Element-android: Bubble-themed chat

[nukeador]

One of the things that I miss the most about RiotX is the ability to display the chats with a style/theme that is more aligned with other mobile messaging apps.

I think a bubble-themed style is easier to the eyes and cleaner.

Vs the current IRC/Slack style:

Maybe this could be an option people can switch to, but most people I've been talking about expected a more familiar bubble-themed style by default on mobile.

[andycuccaro]

I think even something "not-so-bubbly", like the ones used by the stock SMS app in AOSP. I feel like the more squared corners don't waste as much screen real estate as the more rounded corners do.
Example:

[irvin]

or just implement theming feature and let the community do the rest.

[nukeador]

Also, for some reason, I like the ability to identify my own messages since they are highlighted in a different color and use less space because I don't need to see my avatar.

[fbruetting]

I really like the current style, you get a lot of information onto the screen, but it still provides enough space for logical separation. Especially the second screenshot uses way too much space, so that you just get very little information on already small screens.

Matrix often is used for "real"/professional information exchange (like Slack) - that's another use-case than WhatsApp-like smalltalk to me. Current style fits both, bubble-style fits more the last example. 🤔

So if bubble-style, please make it more tight. 😉

And for OLED themes, I guess not having bubbles is an advantage.

[bpcurse]

Also, for some reason, I like the ability to identify my own messages since they are highlighted in a different color and use less space because I don't need to see my avatar.

xref: Highlighting messages - Issue at Riot Web
https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/12306

[jwsp1]

definitely a must-have for a future update. But for the moment the devs should still concentrate on adding basic functions. Anyways, hope to see this feature arrive soon, too

[SpiritCroc]

I created a fork of Element which features message bubbles (based on the ones found in the AOSP messaging app): https://github.com/SpiritCroc/SchildiChat-android
Since I didn't fully understand the code-generation that's going on in the relevant parts (in particular, I didn't see how I could best re-use the same code for different layouts), I don't think that it's suitable for including in Element (yet?), but I figured in case anybody wants to look into it, it might be a starting point.

[Hobby-Student]

I know many people not wanting to use Element because it does not look like the things they know. They compare it to WhatsApp... (you can like this comparison or not)
I use matrix (Element as primary client) as a tool in my daily business and try to introduce it to my private life too. But the feedback I get is mostly "unusable" because of the layout. Some would love to get away from centralized WhatsApp, if the usability (layout) would be similar.
I don't know if the community theming (@irvin) would be much of work to integrate, but it sounds really good.

@SpiritCroc very nice what you did.

[SpiritCroc]

I have not yet seen any theming solution on Android yet, which would be powerful enough for message bubbles, i.e. which allows to change layouts. That's usually for a good reason too, since bad themes could easily crash the app or even mislead users to do other actions than they want, if themes have full control over layouts.
To allow for bubble themes, I see the need to already have some basic message bubble implementation available in the app, which could be controlled with user themes.

[ski7777]

+1

[TheTrainor]

When I try to convince people to use Matrix/Element, the fact the UI doesn't more closely align with every other app they are used to has been one of the most-cited reasons for not making the switch.

I can definitely understand people who prefer the current view in big multi-person chat groups. But for the average 1:1 conversation it seems to be sub-optimal.

My personal preference would be to default to the familiar bubble-like chat for 1:1 -> 1:5 (?) person chats, any more than that and switch to the IRC style display.

I know I can suggest alternative clients but it's a hard sell when my mostly computer-illiterate friends go to the app store page for e.g. FluffyChat and see "1000 downloads"... they'll think it's a scam.

Just my 2c.