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Element recognised as a Digital Public Good

Paulina Lundin — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:40:08 GMT

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Element recognised as a Digital Public Good

June 17, 2026

We're pleased that Element has been recognised as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multi-stakeholder initiative endorsed by the United Nations.

To qualify as a Digital Public Good (DPG) a solution must meet a rigorous set of criteria. In particular open licensing, clear ownership, platform independence, strong documentation, privacy compliance and adherence to open standards.

The DPGA promotes the discovery, development and use of open source software, data and content to advance the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Joining the registry puts Element alongside projects like Wikipedia and Wikidata, and we think that says something important about what our digitally sovereign communications infrastructure has become.

The DPGA reviews each submission against nine separate indicators. For communications platforms, the key question is whether a solution genuinely enables the organisations using it to own and control their infrastructure. Element (and the Matrix open protocol) was built to support exactly that ambition.

Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the United Nation's framework for global development. It covers everything from health and education to climate and economic growth. Of most relevance to Element is SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and specifically:

Target 9.1 focuses on resilient infrastructure. Element enables end-user organisations to build communications infrastructure they own and control. Unlike centralised and proprietary platforms, the Matrix decentralised infrastructure that Element is built on means communications can continue even during outages, jurisdictional restrictions or vendor disruptions.

Target 9.5 addresses research and technological innovation. Matrix is an open standard that any organisation can build on, contribute to and extend. By building on and actively contributing to Matrix, Element is investing in a shared communications commons that any government, institution or developer can use.

Target 9.b concerns domestic technology development. Vendor lock-in is a sovereignty risk. Governments that depend on closed, proprietary platforms are one contract renegotiation - or one geopolitical decision - away from losing access to their own communications. Element gives organisations the ability to deploy, modify and extend their communications infrastructure without dependency on any single vendor. And by supporting Matrix, Element encourages a competitive ecosystem of vendors that helps boost domestic technical capability and supports genuine digital independence.

Open source, open standard, open governance

Matrix is a decentralised open standard for sovereign, interoperable and secure communications.

Element plays a key role in developing and sustaining Matrix, having contributed to more than 90% of Synapse (the core Matrix homeserver), the Rust SDK and a substantial proportion of the wider Matrix client ecosystem. While the DPGA doesn't certify open standards or protocols directly, this recognition clearly reflects the broader Matrix ecosystem and its contribution to digital public infrastructure. Element Web, Element X iOS and Android, Synapse and Element Server Suite (our free server-side community distribution) form the basis of the DPGA recognition.

Element Pro and Element Server Suite Pro build on this foundation, providing the additional capabilities that large-scale government deployments require - and crucially, helps Element, as an upstream vendor, fund the continued development of Matrix itself.

European governments are leading the way

European governments and public institutions are leading the way on digital sovereignty. For communications in particular, they recognise that critical communications infrastructure should be open, interoperable and under their control - and of course extremely resilient. Element was built to support exactly that ambition.

More than 25 European governments have already deployed Matrix-based communications systems, and the list keeps growing. The European Commission, NATO, UNICC, and public sector organisations across the US, Australia, and beyond are also running Matrix-based sovereign communications infrastructure today.

All these separate Matrix-based deployments, supported by a competitive ecosystem of vendors and providers, can federate with each other because they embrace the same open standard.

That's the vision this recognition helps articulate to a wider audience. Sovereign communications doesn't mean an on-premise system from a vendor-locked software company. It means communications the end-user organisation controls, with a set of vendors it can choose from, and the ability to connect with other organisations without having to worry about who is using which vendor. Not a patchwork of proprietary silos, but a network of networks.

Supporting the ecosystem, not just using it

We hope this recognition encourages more governments to actively support and invest in the technology they depend on, either by working with Element or by supporting The Matrix.org Foundation. Recognising Element as a digital public good is meaningful, but recognition alone doesn't sustain open source software. The open source project doesn't maintain itself; it relies on funding, active contribution and collaboration.

A government that builds on open source software without investing back into it is, over time, sawing off the branch it's sitting on.

