Meet Element R: our new unified crypto implementation

We’ve created a common cryptographic library implementation in Rust - codenamed Element R - for all our Element clients. With the latest release of Element Web and Desktop, the new implementation is now deployed across all of our mobile and desktop apps (iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux and Web) and means we can now start to realise its full potential. This is because until now not all users were relying on the new implementation, which is necessary to experience the full extent of the performance and reliability benefits.

This project has minimised the complexities associated with implementing E2EE. Many crypto issues/bugs from the legacy implementations are fixed now and there will be fewer instances where users are unable to decrypt messages. All of this work future-proofs our crypto and lays a strong foundation for our next-gen mobile app: Element X.

Given our software is a secure communications platform, a robust cryptographic implementation is central to our underlying architecture. It protects users, strengthens security and enables zero-trust decentralisation. Without the best cryptography, Element wouldn’t be working with multiple government agencies across the world. This includes three of our key German partners - the Ministry for the Interior (BMI) and the IT services providers BWI and Dataport - who we'd like to thank for their support on this project. Together, through our collaboration, we've covered tremendous ground and achieved great results within the timescale.

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