Element (Matrix) Keyboard Shortcuts
Element's shortcuts closely resemble Slack-family conventions for the basics — Ctrl/Cmd+K for room search, familiar message-formatting bindings — but its underlying architecture is genuinely different from any centralized chat tool, since Element is merely one client among several for the Matrix protocol, meaning the server holding your account and rooms could be run by a completely different operator than the one hosting a person you're chatting with, rather than everyone sharing a single company's infrastructure. Room and space navigation shortcuts carry a bit more weight here than in a typical single-server chat app, since Matrix's federated model means a single Element client might be simultaneously showing rooms hosted across multiple independent servers, and jumping between them needs to feel seamless despite that underlying distributed structure. Because end-to-end encryption is a first-class, often-default feature rather than an opt-in add-on, some of Element's more distinctive shortcuts and UI elements relate to verifying encryption sessions and device trust, a security-focused feature area that doesn't have a real equivalent in most mainstream team chat tools built around simpler server-side-only security models. This page is written primarily for privacy-conscious teams and communities that have chosen Matrix specifically for its decentralization and encryption guarantees, as opposed to users evaluating Element as a drop-in Slack replacement without caring about the underlying protocol — the federation and verification concepts genuinely change how you should think about room and device management compared to a centralized alternative, and that context matters more here than in most other chat-app shortcut references. Voice calling and cross-server room invitations both showcase the practical upside of Matrix's federated design in a way that matters day to day rather than just architecturally — being able to invite a collaborator whose account happens to live on a completely different, independently run server into the same encrypted room is a genuinely distinctive capability compared to a centralized chat platform where everyone by definition shares the same infrastructure.
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open room/people search | Ctrl+K | Cmd+K | Brings up a searchable jump list spanning rooms, spaces, and people, the same general quick-switcher pattern most chat apps have converged on. |
| Jump to next room with unread messages | Alt+Down | Option+Down | Moves to the next room containing unread messages, useful for triaging notifications across potentially many federated rooms hosted on different servers. |
| Jump to previous room with unread messages | Alt+Up | Option+Up | Moves backward to the previous unread room, the reverse companion to the next-unread jump, letting you re-check a room you skipped past. |
| Switch between Spaces | Ctrl+Alt+Down/Up or click space icon | Cmd+Option+Down/Up | Switches between Spaces, Element's higher-level grouping of rooms (similar in concept to a Discord server or Slack workspace), which becomes especially relevant when someone belongs to several unrelated federated communities at once. |
| Create a new room | Ctrl+Shift+N (varies) | Cmd+Shift+N | Creates a new room, choosing between public and private visibility and whether encryption is enabled by default, since a room's encryption setting is generally fixed at creation time rather than toggleable later. |
| Invite a user to current room | Room info panel > Invite (no keyboard shortcut) | — | Invites a user by their Matrix ID to join the current room, which can succeed across server boundaries thanks to federation, inviting someone hosted on an entirely different homeserver than your own. |
Messaging
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bold selected text | Ctrl+B | Cmd+B | Applies bold formatting to selected text in the message composer, using standard Markdown-adjacent conventions shared broadly across chat apps. |
| Edit last sent message | Up Arrow (in empty message box) | — | With the message composer empty, Up Arrow reopens your last sent message for editing in place, which matters in Element specifically because an edited message still shows an '(edited)' marker and full edit history to anyone in an encrypted room who checks it. |
| Reply to a specific message | Hover message > reply icon (no dedicated key) | — | Begins a reply that quotes back to a specific earlier message, triggered by hovering that message and clicking the reply icon rather than any dedicated keystroke in most Element builds. |
| Insert a new line without sending | Shift+Enter | Shift+Return | Adds a line break within the message composer instead of sending the message, necessary for writing multi-paragraph messages since a plain Enter submits immediately by default. |
| Start a voice call in current room | Room header > Voice call icon (no keyboard shortcut) | — | Starts a voice call scoped to the current room, using Matrix's built-in VoIP capability, which can be either peer-to-peer or routed through a group call widget depending on room configuration. |
Encryption Security
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verify a login session/device | Settings > Security > Verify Session (no dedicated key) | — | Initiates device verification for end-to-end encryption, confirming that a new login session is genuinely controlled by you (or a trusted contact) rather than an intercepted or compromised device — a security workflow without a real equivalent in most non-E2E-encrypted mainstream chat tools. |
| View encryption info for a room | Room info panel > Security | — | Shows encryption status and participant verification state for the current room, letting you confirm whether a conversation is genuinely end-to-end encrypted and which participants have verified device identities. |
| Review and sign out other sessions | Settings > Security > Sessions (no dedicated key) | — | Lists every active login session tied to your account across devices, letting you review unfamiliar sessions and remotely sign them out, an important security check if you suspect your account credentials were used somewhere you didn't authorize. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it actually mean that Element is 'a client for the Matrix protocol' rather than its own standalone chat service?
Matrix is an open communication protocol, similar in spirit to how email works across many different providers — Element is one client (among several) that lets you connect to any Matrix-compatible server, and your account and rooms can be hosted on independently run servers that federate with each other, rather than all being controlled by a single central company the way Slack or Discord's infrastructure works.
Why does Element ask me to verify sessions or devices, and what happens if I skip it?
Verification confirms that a login session genuinely belongs to you (or a trusted contact) using cryptographic key comparison, protecting against a compromised or impersonated device silently reading encrypted messages. Skipping verification doesn't break basic messaging, but it means Element can't cryptographically guarantee that all your devices and contacts are who they claim to be, weakening the practical security guarantee of the encryption.
Can I use Element to chat with people on Slack or Discord, or only other Matrix users?
Direct chat with non-Matrix platforms requires a bridge — a separate integration that relays messages between Matrix and another platform's own protocol — rather than native built-in interoperability, since Slack and Discord don't themselves speak the Matrix protocol; bridges exist for several popular platforms but need to be set up rather than working automatically out of the box.
What's the actual difference between a Space and a regular room?
A room is where actual conversation happens — messages, threads, file sharing. A Space is a higher-level organizational container that groups related rooms together, similar to how a Discord server groups channels or a Slack workspace groups channels, letting you organize potentially many rooms across different topics or communities into a manageable structure rather than one long flat room list.
If I sign out a session I don't recognize, does that person lose access to my encrypted message history?
Signing out an unrecognized session revokes that device's ongoing access and its cryptographic keys going forward, but it can't retroactively un-read messages that device may have already decrypted and displayed while it was active — this is why acting promptly on an unfamiliar session and, if genuinely concerned, also changing your account password matters more than treating the sign-out alone as a complete fix.
Can I invite someone to a room even if they use a completely different Matrix server than mine?
Yes, this is one of the core practical benefits of federation — inviting a user by their Matrix ID works across independently operated homeservers as long as both servers are able to federate with each other, meaning you can build a room with participants whose accounts live on several entirely different, independently administered servers rather than being confined to people on your own specific server.