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E

Element

COMMS
Velocity5.0

Secure Matrix-based team messaging and collaboration client

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Element Web is opening an extension surface while rebuilding its timeline underneath.

matrixmodule-systemuser-statustimeline-mvvmwidgetsrc-cadence
◆Current state
Element Web ships on a steady RC-then-final cadence, and two threads dominate the last month. The first is presence: custom user status has been landing piece by piece across releases — member list, room header, autocomplete, room summary — and now includes on-a-call state that users can set and clear themselves. The second is a module system, which reached v1.0.0 across four separate modules in early August and keeps gaining API surface.
◆Where it's heading
The module work is the more consequential of the two. Banner, Widget Toggles, Widget Lifecycle, and Restricted Guests all hit v1.0.0 on the same day, and the following release adds a Module API for storage helpers plus a dedicated modules docker image — infrastructure for deployments to extend the client rather than fork it. Alongside that, Timeline MVVM has begun as a shared TimelineView, which reads as the opening step of a longer architectural refactor. Individual releases stay incremental; the pattern across them is Element Web becoming a platform its operators configure.
◆Prediction
Expect Timeline MVVM to arrive in numbered stages across coming releases, and the Module API to keep widening beyond storage helpers as the four v1.0.0 modules run into what they can't yet reach.

◆Recent moves

  1. 6d ago

    Custom user status, Module API storage helpers, and Timeline MVVM step one

    The 1.12.26 release candidate lands custom user status and self-managed on-a-call state, a Module API for storage helpers, a modules docker image, and the first Timeline MVVM step, over roughly thirty bug fixes. Both running threads advance here: presence gets its user-facing controls, and the module system gets the plumbing deployments need.

    View source ↗
  2. 13d ago

    Left panel auto-collapses during calls; MSC3391 and MSC3852 dropped

    The 1.12.25 final ships auto-collapse for the left panel during calls and on window resize, automatic on-a-call status, collapsed URL previews in the timeline, and drops MSC3391 and MSC3852 support. Screen-real-estate management during calls is the through-line, feeding the same presence work the next release builds on.

    View source ↗
  3. 14d ago

    v1.0.0 widget-toggles

    The Widget Toggles module reaches v1.0.0, one of four modules stamped stable within half an hour of each other. Read on its own it is a stub release; read against the Module API work that follows, it is part of Element Web committing to a supported extension surface.

    View source ↗
  4. 14d ago

    v1.0.0 widget-lifecycle

    Widget Lifecycle hits v1.0.0 in the same batch, covering the hooks around a widget's load and teardown. Paired with Widget Toggles, it signals that widget behaviour is now something deployments configure through modules rather than patch into the client.

    View source ↗
  5. 14d ago

    v1.0.0 restricted-guests

    Restricted Guests reaches v1.0.0, giving deployments a supported way to constrain guest access rather than carry a local fork. The most policy-oriented of the four modules and the one most likely to matter to self-hosters.

    View source ↗
  6. 14d ago

    v1.0.0 banner module

    The Banner module completes the four-module v1.0.0 batch, covering deployment-controlled banner messaging in the client. Small individually, but it rounds out the first stable set of the module system the following releases keep extending.

    View source ↗