Feature parity of Matrix-based Gitter regarding GitHub/GitLab integration
(Originally posted on twitter)
Following the recent announcement that Gitter is on the verge of migrating to be fully backed by Matrix, I am curious about what is the plan for features that are not (yet?) available on the Matrix side of things. Specifically, GitHub/GitLab-related features, like synced room management permissions with GitHub organization membership, issue and PR short references, integrated stream of activity updates from the repos, etc. This seamless integration with collaborative forges is a big part of what made Gitter a natural choice for a chat room for FOSS projects.
The original blog post specifically promised (emphasis mine):
Our plan is instead to merge Gitter’s features into Element (or next generations of Element) itself and then - if and only if Element has achieved parity with Gitter based on the above list - we expect to upgrade the deployment on gitter.im to a Gitter-customised version of Element.
...where "the above list" included the following GitHub/GitLab-related features:
- Seamless onboarding thanks to using GitLab & GitHub for accounts
- Magical creation of rooms on demand for every GitLab and GitHub project ever
- GitLab/GitHub activity as a first-class citizen in a room’s side-panel
Since the new blog post says that app.gitter.im will be a "new branded Element instance", I guess my question is whether this is the "Gitter-customised version of Element" that the original blog post alluded to, i.e. with additional features to match what gitter.im currently offers? Or is it (as the term "branded" suggests) more about design and surface appearance, at least for the time being?