Discontinuation of Rocket.Chat, extended End-of-Life

With Nov 1st the service Rocket.Chat enters its end-of-life phase.

What changes during end-of-life?

GWDG will not renew the licensing of the service. With the expiration of the license some functionality of Rocket.Chat may be limited in the future. The most prominent limitations are:

• no more push notifications to mobile clients
• online presence status of users (online/busy/idle/offline) is no longer displayed

What does not change, how can the service still be used?

The main, basic functionality of the service remains unchanged. Accounts can sign in and sign off normally, messages and channels can be created, existing content can be searched for and read and new accounts can join the service. Using the service in the browser or through desktop and mobile clients (with restrictions) is still possible.

How long will the end-of-life phase last? How long can Rocket.Chat still be used?

The end-of-life phase will terminate on the 30th April 2025. After the 1st May access to the service will no longer be possible, including any content and any functionality. All users of Rocket.Chat should plan for the unavailability of the service, in parts or whole, and any content or functionality of the service, directly or indirectly, from the 1st May 2025 on.

Has the end-of-life phase consequences for the migration of content from Rocket.Chat to the new Matrix service?

No. The functionality to migrate content to Matrix is unaffected by the end-of-life phase. More information regarding this functionality will be included in further announcements regarding Matrix.

Currently the Rocket.Chat functionality to download user data is defective. How is downloading of user data possible?

Rocket.Chat offers a functionality to download all content of a user account via the “Download My Data” function. This functionality is defective currently and has been for some time. It is planned that users will be given the opportunity, if technically feasible in any way, to download their data before the end-of-life phase terminates. What changes to the service will be necessary or how an alternative process will look like has yet to be determined. There will be timely and prominent announcements regarding this issue (see also https://info.gwdg.de/news/ und https://status.gwdg.de).

What cause of action is recommended for current Rocket.Chat users?

There is no urgent need for action. Users should keep the aforementioned time frame in mind. The start of the Matrix service (https://status.gwdg.de/info_notices/179453?lang=en) has now been announced. All users are recommended to familiarize themselves with the functionality to migrate content to Matrix, if desired, and to plan to migrate content and change their processes with regards to the planned end-date.