There's the least common denominator XMPP, with a lot of key functions under optional XEPs. Thus the user experience is very uneven across clients and servers.
Matrix has a more defined set of important features, so you could expect that conforming clients all implement them uniformly, without surprises.
This argument seems so weird to me because the matrix ecosystem definitely does have complete and non-complete clients. Just like the XMPP ecosystem. And as for servers... Dendrite and Conduit are not 100% compatible with Synapse.
I imagine there must be some good clients for XMPP. Hell, I use one good client (Conversations on Android) on a daily basis. Also have used Gajim quite a bit. It is alright afaict.
Compliance with the annual compliance suites would be one definition. This compliance level is discoverable in the xmpp.org software listing, for example: https://xmpp.org/software/conversations/
Funny, I recently got pretty frustrated looking for a decent Matrix client. Not even Element claimed to support the full list of features on the Matrix website. And Element has super bizarre behavior like not allowing to paste into the message composer. And good luck getting help when a client doesn't work.
That said, I can't claim XMPP clients are any better.
Element is basically 3 different clients - web, ios and android are different codebases. Paste to composer should work on all of them tho! Meanwhile on mobile there is a new client called Element X which is a single codebase built on matrix-rust-sdk: https://element.io/blog/element-x-experience-the-future-of-e....
Classic Element should support every specced feature in Matrix tho, and tonnes of MSCs, so unsure what features you’d be missing. Meanwhile Element X is less featureful, but way more performant and stable (we’re aiming for better-than-telegram UX and perf).
Thanks for the reply. I saw your demo of Element X a while back and it looked awesome. I'm excited for it to show up for desktop use.
Of course you are already familiar with https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/element/. I know it is pretty ticky to point out that "Multi Account" is not supported, but it happened to be a feature I was particularly looking for in my search. My IRC client, for instance, lets me be logged into multiple servers with different accounts at the same time. Yes, I know that a single account on one server can communicate across all federated servers. The same is true for email, yet my email client allows me to use multiple accounts. I'm heartened to see that you have included the feature on your checklist. I hope that means somebody is thinking about it.
I know that Element should allow me to paste into the composer. I was told exactly that in the matrix room when I asked. "Works for me" is as frustrating a response as ever. I've seen the issue reported a number of times by different people with pretty decent detail, but I haven't seen a solution. Just "works for me" responses.
I'm still a Matrix user. I just accept that I don't have everything smoothed out the way I'd like. My post above was just a response to the claim that XMPP clients don't have uniform features. Well, as you know, neither do Matrix clients. But you weren't the one making that argument.
Don't take my posts as negative criticism, even if there is some criticism there. Keep up the great work. Keep getting better.
> we’re aiming for better-than-telegram UX and perf)
Oh thank god - my (admittedly not-brand-new) phone doesn't have quite enough RAM to keep Element fed and happy. 300 meg doesn't sound like much till all apps are limited to the ~2GB left over after the OS takes it's cut.
Element supports stickers though, and I haven't found any other Android clients that support stickers while also being lighter.
Kudos though - Matrix has come a long, long way since I first played around with riot.im!
In practice, it only works better if you stick to element so it is pretty much the same. The difference being that they ship a full featured web version so anyone with an OS that support modern web should be able to support it.
Matrix has a more defined set of important features, so you could expect that conforming clients all implement them uniformly, without surprises.