element-call
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Element Call URLs are not super friendly
Element Call makes it as simple as Jitsi to create a new call by picking a probably-unique URL, but it is immediately translated to https://subdomain.domain.tld/room/#roomid:subdomain.matrixserver.tld which:
- dilutes the simplicity,
- introduces ambiguity and,
- most importantly, diminishes the discoverability of the simple URL (which I think is one of Jitsi's greatest usability strengths)
If I'm sharing a link in an invite, I'll very likely copy+pasta the URL from the address bar, meaning others users' first exposure to the platform won't expose them to the Jitsi-like simplicity of creating conference calls by URL only.
This is basically going to come down to a tradeoff between usability and openness, ie. the .matrixserver.tld
bit is necessary because we support rooms on different homeservers rather than only supporting one. Sure, you could have a default, but then you're still penalised for not using the default. Meaningful URLs are certainly nice though.
I think we could move from:
https://call.element.io/room/#example:call.ems.host
To:
https://call.element.io/#example
We already support redirecting from the second to the first. Maybe we should just show that route all the time so that it's easier to copy and paste?
For accessing rooms on another homeserver you could use this route scheme:
https://call.element.io/#example:otherhomeserver.com
Also the #ptt
feature flag should probably change to a query parameter ?ptt
We should also keep the old https://call.element.io/room/#example:call.ems.host
scheme around so people's calendar links don't break.