When comparing Matrix vs Minimal & Elegant, the Slant community recommends Minimal & Elegant for most people. In the question“What are the best custom Android Wear watch faces?” Minimal & Elegant is ranked 2nd while Matrix is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Minimal & Elegant is:
Time, date and branding and background colors can be set to change depending on time of day. Background can be customized independent from rest of the colors.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Built on an open standard
Matrix is an open standard, defining simple HTTP APIs so that devs can easily write their own clients, bots, bridges or servers. You're not locked into a specific set of implementations.
Pro Bridges other networks into a single decentralised network
Matrix has bridges to IRC (freenode, moznet, oftc, snoonet etc), Slack, Gitter, Rocket.Chat, XMPP, SMS, SIP and others. The point is to 'matrix' all the different networks out there into one single decentralised network.
Pro Has an easy to use client called Riot
Riot.im is the easiest way to use Matrix, with great clients for Web, iOS and Android (and Fdroid).
Pro Does not require a centralized server to establish a connection between two users
Matrix is decentralized, there's no one central point that the information goes through and so no once central point of failure or control.
Pro Matrix prioritizes direct messaging with people the same as Slack-style groups
Matrix aims to "provide an analogous ecosystem to email - one where you can communicate with pretty much anyone, without caring what app or server they are using" using a neutral identity system.
Pro Supports different kinds of communication
Matrix is designed to support Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling (voice and video) and Internet of Things communication.
Pro Has an app store for 3rd party integrations & bots
Riot.im includes an app store with integrations for Github, JIRA, Jenkins, Giphy etc - and anyone can add more via Matrix.
Pro Offers choice of clients
Which can be found here.
Pro Maintains full conversation history
Pro Has an active community behind it
Pro Can be integrated with existing communication services
Matrix is designed to support Instant Messaging, VoIP/WebRTC signalling and Internet of Things communication and allows cross-communication between those services. Meaning one person could be using IRC and another Slack for IMs, or one person could be using Skype and another Google Hangouts for videoconferencing.
Pro End-to-end encryption
Matrix features end-to-end encrypted chats which are syncronized accross all your devices.
E2E is implemented in the matrix-js-sdk library and Riot.im client.
Pro Watch colors can be changed based on time
Time, date and branding and background colors can be set to change depending on time of day. Background can be customized independent from rest of the colors.
Pro Highly customizable
Minimal & Elegant ensures that users are able to customize the watch as much as possible. Things that could be customized include AM/PM text, 24h mode, clock color, and periodic color changing.
Pro Branding can be removed and users can put custom text
Text is fully customizable.
Pro No limit to color
Backgrounds of any color can be chosen using a color picker.
Cons
Con Keys cannot be checked automatically
You cannot automatically check keys of your recipients. Only manually.