Matrix.org - Conference

The Matrix Conference 2026: Our biggest edition yet

2026-10-30T12:30:00+00:00

More than 340 attendees, exciting next-generation features ready to ship, Matrix powering more and more government communications, practical updates from the community, and the occasional shark: dispatches from Malmö 2026!

"Matrix has gone from being an interesting experiment to an existential requirement," said Matthew at the opening to the 2026 edition of The Matrix Conference</a>, a sentiment that could be felt throughout this year's edition.

Civil servants from 15 different nations and intergovernmental organizations shared their decisions and experiences migrating to Matrix in response to an urgent need for digital sovereignty; we also heard from regulated industries like healthcare who cannot compromise on privacy or security and are increasingly looking to Matrix as a solution. Matrix is growing in response to this need: representatives from Matrix's rapidly expanding ecosystem came to present the varied projects built on Matrix specification, and members of both the Spec Core Team</a> and the ecosystem came to demonstrate the expanding features that will make up Matrix 2.0.

A demo of Matrix real-time communication (MatrixRTC), was one of the highlights, as Matthew created a group call with himself using three different applications: Visio, Tammy and Element Call.

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This year we introduced the community attendance sponsorship package, which allowed us to fund travel for the maintainers of one of the community-created Matrix homeservers called Continuwuity</a>; their talks and workshop were among the most popular of the event. Thanks to Famedly for supporting this initiative via the community attendance sponsorship option.
Of course, we took advantage of being in the home of IKEA to adopt some Blåhajar:

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A lot more happened, so read on for more highlights from The Matrix Conference 2026. 
🔗</a>Civil servants in Europe and beyond look to Matrix for their digital sovereignty needs</h2>
"Digital sovereignty is no longer a buzzword, but procurement policy," noted Jens-Uwe Thieme in a talk on Germany's Matrix-based TI-Messenger. And this is true: in June, the European Commission unveiled a European Tech Sovereignty Package</a>, in response to both financial and strategic risks from proprietary software solutions. The EU identified some €264 billion</a> is being spent every year on services. It had earlier recognised the strategic risk of governments not being able to control communications, in 2025 recommending EU governments consider Matrix for their real-time communication. Just before the start of The Matrix Conference, the Starlink satellite internet service throttled</a> Ukrainian access to the internet to try and halt its strikes against Russia, underlining the profound risk governments take by trusting key communications components to private companies.
So, it was not surprising that governments and intergovernmental agencies were out in force at this year's Matrix Conference to talk about Matrix deployments at various stages of development. Representatives from the German Federal IT Cooperation (FITKO), the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan), the French Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), and the government of Luxembourg came to talk about why governments are increasingly choosing Matrix</a>. The United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) offered insights from their journey</a> to serve 100 UN entities with sovereign, federated communications, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) discussed the challenges</a> of scaling up adoption of Matrix-based NI2CE messenger as an alternative to WhatsApp and Signal. We also had the opportunity to learn from the German experience</a> deploying Matrix in healthcare and security, and to hear about new Matrix deployments in development in Brazil</a> and the Netherlands</a>.
Regulated industries – such as health insurers, financial institutions or legal enterprises – that have strict rules about handling personally identifiable information and a need to comply with privacy and data sovereignty laws, are also a natural match for Matrix-based solutions. At this year's conference we heard in particular from the health sector, including moving Germany's health insurer</a> to TI-Messenger, the adoption of TI-Messenger in Austria</a>, and the challenge</a> of getting time-limited healthcare workers to adopt new messaging applications, even where required.
🔗</a>Sovereign does not mean alone</h2>
"Every organisation that adopts the Matrix federation makes the protocol more valuable," says Renato Becker</a> of Rocket.Chat. But the real value of the interoperability that a federated protocol like Matrix brings is that new users do not need to agree on a platform, or a server, or a client. This year, we heard from the Swedish government's pilot programme</a> using a federated communications solution between two national agencies, which has then grown into a broader government-wide solution.

