Company behind Matrix chat protocol takes over chat service Gitter from GitLab

The company behind the encrypted chat service Matrix takes over Gitter from GitLab. Gitter is therefore going to use the Matrix protocol. In the longer term, the company behind Matrix wants Gitter to merge with its own chat client Element.Element, the company that designed Matrix, is acquiring Gitter from GitLab for an undisclosed amount. Gitter is a developer chat program that has 1.7 million users. Matrix is ​​an open source chat protocol that can be used by other chat programs, but is also used in the chat app Element from the maker of the same name. That app used to be known as Riot. According to the makers of Matrix, Gitter had been planning to use the protocol for some time. “We took advantage of that opportunity to fully integrate Gitter into Matrix,” say the creators. For now, Gitter will continue to exist as users know it. The first step, according to the developers, is to replace the existing bridge with which Gitter users can already use Matrix. Matrix instead integrates natively into Gitter. After that, the developers want to bring functions of Gitter apps, such as KaTeX support and GitLab and GitHub ssos, into the Element app. In time, the Gitter app will disappear and only the Element app will remain. The creators do not specify a term when Gitter will disappear or when the integrations will take place. Gitter users will still have the option to migrate their data to Element, but nothing is known about that period either.