A large portion of the Monero community communicates through IRC channels.
Matrix offers the best of all worlds for many people. It's free, open source, federated, nicely designed, and even communicates with IRC channels and users.
This guide will help you connect to Matrix using Element. Element is the most common application for Matrix chat servers. You may use another preferred Matrix application if you prefer, but that is outside the scope of this guide.
Element is free and open-source. It's available on the web, on desktop, and on mobile.
In this guide, we will walk through using Matrix in Android with Element. Please refer to the other guides for Web and Apple iOS:
First, download the Element application:
After installed, open the application and click "Get started."
While Matrix is federated and thus you could use the default matrix.org server, we strongly suggest changing your server to the one hosted by the Monero Core Team. Using another server greatly supports decentralization 😃
For server in this guide, we will click "Other."
In the server address: carefully type matrix.monero.social as shown below.
Click "Sign Up."
Provide a username and password as indicated below, then click "Next." You must use a strong password!
An email is not required, but it is recommended. Please fill in your email (only if desired!) as shown, and click "Next." Your email will be used to reset your password only.
If you provided an email, you will see this prompt to confirm your email. You must open your email account and click the confirmation code to continue making your account. If you did not provide an email, you will not see this.
Logging back in
In the unlikely case you need to log back in, follow these steps.
Open the application and click "Get started."
Click "Other" to login to the account you made on monero.social.
In the server address: carefully type matrix.monero.social as shown below.
Click "Sign In."
Provide your username and password as shown, then click "Next."
You should now be logged in!
