Hey everyone! We’re excited to announce that Pawb Social now has its own Matrix server at matrix.pawb.social! This is a big step for our community — a federated, decentralized chat platform that we control, built for all of us.

If you’ve been using Discord and are wondering what this is all about, read on! We’ve put together everything you need to know to get started.

What is Matrix?

Matrix is an open, decentralized communication protocol — think of it like email, but for chat. Just like you can email someone on Gmail from a Yahoo account, Matrix lets you chat with anyone on any Matrix server from your account on ours. Servers talk to each other through federation, meaning you’re never locked into one provider. This concept is very similar to the Fediverse, which you are already making use of here with Lemmy, Mastodon, and other such services.

Matrix supports:

• Direct messages and group chats (called “rooms”)
• Spaces — these work like Discord servers, organizing rooms under one umbrella
• End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) — private conversations that even server admins can’t read
• Voice and video calls (Soon, currently Pawb Matrix doesn’t support this)
• File sharing, reactions, stickers, threads, and more

If you’re coming from Discord, a lot of this will feel familiar. The biggest difference is that you own your experience, and no single corporation controls the platform.

Getting Started

Step 1: Sign In with Your Existing Pawb Account

The best part? You don’t need to create a new account. Our Matrix server uses Single Sign-On (SSO), which means if you already have an account on any of these services, you can sign right in:

• pawb.social
• furry.engineer
• pawb.fun

When you sign in for the first time via SSO, a Matrix account will be automatically created for you. Easy!

Step 2: Open the Web Client

Our default web client is Cinny, which we chose because it provides a familiar, Discord-like experience. If you’ve used Discord before, you’ll feel right at home — Cinny has a similar layout with a server/space list on the left, channels (rooms) in the middle, and a member list on the right.

To get started, head to our Cinny instance (accessible through matrix.pawb.social) and sign in with your Pawb account via SSO.

Step 3: Join Some Rooms and Spaces

Once you’re in, look for our community Spaces — these are the Matrix equivalent of a Discord server. Inside each Space, you’ll find rooms (channels) for different topics. You can also:

• Browse public rooms to find conversations that interest you
• Create your own rooms for private group chats
• Direct message anyone on any Matrix server, not just ours

Navigating Cinny

Since Cinny is our default client, here’s a quick orientation. It uses a three-column layout that should feel familiar if you’ve used Discord:

• Left sidebar (narrow icon bar) — This is your navigation hub. At the top you’ll find icons for Home (your overview and direct messages), People (DM list), and your Spaces (which show up as icons, just like Discord’s server list). At the bottom you’ll find Search, Bookmarks, and your profile/settings.
• Middle panel — When you select a Space from the left sidebar, this panel shows you all the rooms within that Space (like Discord’s channel list). You’ll see room names organized under headings, and if the Space has categories (like “Rooms” or “Admin Zone”), they’ll appear here as collapsible sections. This is also where the Lobby, Message Search, and other Space-level features live.
• Right panel (main area) — This is where the active conversation lives. You’ll see the message history, user messages with avatars and timestamps, and the message input bar at the bottom. The room name and description appear at the top. You can react to messages, reply, and more using the action buttons that appear when you hover over a message.

Cinny supports Markdown formatting in messages, emoji reactions, file uploads, and reply threading — all the essentials you’d expect.

Choosing a Client (Desktop & Mobile)

One of the great things about Matrix is that you’re not locked into one app. You can use any compatible client, and your messages stay in sync across all of them. Here are some options:

📱 Mobile (Recommended: FluffyChat)

For mobile users, we strongly recommend FluffyChat. It’s a beautiful, easy-to-use Matrix client available for both Android and iOS. It has a clean, modern interface that’s intuitive for newcomers and handles E2EE well out of the box. It’s the smoothest mobile Matrix experience available right now.

🖥️ Desktop

• Cinny (Web/Desktop) — Our default. Discord-like layout, clean and intuitive. Available as a web app or desktop application.
• FluffyChat (Desktop) — Also available on desktop via web or native apps. Great if you want a consistent experience across your phone and computer.
• Nheko — A lightweight, native desktop client for those who prefer something fast and resource-friendly.
• Element — The most well-known Matrix client. While it’s feature-complete, it can feel clunky and overwhelming compared to the alternatives above, so we’d suggest trying the other options first.

You can use multiple clients at the same time — sign into Cinny on your desktop and FluffyChat on your phone, and everything stays synced.

Device Verification & End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)

This is one of the most important things to understand about Matrix, especially if you value privacy. Please read this section carefully.

What is E2EE?

End-to-End Encryption means that messages are encrypted on your device and can only be decrypted by the intended recipients. Not even the server admins can read E2EE messages. Many rooms (especially DMs) are encrypted by default.

What is Device Verification?

Matrix E2EE is tied to your devices (each browser session, app, or client counts as a separate device). To ensure that your encrypted messages are actually going to you and not an impersonator, Matrix uses a system called cross-signing and device verification.

