended to handle other real-time data like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
End-to-end encryption
Matrix uses highly secure end-to-end encryption via the Olm and Megolm, which are very popular cryptocurrency ratchets. With these protocols, recipients can never decrypt messages.
Matrix encryption is also based on Double Ratchet Algorithm, well known for its extended support encryption for thousands of devices. Olm and Megolm are open standards implementations released under an Apache license and independently audited by the NCC group.
Matrix for WordPress
WordPress and Matrix developers are exploring replacing Slack Communications with Matrix, as they see Element as a better alternative to Slack. This development is not new, as Automattic had invested 4.6 million in New Vector to fund the Matrix open standard, decentralized chat network.
This investment was to fund the project and explore the potential of building bridges to WordPress. Integrating a Matrix API for WordPress, Slack, and platforms will be able to bridge servers within the WordPress community.
Slack's onboarding process requires a lot of tedious details, including an email invitation to a WordPress email address and identifying the correct Slack workspace to join.
The possibility of implementing a Single-Sign-On flow has been achieved by creating a seamless login experience for Matrix communities. OpenID Connect is used with WordPress as an authentication provider.
This seamless login process requires only that you authorize the transfer with a simple click of a button, which sends WordPress login details to the Matrix server. The plugin used for this is Chatrix.
How Does Matrix Help WordPress Community?
The open standard protocol of Matrix for WordPress can potentially help WordPress in several ways:
(1) Enhanced Communication: Matrix for WordPress can offer users a more secure and decentralized communication channel, fostering better collaboration and seamless communication between WordPress developers and contributors.
This could enormously speed up development and improve the overall functionality of the WordPress platform.
(2) Community-driven Development: Since Matrix is an open-source protocol, it supports community-driven development, which enables continuous innovation and improvement.
This might help WordPress by supplying an ecosystem of services and plugins driven by the community and developed around the protocol, resulting in a more substantial and varied WordPress ecosystem.
(3) Integration with Other Platforms: Matrix for WordPress is desired to be interoperable with various clients and apps, which could help WordPress users integrate their website with other services, introducing better chatbots accessible from their secondary devices; video conferencing tool, etc.
(4) Decentralized End-to-end encryption: Matrix is equipped to offer decentralized identity management, which can make centralized authentication systems unnecessary. This could boost privacy and security while giving WordPress users more control over their identities.
Join the Matrix Federation
Matrix open standard protocol, in conclusion, is a promising advancement for private and decentralized communication over the internet.
Users are kept from being forced to utilize a specific application or service because of its design's interoperability and flexibility across several platforms. The protocol strongly emphasizes privacy and security, which is crucial given the prevalence of data breaches and surveillance in today's digital environment.
The open-source nature of Matrix promotes community-driven development as well, enabling ongoing innovation and advancement.
The Matrix open standard protocol is positioned to play a significant role in the development of internet communication thanks to the increased adoption and support it receives from influential businesses and organizations.
