Matrix
Matrix is a chat platform similar to our old platform, [Slack].
Compared to Slack it has a few key advantages:
- Open source & modifiable
- Self hosted, so we're not at the mercy of an external platform
- No limits to message history etc
- Supports federation, so we can talk to people on other Matrix servers (e.g. other hackspaces)
- Supports single-sign-on, so you can log in with your Teesside Hackspace account
There are many open source apps you can use to connect to Matrix, but we recommend using https://element.io/get-started#download
To access Element through the web, you can go to https://element.teessidehackspace.org.uk/ and log in with your Teesside Hackspace account.
If you want to use a mobile app, you can download the Element app for iOS or Android. You can then click the following link to point your app to our server: https://mobile.element.io/?hs_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmatrix.teessidehackspace.org.uk%2F&is_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvector.im%2F
If the link above doesn't work, or you're trying to log in with Element desktop, or another client, you might need to manually edit your homeserver address to change it to `matrix.teessidehackspace.org.uk`, as shown in the screenshot below.
![Setting the homeserver in Element](http://static.miraheze.org/teessidehackspacewiki/thumb/e/e1/ElementConfig.png/300px-ElementConfig.png)