Element (formerly Riot)

Modern workplaces heavily rely on efficient team collaboration, hence,  for the teamwork to be as effective as possible, most companies employ the services of various collaboration tools.

Be that as it may, with limited bridges between each other, collaboration tools are only truly outstanding within their bespoke, hidden-from-the-outside-world environment.

Meet Element, formerly known as Riot, a messaging/collaboration app/service that aims to create a shared, unified workspace and bring online collaboration into a widely-accessible space. Before anything else, we would like to say that Element is a no-compromise solution and protecting your privacy is not something that is overlooked.

In fact, since Element is built on top of Matrix, one of the best open networks for secure communication, it comes with robust end-to-end encryption, placing it right somewhere next to the big names in the industry like Slack, Telegram and, the most recent member to join this security-orientated gang, WhatsApp.

Also of great interest is the fact that Element can be run on your computer's web browser, on your iOS or Android-based smartphones, as well as on Windows, macOS, and Linux, thanks to its Electron-based, smooth-running clients. There's more good news, as the service also features integration with JIRA, GitHub, Jenkins, with plans for Basecamp, Invision, and Zeppelin.

On Windows, the installation process is utterly effortless. Simply launch the app's hands-off installer, and in just a few seconds you should be able to glimpse at Element's interface, without any intervention. Evidently, you will first need to create an Element account and activate it with the help of your computer's browser, before you can actually use it to log in.

If you have ever used other collaboration apps before, then you are bound to feel right at home using Element. The interface looks modern enough, the layout follows the same patterns as other collaboration apps out there, which means that all the communication, sharing and collaboration elements are always within easy reach.

Ahead of the conclusions, we feel obliged to tell you that even though Element has a lot of extraordinary things going for it, it currently does not feel exactly "polished." Without beating around the bush for too long, Element is currently more suited for development teams and other, more tech-savvy users than, say, corporate environments.

Besides an open, secure, and flexible collaboration environment for you and your team (or community), Element comes with typical group chat features (VoIP and even video calling), integration with other useful productivity tools and easy file transfer and management, which make it, by all accounts, one of the best tools of this sort.