Matrix

Quick start

Note for members of OSGeo and some universities in Austria and Germany: your institution has a Matrix server (OSGeo example) where you can log in and join the OSM chats.

Join the OpenStreetMap space and browse the room list. Your community may have many rooms, bridged to different networks.
Other rooms are on IRC (OFTC) at this list:
- Open the link and adapt the room name #osm accordingly. #_oftc_#osm:matrix.org
- Replying to a message, or editing your own message, looks ugly to the IRC users. Just mention the user name, rather than clicking Reply.
- IRC has no concept of deleting a message.
- (optional) If you need advanced usage of IRC, such as changing the nickname, see here.

Optional tips:

Clicking Join on the OpenStreetMap space will group together all OSM-related community chats and private chats under a single button (most chat apps have a collapsible panel at the left).
Create new spaces (private to you, private to your team, public) to organize group chats and direct messages.
Create private chats with yourself to follow the QA or forum RSS feeds (see below) or to take personal notes.
Private chats between users are not possible across most bridges, for example Telegram.

Support and questions:

Telegram and Discord bridge's live status (planned downtime, ...)
OSM-on-Matrix discussion (who can host a mjölnir specifically for the OSM space?)
The generic Matrix support room.

Usage and setup

You can skip reading this section and go to the chat list below.

Client choice

Matrix is a decentralized communication protocol (a generic publish-subscribe HTTPS REST API, whose message format is JSON), which also serves as the common language of the largest federation of chat servers in the world. A bridge bot is still required for a small number of large, vendor lock-in-suffering chat networks, until Europe's Digital Markets Act forces them to expose interoperable APIs, following the principle that technological diversity fosters a healthy ecosystem, but lack of interoperability fragments the community and hampers market competition and end product quality.

You can live without installation, just follow the room links in your web browser. For maximum comfort, you can optionally install any client from the list.

Like OSM editors, there are a few very famous clients and a lot of minor clients, but there is no "best client" and it's common in the Matrix world to log into 3+ clients for the fun of trying.
Like OSM editors, what's difficult, bugged, or missing in a client may be the strong point of another client. Clients are interoperable: they use different techniques under the hood to perform the exact same user-visible tasks.
Features of common usage that are not yet perfect on all the mainstream clients:
- Spaces have a good UI in Element Web and Element Android (i.e. the reference implementations by the people who make Matrix) and in SchildiChat. FluffyChat has little and ugly support for spaces.
- Selecting more than one message at the same time, to copy-paste into your personal notes: currently supported by Element Web and FluffyChat.
- Searching past messages: currently requires to be online in Element Android, Element Web, SchildiChat.
- Threads: currently requires to be online in Element Android, Element Web, SchildiChat; FluffyChat shows them also when offline, but as normal replies.

Bots

To subscribe the QA RSS feeds, use Element's Integration manager's RSS bot (instructions here). Group chats are supported. For QA feeds of personal/limited use (for example, the recent edits in your neighbourhood) you can make a private chat with yourself and add the integration bot to this chat. Another example is following
You can follow topics and replies from a category in the Discourse forum community.openstreetmap.org with the same technique as for any RSS feed, or with a custom bot (like OSM FR).

Making a bridge

Slack, Telegram and other semi-closed networks need explicit action by an admin of the Matrix chatroom and an admin of the non-Matrix chatroom. A bot joins both rooms and copy-pastes the messages. For instructions, contact valor naram.

Chat list

General chats

Chats possibly focusing on some topics of global (non-regional) interest.

Chat	Interest	Chat Name	Description / websites
#_oftc_#osm:matrix.org	International	World Chat Group	IRC world channel, also available at irc.oftc.net #osm
#osm-space:matrix.org	International	OpenStreetMap space	OSM public space, partial listing of all Matrix-related OSM Matrix stuff.
#osmcommunity:matrix.org	International	Local Chapters & Communities Working Group public chat	Bridged with IRC and Telegram. osmf:Local Chapters and Communities Working Group
#osmworld_off-topic:matrix.org	off topic	OSM Off-topic	For discussion of stuff unrelated to OSM, because talking about OSM in an OSM server is overrated. Part of the #osmworld:matrix.org space. Bridged with the OSM World Discord server
#openmapping-humanitarian:matrix.org	International	HOT OSM Humanitarian Open Mapping space	Wiki
#osmvegan:matrix.org	Veganism	OSM Vegan	Coordinated effort to map places that offer plant-based options in OpenStreetMap. This room is bridged to Telegram.

