Vector is now called Riot

[pomfpomfpomf3]

Vector (+Matrix) is kinda like self-hosted slack/discord with proper history sync across all your devices, file uploads, nice UI, etc.

It's really good. I recommended it to 7 people and every single one liked it, even got 5 of them to set up their own federated homeservers. We're thinking about moving a ~60-people skype group there as well.

Only issue I had is Synapse hogging the CPU and getting laggy with a large room (#matrix:matrix.org with its 4 thousand members). I'm using scaleway's 3 EUR/month Starter VC1S server for Synapse though. Hopefully it will get even better with time.

[amandine]

Synapse 0.18.0 has just been released, might worth giving it a try as it improves things a bit.

Thanks for the support :)

[vertex-four]

Synapse does calm down once it's sorted everything out, luckily.

[kuschku]

Or you could just use IRC with quassel + quassel-webserver, and get basically all of the same, but with an actual open protocol. Which actually has support.

[nerveband]

What's this trend of websites making it hard to find screenshots of their app off the bat? Should I really have to sign up just to see how your interface functions/flows?

Also, the link to view the main site is tiny and easily forgettable. I think the site could benefit from a stronger CTA that directs you to what I should do.

[amandine]

yup screenshots will be added to the website.

But no need to signup to play with it :) Full guest access available! Come and chat: https://riot.im/app/#/room/#riot:matrix.org

[mxuribe]

Great job riot crew/rioters!

I started playing around with vector (both web client and mobile app) a couple of months ago, and really like it. I haven't tried the bridge stuff just yet, but am excited to try, especially now that it should be easier. I even installed my own personal server (synapse) for my family - again to kick the tires and test stuff out. Now that you've re-branded and changed the name, you should start thinking of neat taglines...here are few (admittedly silly ones) to get started:

   - Riot: Come for the decentralized chat, stay for the community.  
   - Riot like its a true democracy.  
   - Riot: Think outside the box, act outside the norm, and chat outside the silos. 
   - Riot: Chat disruption for the matrix.   
      

Once again, kudos to the Riot (fka Vector) team for this launch/re-launch!!!

[cantagi]

> "Riot is more than a messaging app"

This said to me "Riot is just a messaging app" and I bounced. I'd recommend changing that tagline to indicate briefly why a user might use Riot instead of Slack or Whatsapp

[qwertyuiop924]

Riot is based on Matrix. If you scrolled down, it would tell you that it's got strong crypto, you can run your own servers, it's got really good cross-protocol bridges, and a ton of other stuff. And it's totally free, save the cost of running your own server if you choose to do so.

[zokier]

First impressions:

- Hmm... sounds a lot like Apache (née Google) Wave

- Intro thingy has definite zombo.com vibe

(yes, I do realize that I'm getting old..)

On a more serious note, this could be really good concept if executed well. Time will tell, I hope for the best.

[qwertyuiop924]

It's based on the Matrix protocol, which you may have heard of. So, yes, it bears more than a little resemblance to Wave by way of IRC, and was built to fix IRC's problems (lack of identity, poor netsplit tolerance, weak extension support, etc.), and also provide strong capabilities for bridging between protocols, so it doesn't wind up in an xkcd.com/927 type scenario.

[edem]

Note that there is a very popular game called League of Legends (played by millions) and the company behind it is called Riot. Some people might confuse your brand with their name.

[genericpseudo]

What's more, they have a chat app. Lawyers are going to be all over this.

[ricardobeat]

Also http://riotjs.com

[kmfrk]

I know this is every Hacker News comment ever, but I genuinely don't have a good idea of what the app is like after using the site and watching the video. :/

[dblooman]

Why no picture of the actual app on the front page or the product video

[lotyrin]

Did they search for "Riot chat" first? There's another software company named Riot that currently dominates results there despite chat being auxiliary in their products. Hopefully they can shift that in their favor.

[x1798DE]

It seems like an improvement over "Vector", which is essentially un-googleable, but seriously, this trend in giving projects single common english word names is really annoying.

[xemdetia]

That is still going to be an impossible cliff to climb, they could just be washed out of search results from topical events of actual riots. Hopefully there is a plan attached to this, but it is hard to say because Vector was no better a name to start with (also gets washed out by programming documentation and cutlery sellers).

[cryptolect]

Interesting to see that "end-to-end crypto" is becoming a frontpage feature for messaging apps.

