Fractal

Fractal is an instant messaging client and collaboration software for the GNOME desktop based on the Matrix protocol. It is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3. Fractal can be installed on various Linux distributions via Flathub, which is the recommended installation method, although some distributions provide packages through their official repositories. Features Fractal integrates well into the GNOME desktop with a clean and easy-to-use user interface design that is optimized for collaboration in big groups. The functionality was still limited in early releases from spring 2018, when features such as video chat and end-to-end encryption were missing. The user interface targets both smartphones and desktop systems and adapts to different screen sizes and formats. Architecture Fractal is written in Rust and has a graphical user interface that, like software for GNOME, is based on the GTK widget toolkit. For the adaptive user interface, it uses a software library called libhandy that is developed by the computer manufacturer Purism. Logon credentials can be stored in any local password manager that provides the Secret Service API. The functionality is to be split into separate frontends for mass chat and personal instant messaging using a common backend, tentatively called Discussions and Messages, respectively.