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We saw a live demo of Matrix deployments in Sweden, France, the European Commission, and NATO</a> chatting: different countries/organisations, different homeservers, and different clients but using the same Matrix protocol they are able to communicate: sovereign, but connected.
🔗</a>Sovereignty requires sustainability - and that means supporting the Foundation</h2>
An open standard needs a neutral steward. The Matrix Foundation</a> exists to safeguard the independence of the protocol. But while "Matrix is free to use," says Amandine, acting Managing Director of the Foundation, "it is not free to maintain." A lot of available funding aims to support new features, but the particular urgent need is to finance the less noticeable but every-bit-as-essential work that keeps Matrix running: protect and evolve the protocol itself (i.e. the spec work), ensure the whole ecosystem is heard (community management), grow the adoption of Matrix (advocacy and promotion) and keep the network safe (trust and safety).

Governing Board members Amandine, Nico, Rich and Neil on stage for the Foundation keynote </figcaption> </figure>
Sovereignty, notes Amandine, "is only real if it is sustainable." In several talks, the Foundation presented ideas it is exploring to finance its future, and the future of sovereign communications.

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Perhaps the most important revenue stream is membership</a>. Matrix Foundation members provide an annual contribution to the Foundation and are the backbone of keeping Matrix open, neutral, and free. Among other membership benefits, Members get a free ticket to the annual Matrix Conference, where they have the opportunity to network with the talented and committed Matrix community.

If just 80% of the public sector organisations using Matrix to run their communications, or companies building on Matrix, became Silver tier (the lowest tier) members of the Foundation, it would guarantee the Foundation's independence. </blockquote>
The Foundation is also exploring other potential revenue streams, including certification of Matrix developers or Matrix-backed software, offering training for these certifications, technical consulting, and trust & safety blocklists.
🔗</a>What the community is building on and for Matrix</h2>
Some of the most exciting talks at this year's conference focused on new features of the Matrix spec and its growing ecosystem. We got to learn about improving custom profiles</a> to enable users to temporarily communicate "in a meeting" or "on vacation"; ideas about updating the way Matrix handles timelines</a>; improvements to the protocol's security</a>, and much more</a>.

Ginger and Jade on stage discussing Continuwuity </figcaption> </figure>
We also got to hear about the interesting tools being built around Matrix, such as: Matrix Wrench</a>, a multipurpose tool for community managers; Continuwuity</a>, a homeserver that after just 18 months in existence is already running 1.5K Matrix servers; and Gua</a>, which attempts to mimic the simplicity and ease of use of WhatsApp without sacrificing federation. We also learned more about how incorporating the software language Rust</a> is speeding Element Web, and what's new in Rust Software Development Kits</a> (SDK) to enable more Matrix features.
🔗</a>Where we are and where we are going next</h2>
Overall this year we had more than 340 attendees and 70 talks - our largest Matrix Conference to date. It ended with a hackathon and fully live edition of Matrix Live</a>, where we streamed the ideas and projects that grew out of the creativity that can be unleashed when a hundred of us sit in the same room. Many thanks to our friends in Copenhagen for hosting our hackathon!
Thanks are due to so many people who helped make this event possible. In particular, our sponsors who supported the conference this year: Element</a>, Famedly</a>, Connect2x</a>, Rocket.Chat</a>, ERCOM</a>, DINUM</a>, Nordeck</a>, CGM</a>, Aalborg University</a>, and Futurewei</a>. We also couldn't have done it without the 52 volunteers who helped throughout the event, the Events Working Group</a> themselves for organising it all, and the Website & Content Working Group</a> for making sure everything was up-to-date and online. The conference was streamed through the efforts and support of the CCC Video Operation Center</a>. Thanks to Nadine Minagawa for the design concept for our "Föderation" graphic!
You can revisit the whole conference (over 25 hours of talks) on our watch page</a>. We will also be sharing photos from the event soon, but we're still combing through to ensure that we follow event etiquette. We'd love to hear your feedback about the conference</a>, if you were able to join us in Malmö or watched our streams.

Kim and Andy discussing the event organisation behind a laptop </figcaption> </figure>
So what's next? Firstly, we are pleased to announce that we will be at FOSDEM 2027</a>, in Brussels 30-31 January, co-hosting a Decentralised Messaging devroom</a> with the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and DeltaChat communities. We're also excited that the next Matrix Conference will be in the Netherlands, with venue details and dates to be shared in the near future. If you have tips for us or are interested in helping the Events Working Group organise it, contact us via our Matrix room</a>.
You'll also continue to hear from us across our socials (Fediverse</a>, LinkedIn</a>, Bluesky</a>), you can join our Matrix room</a>, and of course you can stay in the loop here on the blog: https://matrix.org/category/this-week-in-matrix/</a>.

