I’ve been using self-hosted synapse with element for the sake of privacy with a group. The user experience has been pretty rough and it has meant that a number of users just don’t bother to engage.
Aside from the steps for sign-up, the biggest issue I have is that people often lose their decryption keys when they try to switch devices and then they can’t see prior messages. The easiest way I’ve found to avoid this is to set up two devices at the offset to validate each other, but this is a lot to ask.
Does anyone have advice on how to use this more successfully with less technical people?
I would not say Matrix is not non technical people unless you’re using for business and your IT has configured and set up properly so users can easily be brought on, managed, and removed as and when needed.
Sorry, I don’t have an actual answer for you but wanted to provide some context if you were unaware. Signal is often best for IMs and group chats when it comes to private messaging.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been using it with the group for 3 years and the user management side of things is fine with Synapse Admin. I’m really not into using Signal for groups, it is designed as a 1-1 app and doesn’t have rooms etc.
I’m just really perturbed that it is still so difficult for users to move between devices and thought I might be missing something
It can be used as one. It has group chats. But you do you.
I would say it’s the nature of the tool for the most part and the lack of documentation available to the users to properly and easily migrate when the need arises.