Matrix.to

Matrix.to is a simple url redirection service for the Matrix.org ecosystem which lets users share links to matrix entities without being tied to a specific app. Stylistically it serves as a landing page for rooms and communities.

Matrix.to preserves user privacy by not sharing any information about the links being followed with the Matrix.to server - the redirection is calculated entirely clientside using JavaScript, and the link details is hidden behind a fragment to avoid web clients leaking it to the server. However, acting as a landing page it may leak your ip to any number of homeservers involved with the entity linked to while fetching previews. There is an opt out under which no previews will be loaded.

Anyone is welcome to host their own version of the Matrix.to app - Matrix.to is not a single point of failure on the Matrix ecosystem; if the matrix.to deployment ever failed, users could trivially copy the room/user/message details out of the URLs and follow them manually, or change the hostname to point at an alternative deployment of the service. The Matrix.to service could also be hosted in an immutable/signed environment such as IPFS to further increase its availability and avoid tampering.

The matrix.to URL scheme is

The #/ component is mandatory and exists to avoid leaking the target URL to the server hosting matrix.to.

Note that linking to rooms by ID should only be used for rooms to which the target user has been invited: these links cannot be assumed to work for all visitors.

(Technically the # and @ in the URL fragment should probably be escaped, but in practice for legibility we bend the rules and include it verbatim)

You can discuss matrix.to in #matrix.to:matrix.org