I see that in the blog post regarding Element Call, they say that Element Call is fully implemented using Matrix:

What’s more, Element Call is built entirely on Matrix: it doesn’t need any additional servers to get going. You can run it against your existing Matrix homeserver to provide complete self-sovereignty… while still being able to talk to anyone else anywhere on the wider Matrix network!

Does this mean that group voice, and video calls will work on other Matrix clients? Element seems to have the ability to create something called a “Video Room” which seems to match what discord does with the pop-in/pop-out voice-chat room; however, if I look at that room in another client like Nheko, it does not appear to have the functionality. Is that simply because they have yet to implement it themselves, or is it that the feature is unique to element, and, as a result, will not work with any other client? If so, is Matrix going to implement it so that it can be mirrored across other clients?

  • Shin
    2•1 year ago

    I saw discussions of other clients implementing it, and given the FOSS nature of Matrix it should be no issue. From my observations, it seems the issue is more related to manpower. Most clients simply do not have the same resources as Element, and lack a lot of features. My favorite client (Cinny) doesn’t even have the calling features already implemented in nearly every other client, for example. Quite often they’re decently behind. It’s typically a matter of picking what features you want, while sacrificing those that you don’t care as much for.

    I think it’s a matter of when, and how long you’re willing to wait for the others to catch up. I can’t imagine it will be the easiest thing to implement, especially since they’ll have to modify the UI to fit their designs as well.