Element Classic

Name: Element Classic
Rating: 3.3 (560 reviews)
Author: Vector Creations Limited

Previous generation Element

Free

560 Ratings
Ages

16+
Years
Category

Business
Developer

Vector Creations Limited
Language

EN
+ 48 More
Size

154.4
MB

Element Classic is the previous-generation of Element mobile app. Friends, family and communities should use the free and open source Element X app which is faster, easier to use, and more powerful. New users of public sector organisations, enterprises and professional teams users should use the Element Pro app that is built for work and organizations. Element Classic is available at least until the end of 2025 and will receive critical security updates but no further enhancements or new features.

Ratings & Reviews

3.3

out of 5

560 Ratings

UI/UX Needs Improvement
02/14/2021

jameshass
I love the concept and hope this app grows, but it is not intuitive and makes it difficult for people to setup and use—both mobile & desktop.Here are a few:1. Favorites is unnecessary. You can add / see / modify them in Home.2. People & Rooms can be lumped under a new category of ‘Discover’, ‘Search’, ‘Explore’, ‘Find’ or something along those lines. Rooms & Conversations subsections only need to be in Home.3. Communities could be one of the best features in this app, but it needs significant attention.3a. The entirety of Communities area, incl existing subsections needs an ability to edit / add. You cannot modify a community’s name, img or anything. You can’t create rooms in the room subsection, etc. Major drawback.3b. All of the current subtabs are unnecessary. Something like the following is preferred.Communities> CommunityC> CommunityD>> Rooms>>> Room1>>>> People>>>> Images/Videos>>>> Docs/Files>>> Room2>>> Room3>> Messages (Private)>> Directory (could be superfluous)+ a function to cluster & arrange roomsThere are more, but I’ve typed up alot already. Hope to see some improvements. Cheers.
UI/UX Needs Improvement
02/14/2021

jameshass

I love the concept and hope this app grows, but it is not intuitive and makes it difficult for people to setup and use—both mobile & desktop.Here are a few:1. Favorites is unnecessary. You can add / see / modify them in Home.2. People & Rooms can be lumped under a new category of ‘Discover’, ‘Search’, ‘Explore’, ‘Find’ or something along those lines. Rooms & Conversations subsections only need to be in Home.3. Communities could be one of the best features in this app, but it needs significant attention.3a. The entirety of Communities area, incl existing subsections needs an ability to edit / add. You cannot modify a community’s name, img or anything. You can’t create rooms in the room subsection, etc. Major drawback.3b. All of the current subtabs are unnecessary. Something like the following is preferred.Communities> CommunityC> CommunityD>> Rooms>>> Room1>>>> People>>>> Images/Videos>>>> Docs/Files>>> Room2>>> Room3>> Messages (Private)>> Directory (could be superfluous)+ a function to cluster & arrange roomsThere are more, but I’ve typed up alot already. Hope to see some improvements. Cheers.
Mobile app is riddled with bugs
04/18/2022

dannib17
Been using Element since September so my friend and I could have separate rooms to discuss creative projects we work on together. We had been using a different system for years and wanted something similar to Discord, but Discord doesn’t allow for account switching so we went for this.The encryption definitely works, and normally it’s easy to have multiple sessions on multiple devices and switch seamlessly. But lately (the last 2-3 weeks) the mobile app has given us a lot of trouble. It keeps randomly hiding the rooms that we’re not active in at that moment, and while I can just uninstall and reinstall the app (and re-verify every time) to fix this, my friend attempted to do the same and now, all messages he sent beyond some point in January can’t be decrypted on his end. 😐Really frustrated with this, as we put a lot of trust in Element and we use messages to keep track of decisions we make, since our creative works are purely for fun. As I write this, I’m redownloading the app for what I think must be the fifth time this week. It’s a daily thing at this point.Element, PLEASE fix your mobile app, it honestly worked quite well before the last month or so. Before then, I only had issues when my phone was insanely low on storage, and that was on me.
Mobile app is riddled with bugs
04/18/2022