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Matrix Conf 2025 was a blast!

2025-10-30T12:00:00+00:00

The Matrix Conference 2025</a> is over, and it was a significant success for Matrix, its Foundation, and its ecosystem! If you couldn't make it to the Conference, here is what you missed and how you can catch up.
The first success was of course in attendance. With more than 250 attendees on-site and hundreds of attendees online, the Conference was attractive to many. This is particularly remarkable because the majority of our audience is in Germany, and this year's Conference was held in France. We want to thank our community for being so dedicated to Matrix and for following us here!
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The Conference started by a Barcamp/Unconference: it's an informal workshop day where people join and share the topics they want to talk and hear about. In the evening we all gathered for a Welcome Party at bar Le Météor. Rocket.Chat and Element sponsored the evening, so attendees only had to come and grab food and drinks. We're grateful to both Rocket.Chat and Element for offering us this great night of socializing!

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The second and third days were the heart of the conference. The global show-up rate was high! Indeed, 96% of people who bought a ticket showed up. We asked people to optionally add their country of origin, and for those who replied 20 countries were represented. Matrix is already crossing seas and continents: the bulk of our audience came from Europe, but we also got representatives from Brazil, Canada, and Japan! We got 68 speakers, including 2 remote sessions and 1 hybrid session. We concluded the conference by a slower day of workshops on Saturday where people remained very engaged.
More than a day's worth of video was recorded by the excellent Audio/Video team. The Chaos Computer Club Video Operation Center</a> (VOC) indeed brought their audio and video equipment and expertise, and have set up a professional recording and streaming set up. They trained volunteers to use their equipment and home-developed software. Volunteers found it easy and great fun to operate the camera and audio/video mixers. We're grateful to VOC for their expertise, patience, enthusiasm, and calm all along the conference. They have been excellent people to work with.
Amazingly, talks were not only live-streamed, they were then available on our YouTube Channel</a> and on the Chaos Computer Club's own streaming platform</a> within minutes after the speaker stopped talking. Even more impressive? The VOC team members are volunteers.
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We owe this conference to volunteers. More than 30 of them signed up to give their time and enthusiasm to the Conference. They took shifts to welcome people at the check-in booth, operated cameras, controlled the video mixers, helped during build-up and tear down, and generally happily asked for more things to do. We are sincerely grateful to everyone who showed up to lend a hand. It is heartwarming to be part of such an engaged community! If you want to join this welcoming community, drop us a line in the Events Working Group room</a>.

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But all the goodwill in the world won't go anywhere without the finances to rent a venue, get catering, and cover the general expenses to organize a conference. We also owe this conference to the sponsors who showed up en masse to support the event! Our gratitude goes particularly to:

Our Anchor and Video sponsor Element</a>. You can find their Keynote, The Element Update: Shininess, Scalability and Sustainability on our YouTube channel</a>.</li>
Our Champion sponsors Rocket.Chat</a>, Automattic</a>, Connect2x</a>, Famedly</a></li>
Our Sustaining sponsors ERCOM</a>, Futurewei</a> and RISE</a></li> </ul>

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If you missed the Conference, you will be able watch the videos on demand and find the talks slides on the Conference website</a> right after we finish adding the photos. In the meantime you can find them on our YouTube Channel</a> and on the Chaos Computer Club's streaming platform</a>.
If you wanted to get some Conference gear but couldn't get one of those fantastic Black & White T-shirts or hoodies, you have until Monday 3 November to order yours</a>.
Your next opportunity to catch up with us is at FOSDEM in Brussels, on January 31 and February 1, where we will be coordinating the Decentralized Communications Devroom. We also asked for a booth, but booth allocations haven't been announced yet. Heads-up that we will also organize a Fringe Event this year again, so make sure to be there a few days before FOSDEM!
You can follow what we're up to on our socials (Fediverse</a>, LinkedIn</a>, Bluesky</a>), you can follow our blog via RSS, or join our Matrix Space</a>.

Matrix for Public Sector: DINUM joins the Foundation as we launch a new forum!

