Looks very interesting, but the site is still lacking some important information (or not very clear) from an end-user perspective. Why is there no description of the features? Don't tell me "just try it". There are so many chat clients out there I can't try all of them. But I'm always on the look out for a chat client that also supports group voice chat and group screen sharing.
The page says "VoIP", but with no explanation or details at all. The demo doesn't seem to contain that. Does it exist?
Screensharing is not mentioned at all. Does it exist?
Does this run on Windows / OSX / Linux? Neither is mentioned anywhere.
Maybe even more important would be an end-user oriented site for the Matrix server. Is this a thing? The matrix.org site is very confusing as it has no clear focus. It's all a mix between detail-free overview of the overall idea and low level protocol specification. Where is the end-user friendly page about the Matrix server? What features does it have and how do I set it up? Where is the "tutorial" / blog post about how to successfully setup my own server and install a client in three easy steps to have a full team communication solution (group-text, -voice and -screensharing)?
One thing I really like about Slack is they have great documentation and great customer support. Matrix and Vector may be great, unfortunately it's too difficult to find out.
So far the site is just a quick one-page overview - we haven't had a chance to flesh out any of the detail yet at all; sorry about that :) To answer the questions:
* 1:1 VoIP is supported on WebRTC on the web version, Android, and iOS coming very shortly. On Web you hit the call buttons on the bottom right; on Android it's currently hidden behind the top-left menu.
* Multiway VoIP is very beta, but supported on the web version. Hit the call buttons when in a room.
* Screensharing is even more beta, but happens to be there as an undocumented easter egg on Web. Currently it only works if you're running on Chrome with the --enable-usermedia-screen-capturing commandline option, and shift-click on the video call button. Obviously this isn't intended remotely for serious use yet, but we're working on it.
* The three platforms supported are Web/iOS/Android. You can of course run the Web client fine on Windows/OSX/Linux. If you want a different native client, go experiment with the other options on http://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html
* The page you failed to find for the Synapse server is probably the read me at https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse. Agreed we need to make this clearer, and provide much better simple overviews and tutorials for getting up and running.
* Agreed that Slack have amazing documentation - it's something we desperately need to do better at. I'd like to think our "customer support" isn't too bad, though; good luck in getting one of Slack's co-founders answering your feedback on HN ;D
Thank you for the in depth reply. Glad to hear these things are on the roadmap. I'm really looking forward to when they are ready for serious use. (Although I'm a bit skeptical about WebRTC. Browsers have hyped it for over five years now and is still barely beta quality.)
The page says "VoIP", but with no explanation or details at all. The demo doesn't seem to contain that. Does it exist?
Screensharing is not mentioned at all. Does it exist?
Does this run on Windows / OSX / Linux? Neither is mentioned anywhere.
Maybe even more important would be an end-user oriented site for the Matrix server. Is this a thing? The matrix.org site is very confusing as it has no clear focus. It's all a mix between detail-free overview of the overall idea and low level protocol specification. Where is the end-user friendly page about the Matrix server? What features does it have and how do I set it up? Where is the "tutorial" / blog post about how to successfully setup my own server and install a client in three easy steps to have a full team communication solution (group-text, -voice and -screensharing)?
One thing I really like about Slack is they have great documentation and great customer support. Matrix and Vector may be great, unfortunately it's too difficult to find out.