element-hq/element-call

Element Call

🎬 Live Demo 🎬

The world's first 🌐 decentralized and 🤝 federated video conferencing solution powered by the Matrix protocol.

📌 Overview

Element Call is a native Matrix video conferencing application developed by Element, designed for secure, scalable, privacy-respecting, and decentralized video and voice calls over the Matrix protocol. Built on MatrixRTC (MSC4143), it utilizes MSC4195 with LiveKit as its backend.

You can find the latest development version continuously deployed to call.element.dev.

[!NOTE] For prior version of the Element Call that relied solely on full-mesh logic, check full-mesh branch.

✨ Key Features

✅ Decentralized & Federated – No central authority; works across Matrix homeservers.
✅ End-to-End Encrypted – Secure and private calls.
✅ Standalone & Widget Mode – Use as an independent app or embed in Matrix clients.
✅ WebRTC-based – No additional software required.
✅ Scalable with LiveKit – Supports large meetings via SFU (MSC4195: MatrixRTC using LiveKit backend).
✅ Raise Hand – Participants can signal when they want to speak, helping to organize the flow of the meeting.
✅ Emoji Reactions – Users can react with emojis 👍️ 🎉 👏 🤘, adding engagement and interactivity to the conversation.

🚀 Deployment & Packaging Options

Element Call is developed using the Matrix js-sdk with Matroska mode. This allows the app to run either as a Standalone App directly connected to a homeserver with login interfaces or it can be used as a widget within a Matrix client.

🖥️ Standalone Mode

In Standalone mode, Element Call operates as an independent, full-featured video conferencing web application, enabling users to join or host calls without requiring a separate Matrix client.

📲 In-App Calling (Widget Mode in Messenger Apps)

When used as a widget 🧩, Element Call is solely responsible for the core calling functionality (MatrixRTC). Authentication, event handling, and room state updates (via the Client-Server API) are handled by the hosting client. Communication between Element Call and the client is managed through the widget API.

Element Call can be embedded as a widget inside apps like Element Web or Element X (iOS, Android), bringing MatrixRTC capabilities to messenger apps for seamless decentralized video and voice calls within Matrix rooms.

[!IMPORTANT] Embedded packaging is recommended for Element Call in widget mode!

📦 Element Call Packaging

Element Call offers two packaging options: one for standalone or widget deployment, and another for seamless widget-based integration into messenger apps. Below is an overview of each option.

Full Package – Supports both Standalone and Widget mode. It is hosted as a static web page and can be accessed via a URL when used as a widget.

Embedded Package – Designed specifically for Widget mode only. It is bundled with a messenger app for seamless integration and this is the recommended method for embedding Element Call.

For more details on the packages, see the Embedded vs. Standalone Guide.

🛠️ Self-Hosting

For operating and deploying Element Call on your own server, refer to the Self-Hosting Guide.

MatrixRTC Transports

For proper operation of Element Call, each deployment needs to set up a MatrixRTC transport in the form of a LiveKit server as outlined in the Self-Hosting Guide. A typical federated site deployment for three different sites A, B and C is depicted below.

Transport Discovery

Element Call discovers the available MatrixRTC transports (as defined by MSC4519) by hitting the GET /_matrix/client/unstable/org.matrix.msc4143/rtc/transports endpoint of the Client-Server API. An example response:

{
  "rtc_transports": [
    {
      "type": "livekit",
      "livekit_service_url": "https://matrix-rtc.example.com/livekit/jwt"
    }
  ]
}

where the format for MatrixRTC using LiveKit backend is defined in MSC4195. In the example above Matrix clients do discover a focus of type livekit which points them to a MatrixRTC Authorization Service via livekit_service_url.

Backend Selection

• Each call participant proposes their discovered MatrixRTC transport from org.matrix.msc4143.rtc_foci in their org.matrix.msc3401.call.member state event.
• For the LiveKit MatrixRTC backend (MSC4195), the first participant who joined the call defines which backend will be used for this call via the foci_preferred key in their org.matrix.msc3401.call.member state event.
• During the actual call join flow, the MatrixRTC Authorization Service provides the client with the LiveKit SFU WebSocket URL and an access JWT token in order to exchange media via WebRTC.

The example below illustrates how backend selection works across Matrix federation, using the setup from sites A, B, and C. It demonstrates backend selection for Matrix rooms 123 and 456, which include users from different homeservers.

🌍 Translation

If you'd like to help translate Element Call, head over to Localazy. You're also encouraged to join the Element Translators space to discuss and coordinate translation efforts.

🛠️ Development

Dependencies

• Node.js (e.g. via nvm)
• Corepack (not bundled with Node.js anymore starting from 25.0.0)
• Docker client and runtime + Docker Compose (for the backend)
  • On macOS you can install everything with brew install colima docker docker-compose

Frontend

To get started clone and set up this project:

git clone https://github.com/element-hq/element-call.git
cd element-call
corepack enable
pnpm install

To use it, create a local config by, e.g., cp ./config/config.devenv.json ./public/config.json and adapt it if necessary. The config.devenv.json config should work with the backend development environment as outlined in the next section out of box.