2025-10-21T12:30:00+00:00

🔗</a>DINUM becoming the first government to join the Matrix.org Foundation</h2>
Today DINUM, the French Interministerial Digital Directorate, has officially announced that they were joining the Matrix.org Foundation</a> as a Silver member</a> and becomes the first government to join the Matrix.org Foundation!
This is particularly exciting news as it will hopefully set an example for other public sector organisations using Matrix to communicate, and there are many of them. 
In France, Matrix is the basis for Tchap</a>, the secure messaging system of choice for public officials. It was selected for its security, but also openness, transparency and sovereignty as it limits dependence on proprietary solutions from outside Europe.
With this support, DINUM is committed to:

participating in the governance of the protocol and enhancing its quality, in conjunction with other user states (Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany...) and the open source business ecosystem;</li>
contributing to the development of the community versions of the various software components of the ecosystem, used by many public services;</li>
ensuring that its actions are part of a framework for sustainable investment in digital commons.</li> </ul>
DINUM has been an active contributor to projects of the Matrix ecosystem for a while, including by providing improvements to the implementation of Sliding Sync, which optimises performance and user experience; as well as the development of a community version of a border gateway, which enhances the security of the communications between distinct organisations.
Stéphanie Schaer, the Interministerial Director for Digital Affairs says: “With this partnership, we are choosing to make a long-term investment in a strategic digital commons for the benefit of the European ecosystem. Matrix is an essential building block for secure and sovereign communication services. This sponsorship reflects our conviction that the digital sovereignty of the State requires direct investment in the commons.”
🔗</a>Matrix for Public Sector</h2>
This announcement comes a few days after the second edition of The Matrix Conference</a>. The Conference was held in Strasbourg (France), gathering about 300 attendees, amongst which more than a dozen public sector organisations, brought together by their use of Matrix as a sovereign, secure and resilient communication protocol.
The Conference saw two full days of public sector track</a>, shedding light on the various exciting deployments of Matrix by these organisations. All the talks are already available for watching here</a>, and will be soon published on the website, but you can find a list of the public sector related ones at the bottom of this post.
We also took the opportunity of having many representatives of these public organisations present in person at the Conference to officially launch a Matrix for Public Sector forum. This is the very first group of its kind that the Foundation sets up and already many other industries are asking for something similar. The group will be proposed to the Governing Board for approval to potentially become an official Working Group</a>.
The goal of the Matrix for Public Sector forum is for the Foundation to bring together all public sector players who have already deployed Matrix or are looking to do so, and enable them to share knowledge, learnings and experiences, generally grow the usage of Matrix in the public sector, hopefully ultimately federating all these deployments into a proper Matrix network.

Launching the Matrix for Public Sector forum at the Matrix Conference 2025 </figcaption> </figure>
This seminal meeting gathered a dozen of organisations including representatives from France, the European Commission, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Romania. The discussion focused on the type of knowledge and learning could be shared as well as how to structure the group.
All this activity, concretising years of growth of Matrix in the public sector is a huge step forward for the ecosystem, and we are very much looking forward to enabling this group of users to grow. It is also great to start implementing new ways for the Foundation to support the ecosystem and we can’t wait to replicate it with other industries!
And again: Welcome DINUM!
Amandine
🔗</a>Public sector talks at the Conference</h3>
Matrix for Public Sector</a>, Amandine Le Pape, The Matrix.org Foundation
Trialing Matrix within the European Commission for resilient and sovereign communications</a>, Nicolas Dubois, European Commission
Matrix French gov deployment: opening a private federation securely</a>, Mathieu Velten, Direction Interministérielle du Numérique (DINUM)
Consolidating Germany’s administrative communication: Towards a joint Matrix-based architecture</a>, Dominik Braun, Federal IT-Cooperation (FITKO)
Sweden’s Public Sector in Transition</a>, Anna Engström and Kenneth Edwall, Försäkringskassan
Luxchat(4gov)</a>, Patrick Weber, the Luxembourg government
Secure communication leveraging the Matrix protocol for UNICC and its partners</a>, Tima Soni, United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC)
Supporting TF-X with Matrix: best practices and pitfalls</a>, Jeroen Franssen, NATO ACT
The German BundesMessenger</a>, Kai A. Hiller, BWI
No Desk Is an Island: Enabling Cross-Border Workspace Communication</a>, Alexander Smolianitski, ZenDiS
Matrix’s role in the German Healthcare System</a>, Marie Ruddeck, Gematik
Nationwide Rollout of Matrix-Based Instant Messaging (TI-M) for 74 Million Statutorily Insured Citizens</a>, Jan Kohnert, Gematik
Medical Care over Matrix with Delay during a Simulated Moonwalk</a>, Jan-Lukas Furmanek (FAU Erlangen; University Hospital Erlangen) and Aileen Rabsahl (European Space Agency)
An Update on reaching the German Government via Matrix</a>, networkException, Federal IT-Cooperation (FITKO)