Working with commercial upstream vendors is not at odds with digital sovereignty. It is precisely what sustains it. ZenDiS’ openDesk in Germany, Sweden's SAFOS initiative, the European Commission's own Element deployment, and many others have shown what responsible adoption looks like in practice: embracing open standards while supporting the vendors and communities that keep those standards alive.

As one of our European government customers put it: "It's not about FOSS vs paying for subscriptions. It's not buy vs build. It should be a hybrid approach that works for all parties." That balance, open standards with professional products and support, is exactly what Element is designed to provide.

We're grateful to the DPGA for the thorough review process, and to the many governments and public sector organisations whose real-world deployments made the case for Element's global reach and relevance. This recognition is a signal to procurement teams, governments and development organisations everywhere; open, sovereign, federated communications infrastructure is not a niche concern. It's a public good.

By the same author

Element is the fast, simple and private way to communicate with family, friends, teams, colleagues, organisations and the wider world.

Thanks for reading our blog— if you got this far, you should head toelement.ioto learn more!

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CompuGroup Medical (CGM) and Element partner to transform healthcare communications

Steve Loynes — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:10:11 GMT

Healthcare has always had its share of chronic conditions, but not all of them are clinical.

For years healthcare communications have been trapped in paper-based systems, slow email chains and endless telephone tag. More worrying still, the creeping adoption of consumer-grade chat apps is now putting private patient data directly into Big Tech's hands - whose entire business models depend on harvesting it.

Now there’s a prescription for change.

CompuGroup Medical (CGM) – one of the world’s leading e-health companies – and Element are partnering to transform how healthcare professionals exchange information securely in real time.

Healthcare organisations need to exchange information quickly and securely, while maintaining strict control over sensitive patient data. Traditional centralised messaging platforms don’t match those requirements. They create vendor lock-in, fragment communication across organisational boundaries, and leave healthcare bodies dependent on a single commercial provider for infrastructure they can't fully inspect or control. That challenge is only growing as governments and public sector organisations across Europe place increasing weight on digital sovereignty.

By combining CGM’s deep medical sector expertise with Element’s communications technology, we’re building tailored tools that provide sovereign, interoperable and secure communications for healthcare.

Supporting CGM’s healthcare messaging platforms

CGM has developed two powerful messaging solutions, CGM TI-Messenger and the CGM Messenger, both built on the Matrix open standard.

CGM TI-Messenger: The recently launched CGM TI-Messenger, certified by gematik (Germany’s national digital health agency), enables Germany’s healthcare professionals and organisations to exchange information securely and in real time as an alternative to email and phone-based workflows.

The TI-Messenger initiative is transforming German healthcare’s traditional systems, and puts patient privacy first. It serves as a powerful real-world blueprint for interoperable, sovereign communications by creating a massive nationwide private federation that will connect more than 150,000 separate healthcare organisations.

CGM Messenger: CGM Messenger (built on Matrix, rather than Germany’s Matrix-based TI-Messenger standard) brings the same standard of secure, real time collaboration for use outside of Germany’s TI-Messenger infrastructure.

Designed for global adaptability, it connects disparate healthcare teams, clinics, and administrative staff by embedding sovereign and end-to-end encrypted messaging directly into existing healthcare IT systems. CGM and Element are establishing a new global benchmark for safe, efficient, and interconnected digital health ecosystems.

Matrix is a game changer for healthcare

The Matrix open standard provides fundamental benefits for healthcare communications:

Digital sovereignty: Every healthcare organisation retains total ownership and control of its own data.
Seamless interoperability: Separate hospitals, clinics, and labs can connect and talk to each other instantly, even if they use Matrix-based products from different vendors - making Matrix the ideal way to connect thousands of separate organisations.
Competitive ecosystem: Because the standard is completely open, it supports a competitive ecosystem of vendors, which naturally drives freedom of choice and rapid industry innovation.
Powerful security: End-to-end encryption and layered security protections ensure sensitive patient data stays confidential.
Beyond chat: Matrix-based communication can be embedded directly into software, medical machinery and the Internet of Things (IoT) to transmit patient data instantly and securely.

