A chat of our own

The family does not chat through a corporation but through a server in our own server rack. It speaks Matrix, an open chat protocol, and uses bridges to bring in all the other chats as well. In the end, everything is in one app.

Bridges to other chats8

Passwords0

Ads0

Locationat home

Experimental setup

01
The server. Synapse with a Postgres database, in Docker, as a virtual machine in our own data centre. The messages stay in the house, not with just anyone.
02
The bridges. The mautrix bridges bring in WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Discord, Messenger and Instagram, iMessage and Zulip. You reply from the same app, and a perfectly normal message arrives on the other side.
03
The radio network. A home-made bridge connects the Meshtastic network: small LoRa radios that send text messages over kilometres, without internet or a mobile network. Whatever arrives over the radio shows up in the chat, and the other way round. More in chamber 03.
04
The app. Element X on the phone, Element in the browser. You sign in with a passkey, so with a finger or your face. There is no password.
05
Calls. Voice and video calls run over Element Call, also from our own server.

Why?

Because five chat apps on one phone are four too many. And because it feels good when the family photos in the group chat sit on a hard drive in the house and not on one in California.

Matrix is also open: our server can talk to any other Matrix server in the world, just like e-mail.

Test result

Passed. In October the server moved from a Raspberry Pi with failing storage into a virtual machine. Downtime: 26 minutes.