Announcing the Matrix Conference 2025

2025-05-23T08:00:00+00:00

The Matrix.org Foundation is happy to announce that the Matrix Conference 2025</a> will be held at Kaleidoscoop</a> in Strasbourg, France, from October 15 to 18!
Last year the Conference was completely sold out, with more than 200 decision makers, experts and enthusiasts joining us for this very first edition! The rooms were so full, and we had such a long waiting list that we've decided to extend our capacity this year to 300 attendees, with flexibility for more.
We would like to thank our Anchor Sponsor Element</a> for their dedication to the Matrix ecosystem and to the success of the Conference! Thank you, Element, for enabling us to make the Conference happen!
</a> </div> 
Last year we also received many good proposals that we couldn't fit into our schedule. This year we're adding an extra conference day so we don't miss out on great talks!


Wednesday 15 October will be a BarCamp: an informal workshop-like day where attendees can join, pitch a topic they want to discuss, and vote for topics they have an interest in.</li>
Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 October will be the three core conference days, with several tracks on topics ranging from Matrix in the Public Sector, Matrix for Sovereignty, Matrix Internals, Governance, and more.</li> </ul> 🔗</a>Call for Proposals</h2>
Our Call for Proposals</a> is open until June 8, 23:59 CEST. We're looking forward to reading what our community has been working on! We are open to all speakers but would like to particularly encourage people from groups underrepresented in tech to apply.
🔗</a>Get Eyes on Your Products</h2>
The Matrix Conference is a joyful event where enthusiasm flows between tech people who build the products and decision makers who enable them to do so by purchasing their products and services.
Don't miss out on this opportunity to get the right eyes on your product! With booths, sponsored tracks, logos on our streams and recordings and much more, this is your chance to advertise your products and services to the right audience.
Check out the sponsorship page</a> and prospectus</a> on the Matrix Conference website and reach out rapidly before we run out of packages!
🔗</a>Lend a Helping Hand and Attend for Free</h2>
To attend the Matrix Conference for free, you can lend us a helping hand! We have a limited amount of positions available, so don't wait until the last minute to sign up, and check the positions and how to apply on the conference website</a>!

🔗</a>Call for Proposals</h2>
Our Call for Proposals</a> is open until June 8, 23:59 CEST. We're looking forward to reading what our community has been working on! We are open to all speakers but would like to particularly encourage people from groups underrepresented in tech to apply.</p>

🔗</a>Lend a Helping Hand and Attend for Free</h2>
To attend the Matrix Conference for free, you can lend us a helping hand! We have a limited amount of positions available, so don't wait until the last minute to sign up, and check the positions and how to apply on the conference website</a>!</p>

Matrix.org - Conference

The Matrix Conference 2026: Our biggest edition yet

Matrix Conf 2025 was a blast!

Matrix for Public Sector: DINUM joins the Foundation as we launch a new forum!

Announcing the Matrix Conference 2025

Matrix.org - Conference

The Matrix Conference 2026: Our biggest edition yet

Matrix Conf 2025 was a blast!

Matrix for Public Sector: DINUM joins the Foundation as we launch a new forum!

Announcing the Matrix Conference 2025

🔗</a>Call for Proposals</h2> Our Call for Proposals</a> is open until June 8, 23:59 CEST. We're looking forward to reading what our community has been working on! We are open to all speakers but would like to particularly encourage people from groups underrepresented in tech to apply.</p>

🔗</a>Lend a Helping Hand and Attend for Free</h2> To attend the Matrix Conference for free, you can lend us a helping hand! We have a limited amount of positions available, so don't wait until the last minute to sign up, and check the positions and how to apply on the conference website</a>!</p>

🔗</a>Call for Proposals</h2>
Our Call for Proposals</a> is open until June 8, 23:59 CEST. We're looking forward to reading what our community has been working on! We are open to all speakers but would like to particularly encourage people from groups underrepresented in tech to apply.</p>

🔗</a>Lend a Helping Hand and Attend for Free</h2>
To attend the Matrix Conference for free, you can lend us a helping hand! We have a limited amount of positions available, so don't wait until the last minute to sign up, and check the positions and how to apply on the conference website</a>!</p>