And if Element is not the desired application to use matrix, then there are plenty of others, and available across many device and OS platforms: https://matrix.org/clients/
...Of course, Element remains the oldest and likely still most feature-full app.
Beyond any research that you undertakevaround matrix, i would add: while its not new (having existed for several years now), its popularity has increased quite a bit in the last year or 2. So in my opinion its still early days. Althougj its evolved quite nicely. So some rough edges might be encountered - more so on the client/apps side, less on protocol side - but as the superfan that i am, i really feel it represents the future of distributed messaging, which one use-case is chat. Good luck!
Effectively the same crypto as Signal but you can be anonymous as needed. Also decentralized with many app options.