Here’s what you need to know:

Setting Up Your First Device

When you first sign in, you’ll want to set up your encryption keys right away. Depending on your client, you may be prompted to do this automatically, or you may need to go into Settings > Security to start the process manually. In Cinny, for example, you’ll see an alert if your device hasn’t been verified yet — when you see that, head into your security settings to get it sorted.

You’ll be asked to create a Security Key (also called a recovery key) or a Security Phrase. Do this as soon as possible and save your security key/phrase somewhere safe. This is your backup if you ever lose access to all your devices — without it, you could lose access to your encrypted message history permanently.

Verifying a New Device

When you sign into a second device (say, FluffyChat on your phone after already using Cinny on your desktop), you’ll need to verify the new device. This usually works one of two ways:

1. Interactive verification — If you’re already signed in on another device, the new device will ask you to verify it from your existing session. You’ll typically compare a set of emoji or a number on both screens and confirm they match. This proves both devices are controlled by you.
2. Security Key/Phrase — If you don’t have another active session handy, you can verify the new device using the Security Key or Security Phrase you saved during initial setup.

Why This Matters

• Unverified devices may not be able to read encrypted messages, or other users might see a warning that you have unverified sessions
• If you sign in somewhere new and skip verification, you might find you can’t read older messages in encrypted rooms
• Always verify new sessions as soon as they appear — it only takes a moment
• Never lose your Security Key — treat it like a password. Write it down, store it in a password manager, whatever works for you

Quick Verification Checklist

1. ✅ Sign in on your first device and save your Security Key/Phrase
2. ✅ Sign in on additional devices and verify them immediately using emoji comparison or your Security Key
3. ✅ Check your session list in settings periodically and remove any sessions you don’t recognize
4. ✅ If a contact’s device shows as unverified, ask them to verify — don’t just dismiss the warning

It’s a little more involved than Discord’s approach, but it means your private conversations are actually private. It’s worth the effort.

Why Move Away from Discord?

We know some of you might be wondering: “Discord works fine, why bother?” That’s a fair question. Here’s why this matters:

Discord is about to get a lot more invasive. Discord is rolling out requirements for ID verification and/or highly intrusive age verification in order to continue using the platform. For a community like ours — where many members value their privacy and participate under a fursona or pseudonym — being forced to hand over government-issued identification or submit to invasive verification just to chat with friends is a dealbreaker. This is a direct threat to the privacy and safety of our community members, and it’s one of the primary reasons we’re building our own home on Matrix now rather than waiting until it’s too late.

Discord is centralized. That means one company controls everything — your account, your data, your communities, and the rules. If Discord decides to change its terms of service, shut down a server, or ban an account, there’s no appeal to a higher authority. Entire communities have been wiped out overnight with no recourse. For marginalized communities like ours in the furry fandom, that risk is real and ever-present.

Matrix is federated and decentralized. Our server, matrix.pawb.social, is ours. We run it, we set the rules, and we control our own data. But because Matrix is federated, we’re not isolated — we can still communicate with anyone on any other Matrix server across the globe. If we ever needed to move, our community wouldn’t be at the mercy of a single company’s decisions.

It’s also open source. The protocol, the servers, and the clients are all built on open standards. Anyone can audit the code. Anyone can run a server. Nobody can lock you in or take it away.

Moving to Matrix is about community sovereignty — knowing that the digital space we’ve built together actually belongs to us and can’t be pulled out from under our feet. It’s about building something that lasts, on our terms.

Special Thanks

A huge shout-out to Joshua Kimsey for creating the Lemmy SSO Bridge! Lemmy doesn’t natively support Single Sign-On, so this project was vital in making our seamless SSO experience possible across the Pawb Social network. If you appreciate being able to sign into Matrix with your existing Pawb account, Joshua’s work is a big reason why. Go give the project a star if you get a chance! ⭐

Tutorial Video

If you would like to watch a general tutorial video on how to start getting into Matrix as a beginner, this video from Techlore serves as a great introduction. Please do note that not everything he covers will apply to the Pawb Matrix instance, due to differences in default front-end, sign-in options, supported features, etc. Regardless, it still can help new beginners who are looking to learn about Matrix in a video format.

TL;DR

• 🏠 Our Matrix server: matrix.pawb.social
• 🔑 Sign in with your existing pawb.social, furry.engineer, or pawb.fun account via SSO
• 💻 Default web client: Cinny — feels like Discord!
• 📱 Best mobile client: FluffyChat
• 🔒 Set up your Security Key in your security settings after first sign-in — seriously, do it
• ✅ Verify your devices to keep E2EE working smoothly
• 🌐 Federated & decentralized — our community, our rules, our data

We’re thrilled to have this up and running, and we can’t wait to see you all on there. If you have questions, drop them in the comments and we’ll help you out!

See you on Matrix! 🐾