uwum

A Matrix client with end-to-end encryption and LiveKit voice, in the UwU design system. Tauri 2 + Rust backend, React + TypeScript frontend.

npm install
npm run app          # dev, with hot reload
npm run app:build    # release .app / .dmg

npm run android         # dev build on a connected device
npm run android:build -- --apk   # release .apk (--aab for Play)

npm run ios             # dev build on a connected device or simulator
npm run ios:build       # release .ipa

macOS and iOS build today, and Android runs on a device. Linux and Windows are kept viable — no macOS-only crates, and both custom-protocol URL forms are handled — but neither is tested yet.

Voice does not work on Linux, and not for a reason uwum can fix. The WebView there is WebKitGTK, whose ENABLE_WEB_RTC follows ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_FEATURES — off — and no distribution overrides it, so RTCPeerConnection does not exist however the enable-webrtc setting reads back. Everything else works; joining a call says so rather than failing obscurely.

A WebKitGTK built with WebRTC in it is the only thing that could change that, and nobody has got one working yet — the route below is where to start, not a recipe known to arrive. On Arch, rebuild the distribution package with two flags added to cmake_options:

git clone https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/webkit2gtk-4.1
cd webkit2gtk-4.1
# in cmake_options: -D ENABLE_WEB_RTC=ON  -D USE_LIBRICE=OFF
makepkg -si

USE_LIBRICE defaults to ON in 2.52 and no distribution packages librice yet, so cmake stops on it; OFF puts ICE back on libnice. USE_GSTREAMER_WEBRTC is already ON by default, and OpenSSL 3 and gstreamer-webrtc-1.0 (from gst-plugins-bad) are the only other build-time requirements. Expect hours and tens of gigabytes, and an IgnorePkg entry so the next -Syu doesn't undo it.

That build then has to be the one the app actually loads, which the AppImage is not — linuxdeploy bundles a WebKitGTK and its WebKitWebProcess inside, so the AppImage ignores whatever is installed on the system. Run a locally built uwum (npm run app, or npm run app:build on the patched machine) to get the system WebKitGTK.

An attempt at exactly this on Arch with 2.52.6 did not end in a working call, and why is not yet established — so treat the flags as researched rather than proven, and check typeof RTCPeerConnection in the rebuilt WebKitGTK before blaming anything in this repository.

Android needs an SDK, an NDK and a JDK. npm run android finds all three itself if they are installed; from nothing, that is:

brew install --cask android-commandlinetools temurin
sdkmanager --licenses
sdkmanager platform-tools "platforms;android-36" "build-tools;36.0.0" "ndk;27.3.13750724"
rustup target add aarch64-linux-android armv7-linux-androideabi i686-linux-android x86_64-linux-android

Updates

Every v* tag produces one release that serves both halves of distribution: the installers people download for the first time, and latest.json — the manifest the installed app polls. They are built from the same run, and the release only leaves draft once every platform's assets are attached, so the app can never be offered a version that isn't fully published.

The app can only apply an update where it owns the install: macOS, Windows, and Linux via AppImage. A .deb, an .apk and an .ipa belong to apt or to the phone, so those builds say a new version exists and open the release page instead. Which of the two applies is decided in src-tauri/src/update.rs, not guessed in the frontend — on Linux the same binary ships both ways.

Updates are signed, and the app installs nothing the key below did not sign. The public half lives in tauri.conf.json (plugins.updater.pubkey); the private half must exist in the repository's Actions secrets, or a tag fails immediately:

Secret	What it is
TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY	the contents of the .key from tauri signer generate
TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD	the password set when generating it

Like the Android keystore, this key cannot be rotated freely: an app only accepts updates signed by the key it was built with, so a new key strands every copy already installed until its owner downloads a build by hand. Keep the private key and its password somewhere they outlive the machine that made them.

npm run tauri signer generate -- -w ~/.tauri/uwum-updater.key

What works

Login (password and SSO), session persistence in the OS keychain, sliding sync, room list with spaces and favourites, timeline with replies, reactions, threads, edits, redactions, typing, read receipts and file upload, device verification, voice calls over MatrixRTC, and profiles — bio, status and cover photo, with a card behind every avatar.

Where to look next

• ARCHITECTURE.md — how it's put together, and the traps that cost hours to find. Read the traps before changing anything in the timeline or media paths.
• DESIGN.md — the visual spec: tokens, voice, motion, and the rules the UI is meant to hold to.
• PLAN.md — features researched but not built: custom emoji and stickers, room backgrounds. Event shapes and traps included.

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This file is a placeholder — the two documents above carry the real content.