Chats for certain applications or services

Such as web applications, certain mapping providers etc.

Chat	Interest	Chat Name	Description / websites
#_oftc_#josm:matrix.org	International	JOSM	Official support, bridged with IRC
#osmworld_josm:matrix.org	International	OSM JOSM	Bridged with Discord
#organicmaps:matrix.org	International	Organic Maps	Unofficial channel for Organic Maps, bridged with the official Telegram group
#osmand-space:tchncs.de	International	OsmAnd	Unofficial space for OsmAnd bridged to the official Telegram groups. English - French - German
#osmworld_overpass:matrix.org	International	Overpass	Bridged with Discord

Local community chats by continent / country

This is a partial list - please add channels as you find them.

You can also find these channels using the Belgian rendering of the OSM Community Index.

Africa

Link to chat	Country	City	Chat	Description	Website
#osmafrica:matrix.org	Africa		Africa	Bridged to Telegram and Slack.

America

Link to chat	Country	Chat	Description
#osm-latam:matrix.org	Latin America	OSM Latin America	Linked with Telegram
#osm-ar:matrix.org	Argentina	OpenStreetMapAR
#osmbo:matrix.org	Bolivia	OpenStreetMap Bolivia	Bridged with Telegram
#OSM-Mexico:matrix.org	Mexico	OpenStreetMap Mexico
#mapanica:matrix.org	Nicaragua	MapaNica	Bridged with Telegram
#osmpe:matrix.org	Peru	OpenStreetMap Perú
#osmus:matrix.org	United States	OpenStreetMap US

Asia

Link to chat	Country	City	Chat	Description
#_oftc_#osm-asia:matrix.org	Asia		OSM Asia	IRC channel, also reachable at irc.oftc.net #osm-asia. Bridged with Telegram
#osm-in-general:matrix.org	India		OSM India	Linked to Telegram
#osm-kerala:matrix.org	India	Kerala	OSM Kerala	Linked to Telegram
#OpenstreetmapMalaysia:matrix.org	Malaysia		Openstreetmap Malaysia
#OpenStreetMapKorea:matrix.org	South Korea North Korea		Openstreetmap Korea	Linked to Telegram

Europe

Link to chat	Country	City	Chat	Description	Website
#osm-at:matrix.org	Austria		OSM Austria	Linked with irc.oftc.net #osm-de
#osmbe:matrix.org	Belgium		OSM Belgium	Linked with irc.oftc.net #osmbe	https://www.openstreetmap.be/
#osmcz:matrix.org	Czech Republic		OSM CZ	Linked with IRC, Jabber, Telegram and Discord
#osm-fi:matrix.org	Finland		OpenStreetMap Finland	Bridged to IRCNet #osm-fi and Telegram
The space #osmfrance:matrix.org and also the room #osmfr:matrix.org	France		OSM FR	Bridged with Discord, IRC, Telegram	openstreetmap.fr
#osm-de:matrix.org	Germany		OSM Deutschland	Linked with irc.oftc.net #osm-de	https://www.openstreetmap.de/karte.html
#osmberlin:matrix.org	Germany	Berlin	OSM Berlin / Brandenburg
#osmberlinverkehr:matrix.org	Germany	Berlin	OSM Berlin / Brandenburg Verkehrswende		Berlin/Verkehrswende
#osm:grin.hu	Hungary		OSM Hungary	General chat
#osm-szerszamzat:grin.hu	Hungary		OSM Hungary	Software development coordination
#openstreetmapitalia_hello:matrix.org	Italy		OpenStreetMap Italia	Bridged with Telegram
#osmkosovo:matrix.org	Kosovo		OpenStreetMap Kosovo	Bridged with Telegram
#openstreetmap-no:matrix.org	Norway		OSM Norway	Linked with irc.oftc.net #osm-no
#ogolny-osm1:matrix.org	Poland		OSM Poland		https://www.openstreetmap.pl
#osm-ru:matrix.org	Russia		OSM Russia
#openstreetmap-es:matrix.org	Spain		OSM Spain	Bridged with IRC, Telegram, Slack	https://www.openstreetmap.es/
#osm.ua:matrix.org	Ukraine		OSM UA		https://openstreetmap.org.ua/