Matrix has announced the release of Matrix v1.9, a specification for open-federated Instant Messaging (IM), Voice over IP (VoIP), and Internet of Things (IoT) communication. This release is primarily a maintenance update, focusing on clarifications and bug fixes. The changelog for Matrix v1.9 includes changes to the Client-Server API, Server-Server API, Appendices, and Internal Changes/Tooling. One of the key features of Matrix is its messaging interoperability, allowing it to connect multiple messaging providers with a common communications fabric. Matrix has been working with the MIMI working group at the IETF to establish a federation protocol for messaging in compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Additionally, Matrix is exploring the implementation of custom emoji/stickers, with ongoing discussions and experiments. Overall, Matrix v1.9 aims to improve the functionality and stability of the Matrix ecosystem, providing users with a reliable and secure communication platform.

Source: Matrix.

Element announced that they will be forking Synapse and Dendrite, two long-standing projects in the Matrix community. This news has raised questions and concerns, but the Foundation is committed to addressing them and finding a way forward together.

Synapse and Dendrite have been around since 2014 and 2017, predating both the Foundation and Element. Element, the creators of Matrix, invested in the development of these projects and transferred them to the Foundation when it was formed. While individual contributors retained their copyright, Element assigned the projects to the Foundation. Both projects are licensed under the permissive ALv2 license, but Element’s forks will now use the reciprocal AGPLv3 license with a Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

Since 2019, the Foundation has been responsible for holding the assets and providing infrastructure for Synapse and Dendrite. While the adoption and use of Matrix and these projects have grown significantly, the contributor ecosystem for Synapse and Dendrite has not seen the same level of growth. Most of the maintenance and development work has been done by individuals working at Element.

Moving forward, the Foundation does not plan to actively fund the development of the current Synapse and Dendrite projects due to limited resources. Instead, the Foundation will focus on funding research and development for the Matrix ecosystem, addressing gaps, and providing community infrastructure. The Foundation does not wish to compete with actively maintained open source projects.

It is expected that the forks of Synapse and Dendrite will be widely adopted, and the Foundation wishes them success. However, there are still many unanswered questions, and the Matrix community will need to navigate this new territory together. Matrix is more than just these two projects - it is an open protocol and a whole ecosystem.

For most users, including the 115 million plus Matrix users on the open federation, there will be no significant changes. Those who run a Synapse or Dendrite server should continue to receive upstream releases from Element’s repositories.

Source: Matrix.

Matrix Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, has announced the first release candidate for version 1.96.0, marked as v1.96.0rc1. Synapse has been under development since 2014 and reached version 1.0.0 in 2019. The development of both Synapse and the Matrix protocol itself continues actively.

The release candidate, v1.96.0rc1, includes several new features, bug fixes, and improvements to the documentation and internal processes. Some of the notable features and bug fixes include:

Features:

• Experimental support for multiple workers to write to receipts stream
• Introduction of a new module API for controller presence
• Addition of a new module API callback to add extra fields to events’ unsigned section when sent to clients
• Performance improvements for claiming encryption keys

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a bug in the example Grafana dashboard that prevented it from finding the correct datasource
• Fixed a long-standing, rare edge case where the first event persisted by a new event persister worker might not be sent down /sync
• Fixed a bug where /sync incorrectly did not mark a room as limited in sync requests when there were missing remote events
• Fixed a bug introduced in Synapse 1.41 where HTTP(S) forward proxy authorization would fail when using basic HTTP authentication with a long username:password string
• Fixed a bug where /sync could tight loop after restart when using SQLite
• Fixed a bug where invited/knocking users would not leave during a room purge

Improvements to Documentation:

• Improved documentation of the presence router
• Added a sentence to the opentracing docs on using Jaeger in a different location than Synapse
• Corrected the description of unspecified rule lists in the alias_creation_rules and room_list_publication_rules config options and improved their descriptions
• Updated the recommended poetry version in the contributors’ guide
• Fixed a broken link to the client breakdown in the README

Internal Changes:

• Improved performance of delete device messages query
• Reduced memory allocations
• Enhanced replication performance when purging rooms
• Ran tests against Python 3.12
• Ran trial & integration tests in continuous integration when the .ci directory is modified
• Made various improvements to type hints and performance optimization

The release also includes updates to locked dependencies, with various packages being bumped to newer versions.

Matrix Synapse’s release candidate v1.96.0rc1 brings several new features, bug fixes, and improvements, making it an exciting update for users of the Matrix homeserver. The release demonstrates the commitment of the Matrix.org Foundation to continuously improve and enhance the Matrix protocol and its associated software.

Matrix Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed by the Matrix.org Foundation, has recently released version v1.95.0. For those unfamiliar with Matrix, it is an open standard for communication on the internet that supports federation, encryption, and VoIP. The Matrix.org website provides more information about the project’s goals, and the formal specification delves into the technical aspects.