As Jens-Uwe Thieme, General Manager Patient Portal & Platform Components at CGM, puts it:

“

"The Matrix open standard is incredibly well-suited to healthcare. Each healthcare organisation has full control over its communications data, yet separate healthcare organisations can exchange information quickly and easily."

Jens-Uwe Thieme General Manager Patient Portal & Platform Components at CGM

Powered by Element Server Suite Pro

This partnership is powered by Element Server Suite Pro (ESS Pro), our enterprise-grade Matrix infrastructure platform.

Healthcare organisations need communication systems that are not only secure, but also scalable, resilient, and maintainable over the long term. ESS Pro is designed to meet those requirements while supporting the evolving standards around Matrix and TI-Messenger compliance.

ESS Pro supports both single-tenant and multi-tenant deployments, including configurations specifically designed for TI-Messenger environments. Its multi-tenant architecture for TI-Messenger was recently security validated by gematik.

It also provides enterprise capabilities, including:

Long-term support aligned with Matrix and TI-Messenger standards
Identity and access management
Advanced administration and auditing tools
Security notifications
Auto-scaling infrastructure to handle changing traffic demands
Multi-tenant ‘small hosts’ capability

For us, this partnership reflects a broader shift happening across healthcare and the public sector.

Organisations increasingly want a communication infrastructure that is open, sovereign, interoperable, and secure by design - without compromising usability for healthcare professionals.

We believe Matrix is uniquely positioned to support that future, and CGM is exactly the kind of partner to help us build it.

Sweden goes live with Matrix-based federation!

Steve Loynes — Tue, 26 May 2026 07:23:33 GMT

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Sweden goes live with Matrix-based federation!

May 26, 2026

Government

In a landmark demonstration of the power of the Matrix open standard, two of Sweden's major public sector agencies, Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) and Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration), have successfully federated their entirely separate real time communications systems.

By using Matrix as a common digital communications infrastructure, Sweden’s public sector can ensure its digital sovereignty by every agency having a choice between competitive vendors that all support the same open standard to enable government-wide federation. For example, Försäkringskassan uses Element (branded as SAFOS Chatt), while Trafikverket uses Rocket.Chat. Two separate organisations, two different vendors, one seamless conversation.

Sweden’s initiative to embrace digital commons for real time communications has been led by eSamverkansprogrammet (eSam), a member-driven collaboration initiative involving more than 40 member agencies. It was eSam that announced the go live.

eSam added that it intends to expand the initiative, involving more authorities and end-users to build momentum and practical experience. It also sees more vendors getting involved to complement the current examples of Element, Rocket.Chat and Mattermost. The eSam project, known as dSam, also has plans to formally recommend that eSam adopts Matrix as a common standard for secure and interoperable communication between Sweden’s authorities.

Vendor-agnostic federation

Sweden's public sector is laying the foundations for a truly sovereign communications infrastructure. It rejects vendor lock-in in favour of a decentralised open standard that puts agencies in control. By embracing Matrix-based federation, Sweden unlocks a genuinely competitive marketplace where vendors must compete on quality and value. The result is an entire public sector that can connect and communicate in real time, regardless of which solution each agency chooses. And because Matrix is open source, that freedom extends even further as organisations can build directly from FOSS components if they choose. Either way, they do so with the confidence that they will interoperate seamlessly with every other public agency in Sweden. It is a model that is simultaneously digitally sovereign, pragmatic and future-proof.

Försäkringskassan (SAFOS) presented on the importance of an open standard for interoperable communication at The Matrix Conference 2025, which was reported on at the time by Computer Weekly. With Sweden’s Social Insurance Agency and Transport Administration having just gone live with Matrix-based federation, it’s entirely fitting that The Matrix Conference 2026 will be in Malmö, Sweden!

In a recent blog post about the need for open standard federation, we created a map of Europe’s major Matrix-based public sector deployments. It shows the breadth of Matrix adoption across Europe, and some of the solutions, vendors and providers already in place.

