Matrix is a set of free, open-source and open network standards dedicated to secure, decentralized, real-time encrypted communications. It is published and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation, which is a non-profit organization, and dedicated to creating an open, independent and evolving communication platform. In 2019, Matrix was out of beta, and its protocol is fully suitable for production usage.

There are already countless chatting software (such as WhatsApp, Skype, Discord, Facebook Messenger), but almost all of them are non-free software based on central servers, and their security and privacy are not guaranteed (any chat history of you will be sold to various companies). Many of them claim to encrypt communication content, even with end-to-end encryption, but when a platform is proprietary, there is simply no way for others to verify that it is as secure and private as it promises to be. Of course, there are some really safe and reliable ones, but they are frequently blocked by governments of various countries and cannot continue (such as Signal, Telegram).