With this new release, Synapse introduces several notable features and improvements. Some of the key highlights include:

• The ability to build Debian packages specifically for Ubuntu 23.10 Mantic Minotaur, enabling seamless integration and compatibility with the latest version of the popular Linux distribution.
• Improved performance and stability, ensuring a reliable and efficient experience for users.
• Bug fixes and security enhancements, addressing any potential vulnerabilities and further strengthening the server’s overall security.
• Enhanced documentation, providing users with comprehensive guides and resources to make the most out of Synapse’s capabilities.

To learn more about Synapse v1.95.0 and download the latest release, visit the official Matrix Synapse GitHub page at https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/releases/tag/v1.95.0. Whether you are a seasoned user or new to Matrix, this release is worth exploring for its performance improvements, bug fixes, and new features.

Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, has announced the release of its first release candidate (rc1) for v1.94.0. Synapse has been under development since 2014 and reached version 1.0.0 in 2019.

The release candidate, v1.94.0rc1, introduces several features, improvements, and documentation updates. Here is a summary of the key changes:

Features

• Inline rendering of plain, CSS, CSV, JSON, and common image formats in the browser when requested through the /download endpoint.
• Experimental support for MSC4028, which pushes all encrypted events to clients.
• Minor performance improvements when sending presence to federated servers.
• Minor performance improvement by caching server ACL checking.

Improved Documentation

• Developer documentation on gradual schema migrations with column alterations.
• Improved documentation of the user directory search algorithm.
• Fixed rendering of user admin API documentation related to deactivation.
• Updated documentation on message retention policies.
• Clarification note added to the federation_domain_whitelist config option.
• Improved legacy release notes.

Deprecations and Removals

• Removed Python version from /_synapse/admin/v1/server_version endpoint.

Internal Changes

• Avoid running CI steps when the checked files have not been changed.
• Improved type hints.
• Added support for pydantic v2 in addition to pydantic v1.
• CI now checks that PRs have been signed-off.
• Added missing license header.
• Improved comments in StateGroupBackgroundUpdateStore.
• Updated maturin configuration.
• Downgraded replication stream time out error log lines to warning.

Updates to locked dependencies

• Bumped actions/checkout from 3 to 4.
• Bumped cryptography from 41.0.3 to 41.0.4.
• Bumped various other dependencies such as dawidd6/action-download-artifact, docker/setup-buildx-action, gitpython, msgpack, phonenumbers, psycopg2, pydantic, regex, sentry-sdk, types-netaddr, and urllib3.

This release candidate of Synapse brings various new features, improvements, and documentation updates to the Matrix homeserver. Users and developers can now test and provide feedback on the release candidate to help ensure a stable and reliable final release of v1.94.0.

Matrix Synapse, an open-source Matrix homeserver developed and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, has released its latest version, v1.93.0. This release comes as a result of continuous development efforts since 2014, with the first stable version, v1.0.0, being launched in 2019.

For those unfamiliar, Matrix is an open standard for internet communications that supports federation, encryption, and Voice over IP (VoIP) functionality.

The latest version, v1.93.0, includes a number of bug fixes and security updates. Notable security fixes include low-severity vulnerabilities identified as GHSA-4f74-84v3-j9q5/CVE-2023-41335 and GHSA-7565-cq32-vx2x/CVE-2023-42453. More detailed information about these security issues can be found in the advisories.

In addition to the security updates, Synapse v1.93.0 introduces several new features and improvements. Some of these include:

Features:

• Automatic purge after all users have forgotten a room
• Room purge/shutdown restoration after a Synapse restart
• Support for resolving homeservers using matrix-fed DNS SRV records from MSC4040
• Ability to use G (GiB) and T (TiB) suffixes in configuration options that refer to numbers of bytes
• Addition of span information to requests sent to appservices
• Ability to enable/disable registrations when using CAS
• Routing the /notifications endpoint to workers
• Enabling users to easily unsubscribe from notification emails via the List-Unsubscribe header
• Reporting whether a user is “locked” in the List Accounts admin API and excluding locked users by default

Bugfixes:

• Fixing a long-standing bug that caused high load due to presence for multi-device accounts
• Fixing a bug for appservices using MSC2409 to receive to_device messages, where only messages for one user were received
• Fixing a bug when using workers that resulted in repeated re-requesting of the same remote device
• Fixing a long-standing bug that caused repeated re-requesting of a remote server’s key, potentially causing delays in receiving events over federation
• Avoiding temporary storage of sensitive information
• Fixing a bug introduced in Synapse 1.49.0 when using dehydrated devices and refresh tokens
• Fixing a long-standing bug where invalid receipts would be accepted
• Using the standard name for the UTF-8 charset in emails
• Avoiding refetching device lists for users on remote hosts marked as “down”

The latest release also includes various improvements to documentation, internal changes, and updates to locked dependencies.

With these updates and improvements, Synapse v1.93.0 continues to enhance the functionality and security of Matrix homeservers, providing a reliable and efficient platform for communication and collaboration.

For more information and to download Synapse v1.93.0, visit Synapse on GitHub.