European public sector communications that support Matrix open standard federation

The importance of interoperability

Matrix was born out of a vision for end-user independence; freedom from centralised systems, siloed products and surveillance capitalism. It's a vision that resonates deeply with governments and public sector organisations, particularly in an era defined by the stranglehold of vendor lock-in.

We take it for granted that anyone can pick up a telephone and call anyone else, or send an email regardless of provider. These are digital commons, built on common standards, and they transformed how the world communicates. Yet the more recent generation of communications infrastructure - from Microsoft Teams and Slack to WhatsApp, Signal and Zoom - has deliberately abandoned this principle. These platforms are engineered to be siloed, prioritising vendor growth over user freedom and interoperability.

One of the biggest challenges in public service is bringing together the multiple organisations that serve citizens. A world of siloed messaging apps and vendor-specific collaboration tools makes co-ordination between organisations much more difficult. Whereas a return to digital commons - in the case of communications, an open standard such as Matrix - proactively encourages real time communication between separate organisations. For example Police, Fire and Ambulance crews can easily communicate with each other from their own separate, specialised systems provided they all operate from the same interoperable standard.

In a world of Matrix-based communications, it’s easy for health insurance firms, hospitals, local clinics and high street pharmacies to communicate in real time while simultaneously enabling each party to pick and choose its own technology solution. Indeed, thanks to gematik’s work on the Matrix-based TI-Messenger standard, it’s already a reality for Germany’s healthcare ecosystem. It’s becoming the reality in Sweden too, led by eSam, Försäkringskassan and Trafikverket.

More than digital sovereignty

Europe’s push for digital sovereignty is entirely correct and logical, but it must ensure that the post-Big Tech era is built on the principle of digital commons. Otherwise it’s just trading the flaws of US Big Tech for the flaws of European Big Tech. That might be an economic win for Europe, but it falls far short of transforming the way the public sector communicates, and the resulting operational efficiencies and service improvements it could deliver citizens.

Matrix is more than an open standard. It’s an opportunity to overhaul public service. That’s why Element is so proud to play a significant role in maintaining the Matrix open source project, and to be working with so many governments and public sector organisations to help them adopt Matrix-based communications.

By the same author

Element is the fast, simple and private way to communicate with family, friends, teams, colleagues, organisations and the wider world.

Thanks for reading our blog— if you got this far, you should head toelement.ioto learn more!

Get started

For Web, Android, iOS, macOS, Windows & Linux

Air-gapped communications for national security

Steve Loynes — Tue, 19 May 2026 07:22:58 GMT

Our hyper-connected world is synonymous with progress. Digital transformation promises efficiently-run smart cities, improved economic performance, better healthcare outcomes and all the rest of it.

Simultaneously, interconnections also create vulnerabilities; from ransomware crippling public services, to cyber attacks designed to damage critical national infrastructure, or silently extract sensitive data for years on end.

Against this backdrop, air-gapped communications remains the gold standard for security. In matters of national security, the safest network is always the one which is physically separated from the internet and the rest of the world.

Venting an innovation vacuum

It’s no surprise that air-gapped communications, designed to operate in isolation, have not felt much evolutionary force. The majority of air-gapped networks are running legacy platforms; relics of a bygone age. Unaffected by the smartphone era, many air-gapped networks still use Jabber, Sametime or Skype for Business.

In a world that’s grown used to WhatsApp and Signal, poor usability feels like a considerable constraint. It can drive users to bypass approved systems in favour of unofficial tools, creating security risks.

That’s why we ensure Element has the very latest modern user interface with read receipts, threading, embedded voice and video calling and easy message editing. Such features improve the overall productivity of a secure environment; even emoji reactions can have practical benefits in conveying simple information quickly. And while many air-gapped environments only support desktop communications, Element can support handheld devices for use within an air-gap with a consumer-style messenger app.

We’ve also designed Element to support the use of X.509 client certificates for identification and encryption - including hardware-based tokens. Big screens can support GridView, so teams can monitor a dashboard of multiple rooms simultaneously, and chat rooms can include live data feeds from trusted systems within the air-gap.

In short, there’s no reason why an air-gapped communications platform should look or feel any different from a highly-polished online system. The difference is simply that it’s separate from the internet, rather than decades away from the real world. See what modern air-gapped communications looks like in practice.