[nathancahill]

#bottomlinks is missing a .container wrapper around .row, breaks layout on desktop.

[Arathorn]

thanks - on the case

[wmccullough]

I have to say, if I was ever launching a product, I'd never even put a link for my product here. Many people in this thread are acting like overgrown toddlers.

Also, why is that some poor girl or guy can't use HN to link to a product without ten million of these:

"This is neat, but have you heard of my best friends app that does this already!?? links to Github"

[WaxProlix]

You must be new here. There are entire communities that exist to mock the selfimportance and pointless-achievement-obsession of HNers.

[twothamendment]

Yes, but for every comment poking fun at or linking to some lame repo, there are how many of us who just check it out? The visibility on HN is pretty good. If I had a product like this I'd shout it out here. Sure there are some comments to ignore, but the exposure is good and someone will have a good question, somewhere. I hope.

[rekoros]

Chat Services Timeline (https://cdn.sameroom.io/chat-timeline.pdf) needs another update.

[colmvp]

The audio in the product video seems to cut suddenly at the end.

[amandine]

yup will be fixed thanks

[qwertyuiop924]

that... is a way less appropriate name. But it works, I guess.

[amandine]

How so less appropriate? Lack of link to Matrix?

Going out of beta we had to decide on something which was really carrying what the app is, we loved Vector but it has always been a code-name and a nice pun on Matrix :)

Riot is more representative of what the app can do and its ambitions! Break the barriers between apps, give the control back to the user to choose their client, if they want to encrypt, host themselves, tune the notifs, the fact it's open, built on the open ecosystem of Matrix and thus benefiting of all the integrations and bridges built for Matrix.... Sounds pretty revolutionary to me ;)

Worth noting that only the name changed: the app and the team and the openness are still the same (modulo new features)!

[guessmyname]

I am also surprised considering that most of the TLDs are already taken,

including http://riot.com/ - http://riot.io/ - http://riot.org/

[Arathorn]

I dunno - there's something distinctly riotous about tearing down the walls of walled gardens! But then again, I'm biased, given i work on it :)

[ritonlajoie]

Is end to end encryption + E2E encrypted groupchats ready yet ? that's the only think I am interested in.

edit: ok it seems it's in BETA and only on the web app for now. Great guys, keep it going and thanks !

[nycmattw]

Riot games wouldn't be too happy about this

[hossbeast]

So not a new product from the makers of League of Legends, then

[skoczymroczny]

And not related to Riot.js

[SamBam]

Or anything to do with the other "Riot" that was infamously exposed on HN recently, WrkRiot.

[petre]

The web client looks almost exactly like IRC clients of old.

[ians]

Link to the server repo? Only seeing clients on GH.

[amandine]

Riot is just a client running with a Matrix server. Synapse is the one we currently run https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/

Others are in development at http://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html#servers but they are all alpha at the moment.

[ibab]

Looks like this is a rebranding of the existing Vector app. Here's the blog post from the creators: https://medium.com/@RiotChat/lets-riot-f5b0aa99dc8e#.3toozs7...

[qwertyuiop924]

Indeed, it is exactly that. The old title of this post reflect that. I don't know why it was changed.

[sparkiegeek]

Anyone else reminded of https://xkcd.com/927/ ?

[audessuscest]

I think xkcd should do one about people using this link systematically so we could respond to them with a xkcd.

[qwertyuiop924]

Riot, and Matrix in general, were designed to beat that: It's designed to inter-operate with existing chat protocols as much as possible, so that this isn't a problem, but also to provide things that those protocols can't.

[SamWhited]

Absolutely; as much as the Matrix people claim they're not doing that by "interoperating with other protocols" they don't seem to understand that it's exactly what they're doing. The existing standards (XMPP) already interop in exactly the same way (gateways/transports), so making another protocol instead of improving the gateway / transport story on an existing one is just silly.

[apatters]

As someone who appreciates the design goals of both but is a user of neither Matrix nor XMPP for practical reasons (I don't know anyone who is), seeing users of both of these small networks sighing at each other leaves me nonplussed.

An end-to-end solution for interop between the two ought to be insanely high on the priority list. By this I mean it should be braindead obvious if I want to try one of them how to chat with a user of the other. Obviously this is bigger than just the protocol but so what, it's the problem that needs to be solved.

I can't even imagine how working together would not be top of everyone's mind in this space, since chat is all about network effects. The incentives to cooperate are huge.