dannib17

Been using Element since September so my friend and I could have separate rooms to discuss creative projects we work on together. We had been using a different system for years and wanted something similar to Discord, but Discord doesn’t allow for account switching so we went for this.The encryption definitely works, and normally it’s easy to have multiple sessions on multiple devices and switch seamlessly. But lately (the last 2-3 weeks) the mobile app has given us a lot of trouble. It keeps randomly hiding the rooms that we’re not active in at that moment, and while I can just uninstall and reinstall the app (and re-verify every time) to fix this, my friend attempted to do the same and now, all messages he sent beyond some point in January can’t be decrypted on his end. 😐Really frustrated with this, as we put a lot of trust in Element and we use messages to keep track of decisions we make, since our creative works are purely for fun. As I write this, I’m redownloading the app for what I think must be the fifth time this week. It’s a daily thing at this point.Element, PLEASE fix your mobile app, it honestly worked quite well before the last month or so. Before then, I only had issues when my phone was insanely low on storage, and that was on me.
Best free E2EE open-source messenger
04/05/2021

olynerd
At time of writing, this app has a 3.7 rating and that is a very fair assessment of its quality and usability. It isn’t the most user-friendly messenger on the App Store, but some of that is by design. The lower more critical ratings are not fair IMHO; some of the inconvenience of security is required for it to be secure i.e. needing to verify keys devices and users, etc. People want privacy and security without adding additional steps but those steps create more privacy and security inherently. Case in point, 2 factor authentication. Is it quicker to not enable for your internet accounts? Sure. Does taking an extra few seconds make you more secure? Absolutely. All of that said, both my tech-illiterate parents (in their 60s) and my older gen-X siblings use this app daily without any issue.
Best free E2EE open-source messenger
04/05/2021

olynerd

At time of writing, this app has a 3.7 rating and that is a very fair assessment of its quality and usability. It isn’t the most user-friendly messenger on the App Store, but some of that is by design. The lower more critical ratings are not fair IMHO; some of the inconvenience of security is required for it to be secure i.e. needing to verify keys devices and users, etc. People want privacy and security without adding additional steps but those steps create more privacy and security inherently. Case in point, 2 factor authentication. Is it quicker to not enable for your internet accounts? Sure. Does taking an extra few seconds make you more secure? Absolutely. All of that said, both my tech-illiterate parents (in their 60s) and my older gen-X siblings use this app daily without any issue.
Minor bugs but overall a solid app
07/16/2022

Mac Logos
The good: great app, loads fast, uses blockchain technology, has lots of great rooms, lots of tech savvy people, and easy and intuitive app design allowing you to find new content and friends, hobbies, etc. I love it. The not so good: There’s an annoying bug where if you edit a previous post to make a correction, the “update” removes all previous formatting. So if you wrote a long post that had some words in bold, some words italicized, and you had spaces in between your paragraphs, this bug causes all those things to be lost. Your “updated” comment now shows the correction you made but everything is now one boldless, italicizedless, single unbroken paragraph. It can be a little frustrating to have to go over and redo all those things again just because when you reread something you wrote, realized you missed a word or misspelled something and wanted to correct that one little mistake. Apart from that, this app is great. I love it.
Minor bugs but overall a solid app
07/16/2022

Mac Logos

The good: great app, loads fast, uses blockchain technology, has lots of great rooms, lots of tech savvy people, and easy and intuitive app design allowing you to find new content and friends, hobbies, etc. I love it. The not so good: There’s an annoying bug where if you edit a previous post to make a correction, the “update” removes all previous formatting. So if you wrote a long post that had some words in bold, some words italicized, and you had spaces in between your paragraphs, this bug causes all those things to be lost. Your “updated” comment now shows the correction you made but everything is now one boldless, italicizedless, single unbroken paragraph. It can be a little frustrating to have to go over and redo all those things again just because when you reread something you wrote, realized you missed a word or misspelled something and wanted to correct that one little mistake. Apart from that, this app is great. I love it.

The Element app is now called Element Classic. If you haven't already, we recommend you try out our newer app Element X, which will soon become the default Element app for iOS. It's faster, simpler & more reliable.

Version 1.11.32

Oct 17

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Location
- Contact Info
- Identifiers
- Diagnostics
Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Contacts
- User Content
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics