Matrix on your computer

The desktop app can run a Matrix homeserver for you, with the bridges to WhatsApp, Signal, Messenger, Instagram, Slack and Discord next to it, and iMessage on a Mac. You turn it on in Settings, then turn on the bridges you want; there is no server to rent or configure. Your phone can use the same server through Tailscale.

It runs on a Mac with Apple silicon and on Linux (x86_64 and arm64). Windows and the Mac App Store version cannot run it yet.

Turn it on#

1. Open Settings → Matrix on the computer.
2. Choose Run Matrix on this computer.

Statim starts the server, makes you a Matrix account on it and signs you in. Your Matrix ID is @me:statim. An account uses either this server or a homeserver you name in the form below, not both.

The server runs while Statim runs. Closing the window leaves it running; quitting Statim stops it, and the next start brings it back. While it is stopped, messages wait on the other networks.

It is closed to other Matrix servers. It is there for your bridges, so you cannot chat from it with someone on matrix.org.

Bridges#

Under Bridges on this computer, turn on the networks you want. The first time, Statim downloads that bridge from its project's release and checks it against the hash Statim ships with before running it. The server restarts with the bridge attached.

Then use Connect under the bridges list to sign in to the network. WhatsApp and Signal link as a device; Messenger, Instagram, Slack and Discord ask for your login.

iMessage uses Corten, which talks to Apple's servers directly from your Mac. It asks for your Apple ID and password, and skips the two-factor code when the Mac is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID. Contact Key Verification must be off for that Apple ID.

A bridge decrypts everything it relays, and here it does that on your computer. WhatsApp, Signal & friends covers what else to know before you rely on one.

Your phone#

Your phone reaches the server through Tailscale, which connects your own devices to each other without opening anything to the internet.

On your tailnet, once:

1. Install Tailscale on the computer and on the phone, and sign in to the same tailnet on both.
2. In the Tailscale admin console, under DNS, turn on MagicDNS and HTTPS Certificates. The certificates put your devices' tailnet names in public certificate logs.
3. On Linux, let your user change Tailscale's settings: sudo tailscale set --operator=$USER.

Then:

1. On the computer, in Settings → Matrix, choose Connect your phone. Statim asks Tailscale to serve the server to your tailnet on port 8448 and shows a QR code.
2. On the phone, open Settings → Matrix and choose Scan the code from your computer.

The code signs in once and expires after two minutes. The phone gets a session of its own on the server.

If Tailscale needs something turned on first, Statim says so and gives you the link to the admin console page. When the server stops, Statim stops serving it to the tailnet, and serves it again when it starts.

The phone needs Tailscale connected, and the computer awake with Statim running. When the computer sleeps, the phone's Matrix chats wait until it wakes.

Remove it#

Erasing the account deletes its server and everything on it: your Matrix account, the bridges' logins and their copies of your chats.