Element

What Element is

Element is a chat program for rooms, threads, files and calls. On the surface it looks like the chats you already use. The difference is under the hood: Element is built on Matrix, an open network where no single owner sets the terms, and where messages in a private room are encrypted all the way between you and the recipient.

A Matrix account is written as @namn:matrix.org and looks like an email address. The part after the colon is the server your account lives on. Two people on different servers can chat with each other anyway, roughly like email works between different email providers.

For a company, the gain is mainly order. One room for the trade fair, one for finance, one for everything that does not fit anywhere else, instead of a single long group chat where decisions from October can never be found again.

Install on Windows

1. Go to element.io/download and choose Windows.
2. Run the downloaded file, which has a name like Element Setup [version].exe, and click through the installation.
3. Start Element, choose Create account and leave the server as matrix.org if you do not have your own.

If you would rather avoid installing anything, Element can be run directly at app.element.io.

Install on Linux Mint

Element has its own package repository for Debian and Ubuntu, which Mint is based on. That means the program is updated together with the rest of the system instead of you having to look for new versions. Open the Terminal with Ctrl, Alt and T and run the lines in order, exactly as they appear on the project's download page:

sudo apt install -y wget apt-transport-https
sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/element-io-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.element.io/debian/element-io-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/element-io-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.element.io/debian/ default main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/element-io.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install element-desktop

The second line fetches a key that proves the packages come from Element and not from anyone else. The third line registers where the packages should be fetched from. Then the list is updated and the program is installed. You will find it in the menu afterwards as usual.

Three things to do first

1. Create a space and a room in it. A so-called space keeps the company's rooms together under one name. Start with three rooms; you can add more when you notice something is missing.
2. Invite the rest of the company using their full addresses. That is, the whole @namn:matrix.org, not just the first name.
3. Save the recovery key. Element shows a long key when you set up secure storage. Put it in the company's password vault before you click on. The next section explains why.

The most common trap

The encryption means the server cannot read your messages, and that applies even when it is you who wants to read them. If you log out, switch computers or reinstall, the new login cannot open old encrypted messages without your recovery key. The room then looks like it is full of lines saying the message cannot be decoded.

No support in the world can undo that. The key is what counts, and as long as you still have a logged-in session you can create a new one under Security in the settings, but if you log out everywhere without having saved the key or the phrase, the history is gone for good.

So do this, in that order: set up secure storage on the very first evening, write down the recovery key in the vault, and verify every new device against one you are already logged in on. The verification is done with a row of emojis that must match on both screens. It takes fifteen seconds and is the difference between a chat history that remains and one that does not.