I’ll be mentoring Pavan Karthik on his project for Google Summer of Code 2017 entitled “Matrix Protocol Support for Instantbird”. Matrix is a new(er) protocol that is an open, decentralized network with some unique features. Initial support for this landed in bug 1315926, but it is not feature rich-enough to turn on for users. Pavan will work to finish Matrix support so we can enable it for all users! The brief description of his proposal is below:

Matrix is an open, decentralized protocol for instant messaging (and more!) It has bridges to many other networks and protocol, e.g. IRC , Slack, and more. Initial support for Matrix was added in bug 1199855, but there’s a lot to do still : Support more features from the Matrix SDK (video/audio calls, room topics, typing notifications, read receipts and a lot more.) Support one-on-one conversations. Add tests specific to Matrix. Improve the Matrix JS - SDK that Instantbird and Thunderbird depend on. Improving and expanding shared code and APIs used by all JavaScript protocol plugins ( IRC , XMPP , Yahoo and Twitter). Improving documentation of the process for adding a protocol to Instantbird/Thunderbird. Using the Matrix protocol on a day-to-day basis to dog-food the code.

I’m super excited to finalize support for Matrix in both Instantbird and Thunderbird! You can also checkout the full 25 projects that Mozilla accepted.