Deploying into the airgap

Historically, air-gapped systems have been challenging to install and maintain. We’ve made installation as straightforward as possible. Ahead of deployment into a live environment, Element integrates with DevSecOps workflows and supports independent security validation. The distribution includes enterprise features and compliance readiness, for a complete solution.

In a similar manner, although unconnected to the internet, we’ve made sure our air-gapped solutions are easy to maintain with vendor-backed Long Term Support (LTS) to provide a regular cadence for maintenance, and security updates. It’s also backed by our service level agreement (SLA) and comes with Level 3 support. We sell our air-gapped solutions directly, but also through a number of partners who benefit from the stability and support we provide, leaving them free to focus on their customer.

According to The Future of Secure Communications, a Forrester Consulting research study commissioned by Element, 64% of decision-makers foresee the need to give trusted partners access to secured, air-gapped or high-side environments.

Download our report to learn more

From isolation to controlled integration

As one might expect, Element supports single and multi-site air-gapped environments. It also supports, if desired, secure connectivity to other Matrix-based networks using our cross domain gateway to securely bridge partitioned networks. The cross domain gateway acts like an airlock on a submarine or spaceship, creating a safe passage between two environments. The hardware sits in a highly-trusted environment, where it decrypts, inspects, applies data-loss-protection rules and re-encrypts data as it passes from one domain to the other.

A high-security environment that can message to a low-side network has multiple uses.

For national security and policing, cross domain connectivity can safely support communications between high-side and low-side environments with policy-enforced information flow. It can ensure that sensitive information is shared carefully between high and low side environments to speed information sharing, enforcing data classification labels, rather than relying on manual processes in time critical situations.

For military use, using Element for cross domain communications can support connectivity between separate systems. Vessels, vehicles and equipment for example can connect their respective communications platforms across different classes of network security. For remote cross domain connectivity, the air-gapped environment can be securely connected with less-trusted networks to secure field operations.

Proven air-gapped partnerships

Element’s air-gapped customers include primes, systems integrators and defence contractors as well as various MoDs that we serve directly. When it comes to our partners, they typically run multiple air-gapped environments for a range of their own customers. Many of their air-gapped deployments need to federate across multiple locations. Typically the air-gapped solutions support around 200-500 people, although they can be significantly larger.

Element Server Suite Pro (ESS Pro) is often used to replace legacy solutions, such as Skype for Business or Jabber, or as an alternative to a vendor-locked solution. Although an air-gapped system usually operates in isolation, there is still a strong desire to use a solution based on the Matrix open standard as it ensures a competitive vendor ecosystem for a potential future migration, rather than being tied into a specific vendor and forced to ‘rip and replace.’

Defence contractors have also switched to ESS Pro having initially built customer solutions using Element’s FOSS components, or ESS Community. They have done so based on ESS Pro’s improved scalability, management, LTS and technical support.

End users primarily use the desktop version of Element Pro, although there is some usage of the Element Pro app mobile devices approved for dedicated use within the air-gapped environment. End-users enjoy an intuitive modern interface similar to the likes of WhatsApp and Signal but with enterprise performance and functions.

Installing air-gapped

Each ESS Pro release also provides access to an air-gapped bundle containing all the resources that could be fetched from the internet when installing that release. Element’s simple instructions make it easy to import these resources into your own private registry and provide the configuration for ESS Pro such that your installation will use your private registry. And as the same bundle is used as part of ESS Pro’s automated test suite, you know it is all going to work just as smoothly as if you had internet connectivity.

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Seamless encrypted history sharing arrives in Element

Andreas Sisask — Wed, 13 May 2026 08:31:07 GMT

For years, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) has been the gold standard for digital privacy. But it has always come with a silent trade-off: when you add a new member to an encrypted chat, they arrive at a blank slate (as in, they can’t see conversation history). Any previous conversation - no matter how vital to their onboarding - remained locked away, accessible only to those who were already there. You start taking the screenshots of the chat to provide the new member with the necessary context and get them up to speed. Sound familiar?

Today, we are changing that. We are thrilled to announce that Element now supports seamless, secure history sharing for new chat members, effectively ending the ‘blank slate’ era of encrypted collaboration (more on this here). Whether it’s a new colleague getting up to speed on a project, a person you simply forgot to invite to a new chat, or a community member joining a long-running discussion, you no longer have to worry about whether they have the context they need.

View for new members joining a room

By combining the rigour of Matrix’s decentralised, secure architecture with the seamless experience users expect from modern messaging, we’re proving that you don't have to choose between strong security and fluid collaboration.

The challenge of "locked" history

In a standard E2EE environment, messages are encrypted with keys that are only distributed to the participants present at the time the message is sent. When a new person joins, they simply don’t possess the cryptographic keys needed to unlock the chat history.

For many users, this felt less like a security feature and more like a broken experience. Organisations and communities were often forced to choose: keep history visible but unencrypted, or keep it encrypted but siloed from new joiners. Neither was the ideal solution. If you forgot to invite a person to a new chat, got a new team member, or a new person joined a working group they couldn’t see the conversation history.

How it works: Privacy by design, convenience by choice

Our new feature bridges this gap without compromising the integrity of your E2EE environment. When a chat admin chooses to allow new members to see historical messages, Element now intelligently and securely shares the necessary historical decryption keys with the new participant when they are invited. Instead of broadcasting history in the clear, we’ve developed a secure mechanism to share key bundles directly with authorised new members.

Chat admins retain full authority. You can decide chat-by-chat whether to enable history sharing, ensuring that sensitive discussions remain protected while collaborative ones become truly productive. Crucially, your data remains end-to-end encrypted. The keys are shared via private, encrypted "to-device" messages, ensuring that the history is never exposed to the homeserver or any third parties.

How to use it?

If you want the history of the chat to be shared with new members, just go to the room’s Privacy & Security settings and set the “Who can read history?” to “Members (full history)”. That’s it.

Decide who can read message history

When creating new encrypted rooms, by default the history is not shared. The room header displays whether the history is shared so the members are aware of it at all times.

The room header displays whether the history is shared

A note about existing rooms

If you notice an existing room in which history is shared, but should not be - you can change that in the Security & Privacy settings before inviting new members. Note that according to the Matrix specification, all historical messages should be made visible to new members if the message was sent while room history was set to shared. However, because some rooms may have accidentally had history sharing on without users realising that, there is currently an additional constraint in place that keys for such past messages are only shared with new members when the room is currently set to share history.

Future enhancements

History sharing does not work yet when a user joins a room via a Space proactively. They need to be invited to the room since the keys for the past messages can only be provided by an existing member of the room (the one who invites them).

We’re really pleased with enabling easy, secure history sharing for new chat members. As far as we know, it’s unique to Element. We’d love feedback on your experience of using it; like any new feature it can doubtless be improved and polished as we get insights from our end-users.

Element Blog

Element recognised as a Digital Public Good

Element recognised as a Digital Public Good

Sustainable Development Goals

Open source, open standard, open governance

European governments are leading the way

Supporting the ecosystem, not just using it

Related Posts

By the same author

Element is the fast, simple and private way to communicate with family, friends, teams, colleagues, organisations and the wider world.

CompuGroup Medical (CGM) and Element partner to transform healthcare communications

Supporting CGM’s healthcare messaging platforms

Matrix is a game changer for healthcare

Powered by Element Server Suite Pro

Sweden goes live with Matrix-based federation!

Sweden goes live with Matrix-based federation!

Vendor-agnostic federation

The importance of interoperability

More than digital sovereignty

Related Posts

By the same author

Element is the fast, simple and private way to communicate with family, friends, teams, colleagues, organisations and the wider world.

Air-gapped communications for national security

Venting an innovation vacuum

Deploying into the airgap

From isolation to controlled integration

Proven air-gapped partnerships

Installing air-gapped

Seamless encrypted history sharing arrives in Element

The challenge of "locked" history

How it works: Privacy by design, convenience by choice

How to use it?

A note about existing rooms

Future enhancements