You're now ready to launch the development server:

pnpm dev

See also:

• Developing with linked packages

Backend

A docker compose file docker-compose-dev.yml is provided to start the whole stack of components which is required for a local development environment including federation:

• Minimum Synapse Setup (servernames: synapse.m.localhost, synapse.othersite.m.localhost)
• MatrixRTC Authorization Service (Note: requires Federation API and hence a TLS reverse proxy)
• Minimum LiveKit SFU setup using dev defaults for config
• Minimum localhost Certificate Authority (CA) for Transport Layer Security (TLS)
  • Hostnames: m.localhost, *.m.localhost, *.othersite.m.localhost
  • Add ./backend/dev_tls_local-ca.crt to your web browser's trusted certificates
• Minimum TLS reverse proxy for
  • Synapse homeserver: synapse.m.localhost and synapse.othersite.m.localhost
  • MatrixRTC backend: matrix-rtc.m.localhost and matrix-rtc.othersite.m.localhost
  • Local Element Call development call.m.localhost via pnpm dev --host
  • Element Web app.m.localhost and app.othersite.m.localhost
  • Note certificates will expire on Thr, 20 September 2035 14:27:35 CEST

These use a test 'secret' published in this repository, so this must be used only for local development and never be exposed to the public Internet.

Make sure your Docker runtime is running (e.g. via colima start) and then start the backend components:

pnpm backend
# or for podman-compose:
# podman-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml up

[!NOTE] To ensure your local development frontend functions properly, you’ll need to add certificate exceptions in your browser for https://localhost:3000 and https://matrix-rtc.m.localhost/livekit/jwt/healthz. This can be done either by adding the minimum localhost CA (./backend/dev_tls_local-ca.crt) to your web browser's trusted certificates or by simply copying and pasting each URL into your browser’s address bar and follow the prompts to add the exception.

Updating snapshots

To update snapshots used in tests, use Vitest's -u flag, e.g.:

pnpm test DeveloperSettingsTab -u

Playwright tests

Our Playwright tests run automatically as part of our CI along with our other tests, on every pull request.

You may need to follow instructions to set up your development environment for running Playwright by following https://playwright.dev/docs/browsers#install-browsers and https://playwright.dev/docs/browsers#install-system-dependencies.

However the Playwright tests are run, an element-call instance must be running on https://localhost:3000 (this is configured in playwright.config.ts) - this is what will be tested.

The local backend environment should be running for the test to work: pnpm backend

There are a few different ways to run the tests yourself. The simplest is to run:

pnpm run test:playwright

This will run the Playwright tests once, non-interactively.

There is a more user-friendly way to run the tests in interactive mode:

pnpm run test:playwright:open

The easiest way to develop new test is to use the codegen feature of Playwright:

npx playwright codegen

This will record your action and write the test code for you. Use the tool bar to test visibility, text content and clicking.

Investigate a failed test from the CI

In the failed action page, click on the failed job, then scroll down to the upload-artifact step. You will find a link to download the zip report, as per:

Artifact playwright-report has been successfully uploaded! Final size is 1360358 bytes. Artifact ID is 2746265841
Artifact download URL: https://github.com/element-hq/element-call/actions/runs/13837660687/artifacts/2746265841

Unzip the report then use this command to open the report in your browser:

npx playwright show-report ~/Downloads/playwright-report/

Under the failed test there is a small icon looking like "3 columns" (next to the test name file name), click on it to see the live screenshots/console output.

Test Coverage

Add a new translation key

To add a new translation key you can do these steps:

1. Add the new key entry to the code where the new key is used: t("some_new_key")

2. Run pnpm i18n to extract the new key and update the translation files. This will add a skeleton entry to the locales/en/app.json file:

   {
       ...
       "some_new_key": "",
       ...
   }
   

3. Update the skeleton entry in the locales/en/app.json file with the English translation:

   {
       ...
       "some_new_key": "Some new key",
       ...
   }
   

📖 Documentation

Usage and other technical details about the project can be found here:

Docs

GitHub Labels

GitHub labels in this repository are maintained in the labels.yml file and automatically synced to GitHub using the sync-labels workflow. We do this so that we can reuse the labels between repositories.

[!WARNING] Do not manually edit labels in the GitHub UI. Any manual changes will be overridden by the workflow on its next invocation.

📝 Copyright & License

Copyright 2021-2025 New Vector Ltd

This software is dual-licensed by New Vector Ltd (Element). It can be used either:

(1) for free under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License (as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version); OR

(2) under the terms of a paid-for Element Commercial License agreement between you and Element (the terms of which may vary depending on what you and Element have agreed to). Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the Licenses is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the Licenses for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the Licenses.