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Starting with Element Web / Desktop 1.12.33, verifying your device is mandatory by default. After signing in on a new browser or desktop session, you will be asked to verify it before you can start chatting. The step can no longer be skipped. Sessions that already exist and are unverified continue working as is for the time being.

A talk by Midhun Suresh R and Kieran Lane at The Matrix Conference 2026. Defence and government organisations need to share classified information quickly, with their own people and with allies, without it ever reaching someone who isn't cleared to see it. Speaking at The Matrix Conference, Midhun Suresh R. and Kieran Lane showed how the Mission Partner Environment (MPE) add-on for Element Server Suite Pro (ESS Pro) makes that possible.

Dave Baker and Florian Duros (Element) at The Matrix Conference 2026. Element Web is moving onto the Matrix Rust SDK, the same foundation that powers Element X on mobile. Our team isn't doing it as one big rewrite. They're rebuilding the app one piece at a time as reusable shared components that don't care which SDK sits underneath.

MatrixRTC has landed and Element Call takes off! All good things come to those who wait! MatrixRTC is finally here: the world’s first decentralised, end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), multiparty VoIP protocol. For messaging, decentralisation is a strength. Messages get through even when servers drop offline or networks split, and everything syncs when they reconnect. Voice and video also need low latency, though: a word that arrives two seconds late is no use to anyone.

On 10 March 1876, in a Boston laboratory, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his new instrument: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." Thomas Watson, in the next room, heard every word. Two people, separated by a wall, had spoken through a wire for the first time, and the world's communications have never been the same. On 21 October 2026, in a Malmö hotel, we saw a similar breakthrough demonstration.

Six of the vendors behind openDesk, including Element, have formed Open Productivity: a joint venture that brings the sovereign digital workplace to businesses and critical infrastructure operators. openDesk was created for German public administration. It brings together established open source applications for documents, email, calendars, file sharing, knowledge management and secure real-time communications into a single sovereign workplace suite.

We’re delighted to share that openDesk now deploys Element Server Suite (ESS) directly from Element. The Element frontend still reflects the openDesk product and branding, but now openDesk deploys Element Server Suite (ESS) directly from Element, the original manufacturer and product owner of the software. It brings hardened Kubernetes deployments, next-generation OIDC-based authentication and the complete ESS feature set to Germany’s sovereign office productivity suite.

People do their best work in a state of flow, when they can move from a conversation to a document to a task without breaking their train of thought. That puts the onus on productivity vendors to make their tools work together seamlessly. Customers running sovereign stacks tell us exactly that. As one put it: "It isn't a problem that the apps are named different things, or that they're made by different vendors.

TL;DR When deploying a service on your infrastructure, it can be tempting to just grab open source containers and roll them out with simple tools. Docker compose or ansible playbooks can do a fantastic job at rolling out a few containers in no time. But putting simple services online is the easy bit. The more containers in your stack, the more difficult it becomes to deploy them consistently, and the more chances for it to break.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re now working with Arawa to support France's “fédération Matrix des collectivités.” Arawa has just started working with Adullact, the non-profit coordinating the usage of open source software within local authorities, and Déclic, the federation of OPSN (Public Digital Service Operators), to deliver and support its “Matrix pour les collectivités” project.