I still have gripes about it. Improvements to the spec and software have been slow lately, due to funding issues. But they are still arriving. The official desktop client remains buggy, bloated, and cluttered. But there are lighter alternatives that do what I need 99% of the time. Much of the meta-data is not yet end-to-end encrypted. But that's still planned, and since it's not as important in my day-to-day chats as it might be if I were whistleblowing, I'm willing to wait.
I continue to use Matrix because there is nothing else offering the combination of features that I most value in it. Notably:
- decentralized
- 1:1 and group chats
- offline message delivery
- multi-device support
- end-to-end message encryption with well-understood ciphers and protocols
- easy enough that I have brought in non-tech-savvy contacts with very little assistance
- cross-platform, on every major desktop and mobile OS
- not tied to google services or libraries
- open-source
- free (in both senses)
- self-hostable
- reasonably anonymous; no need for a real name, phone number, or (depending on homeserver) even an email address
- (in development) scalable audio/video chat that looks very promising
Harder to quantify, but also worth acknowledging: The project lead seems very level-headed, demonstrating good judgment and tremendous patience, and consistently makes himself and the inner workings of this difficult project accessible to the public. This gives me the sense that Matrix continues to develop with sound guidance. Thanks, Arathorn!
As much as I want open source, I really don't think it's there yet for most people.
Choose a bank with viable web banking.
> Is there a Google pay equivalent?
It's called a debit/credit card.