GoKawiilIntroducing Komai: a fine Matrix chat app you can get to love 🦁
May 6, 2026 by Slavi Pantaleev 7 min read
At etke.cc, we host Matrix servers for a living. Almost a decade ago, we were dissatisfied with Matrix self-hosting and launched the matrix-docker-ansible-deploy Ansible playbook (which our etke.cc SaaS is based on). Thanks to that, over time we believe we solved Matrix self-hosting for thousands of users.
All that time, we’ve also been spending a lot of hours staring at Matrix clients — and at things we wished were different.
Today we’re introducing Komai — a desktop-first, native Matrix chat app we’ve been building to scratch that itch. We can’t be sure we’ll solve Matrix on the desktop, but it’s a humble attempt at it.
Komai’s main view — communities sidebar, room list, and timeline side by side.
🤔 Why another Matrix client?¶
We just weren’t happy with what was out there.
Not a swipe at anyone — building a Matrix client is genuinely hard. The protocol surface is enormous (rooms, spaces, threads, receipts, presence, push rules, homeserver quirks…). End-to-end encryption is its own implementation and UX pain on top: multi-device, key backup, verification, cross-signing, recovery.
Stack all of that into one app and UX problems are inevitable. It’s more papercuts than anyone can bear.
... continue reading