Bridges
Matrix can do more than just be another chat app you have to install. Bridges in Matrix allow you to access your other chat apps from within Matrix!
Matrix supports bridging for many platforms. This page will assume Discord, but view the full list of bridges here. The process should be relatively similar for all chat apps.
Different Types of Bridges
Bridging is just the term for letting Matrix users communicate with users on other platforms. There exists two separate types of bridging:
1: Relay Bridging
2: Puppet Bridging
Relay bridging acts as a bot account that re-sends every message sent in a server. This is more accessible and usually available in public bots.
Puppet bridging logs into your actual account and gives you a feature-complete experience (DMs and Servers included). This is usually advanced to setup and requires you or a close friend to host these services.
Relay Bridging
Relay bridging is the easiest type of bridge to set up. This only works in Discord servers where you have permission to add a bot, and that bot will act as a mirror to let users on both platforms see all messages sent by users of either platform.
DMs are not possible on relay bridges, since it is just a bot sending messages back and forth from these two platforms.
Public relay bots exist. You can search on the internet for one, or view this one made by t2bot.
Puppet Bridging
Puppet bridging logs into your actual account and gives you full access to most of the features of a platform. This includes any servers you are a part of (even if you don’t have server permissions to add a bot), and all of your DM contacts!
Because of the nature of puppet bridges logging into your account and having full access to all your DMs, it is not reccomended to trust any public puppet bridge services you may find. Either host a puppet bridge yourself or talk to a technical friend that may know how to set it up.
Next Steps:
There is currently nothing more in the basic usage section! If you’d like to go even further into Matrix, consider checking out the advanced topics on the homepage.