Fractal (software)

Fractal
DeveloperThe GNOME Project
Release16 March 2018; 8 years ago (2018-03-16)
Written inRust
PlatformUnix-like
StandardMatrix
Available in47 languages
TypeIM, chat
LicenseGPLv3
Websitegitlab.gnome.org/World/fractal Edit this on Wikidata
Repository

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. It implements end-to-end encryption but lacks support for audio/video calls. 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 Libadwaita. Logon credentials can be stored in any local password manager that provides the Secret Service API.

History

The first code was committed to Fest (formerly known as ruma-gtk) on December 29, 2016, from which the Fractal codebase was forked by Daniel García Moreno in August 2017. For the first release (v0.1.0) on November 10, 2017, it was called Guillotine.

With the release of version 0.1.22 on March 27, 2018, it entered beta status. With GNOME version 3.30 of September 5, 2018, it reached release status.

Over that summer, two students worked on Fractal, which was sponsored as part of the Google Summer of Code program, including the development of localization and spell-checking support. Computer manufacturer Purism was working to integrate it into the crowd-funded Linux smartphone Librem 5, and sponsored the development of some features such as support for Matrix' end-to-end encryption (E2EE) that was standardized in 2018. E2EE was implemented as a separate software module whose basic functionality was available by autumn 2018.

In 2021, a rewrite of Fractal was sponsored by NLnet. The goal was to base it on the Matrix Rust SDK which would then enable the software to fully support Matrix' end-to-end-encryption. The rewrite took two years and resulted in Fractal version 5.

References

  1. ↑ "LINGUAS file in repository".
  2. ↑ "README.md · master · GNOME / fractal". GitLab. 17 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Edivaldo Brito (2018-12-09). "Como instalar o app de mensagens Fractal no Linux". Blog do Edivaldo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2019-02-22.
  4. ↑ Commaille, Kévin (2024-05-02). "Version 7 Release Notes". gitlab.gnome.org. Retrieved 2026-09-06.
  5. ↑ Ryan Lerch (2018-05-30). "Fractal: a GNOME Matrix chat client". Fedora Magazine. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  6. ↑ Michael Larabel (2018-10-11). "Purism Is Hoping GNOME 3.32 Will Be In Great Shape For Their Librem 5 Smartphone". Phoronix. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  7. ↑ Verma, Adarsh (2018-10-14). "Linux Smartphone Librem 5 Will Ship With GNOME 3.32". Fossbytes. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  8. 1 2 Franke, Alexandre (2023-11-25). "Fractal 5 released". GNOME Discourse. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  9. ↑ Platte, Jonas (2016-12-29). "Initial commit (3f32474a) · Commits · GNOME / fractal". GitLab. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  10. ↑ Michael Larabel (2018-08-12). "Pitivi's User Interface Is Getting Better Thanks To GSoC, Plus Other GNOME Improvements". Phoronix. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  11. ↑ Nestor, Marius (2018-10-11). "Purism's Privacy-Focused Librem 5 Linux Phone Will Ship with GNOME 3.32 Desktop". softpedia. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  12. ↑ Thommes, Ferdinand (2018-10-16). "Neuer Lagebericht zum Librem 5". linuxnews.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  13. ↑ Sparber, Julian (2021-04-23). "Getting Fractal up to speed". blogs.gnome.org. Retrieved 2026-09-06.