For the average user the element UI is just confusing. This is the #1 complaint I got from all non-techies. They expect to just see a contact list, with each contact being a simple chat without the typing bar. Most of the other interactions are also too complex (like sending an image).

You'd think this is a small complaint, but I've listed this as first as it's the biggest barrier to conversion. Ask the _same_ user to try FluffyChat, and no objections will be raised besides the expected "why another chat app".

I'm not a fan of the Element UI myself, although I "get it" as it's targeting to something more group-oriented like slack. The problem is that Element is currently neither oriented to plain users, nor it's great to technical ones.

If everything else had to stay the same, they should optimize for plain users on mobile and offer a better, more advanced desktop client instead.

I guess it depends on what Element is trying to replace.

If it's whatsapp etc then yeah, I agree, it is not going to work. But if it's Teams or Slack or something, then I don't see much difference. I don't think it is meant to be a whatsapp replacement, I think it is a generic chat tool that lets me integrate all my services in one place - kinda like Pidgen.

As you say, maybe this cash injection cam let them get a mobile client that can work as a whatsapp replacement (as I guess that is what most people are moving from)

My suggestion, again: buy FluffyChat. Add important missing features, such as cross-signing. Make it the default client.

You can keep element for advanced users.

I'd argue it's still not a great client for tech users either, but I see an evolution in that direction more likely than the opposite.

What important features? FluffyChat had cross-signing for more than a year now. A lot of other features are unlikely to be added, since FluffyChat aims to be easy to use. FluffChat even supports E2EE fallback keys!

I do agree it is quite ok, it has all the basic features, but it feels "slow" and "beta" at some points.

In addition to some decryption issues that made some of my friends hate Element (they could view messages on one device but not another one, and there was no clear action to fix this), one of the issues I think could be easily worked on is the settings: the current layout is way too complicated, too much scrolling, too many options, it doesn't feel clear at all. Also the stickers are really crappy: they are not useful for any serious chat (ie. work), and not useful for any fun chat (ie. friends).

There aren't that many showstopper issues in the UX (except for wrangling bridges, but that's not really an Element thing, it's more of a Matrix thing).

But everything is just a bit off. The text is a bit too spaced out for IRC users, the icons a bit too small for people coming from Slack and Discord. Colors are seemingly chosen at random by the coder and don't jive well together. The "These people have read the backlog this far" notification is just plain useless. It is death by a thousand cuts really. The small things stack up and make me not like using Element for Matrix.

I do love Matrix, the underlying technology, in theory.

IMO they just need to bite the bullet and make a truly user friendly mobile UI to replace Telegram, WhatsApp, FB Messenger etc. And a proper client for the major operating systems that's not too different from Discord and Slack.

Using it everyday too at $work, also used Slack and Gitter (and FreeNode/IRC FWIW). Quite happy with the current Element UI. They have slowly added features and fixed issues. I tried a beta some time ago with... topics? Rooms grouped in some sort of topic I think. It was really buggy, but I forgot about that I haven't seen it yet. So I assume they are doing some A/B testing, trying things slowly and seeing what works.

I want to like Element but I find strange UX issues or minor bugs every time I use it. It feels extremely beta from a polish perspective. I'm hopeful they can iterate and deliver something on par with the quality of mainstream chat apps they just need to decide that UX and look-and-feel is as important as delivering something conceptually novel from an engineering perspective.

Above all else, it's because core functionality is frequently broken and issues like this[1] languish for months and years without updates. When things don't work, it's rarely transparent to users whether this is due to a bug on Element's end (or on the server side), user error or misconfiguration, or operator misconfiguration.

Further, there's virtually zero documentation for end users. There are no in-app explainers as to what E2EE is or why anyone should care, leaving the onus on operators to document and explain these things to non-technical users.

[1] https://github.com/vector-im/element-ios/issues/3762

For me the channel/room list is too messy with different parts which have their own scrolling zones. And each entry takes too much space leading to having to scroll all the time.

On Quassel I can have 30 channels open without having to scroll. On element only 10 or so. That's way too few considering the number of bridges available.

They have a high density xchat mode but it only affects the chat view, not the room list

Personally I’m always confused about the accounts I which one I’m currently using (they have the same names). Also I can never understand when I verified someone.