# Making Custom Profiles in Matrix More Useful (matrix-conf-2026)

An overview of the UX design and technical implementation challenges faced when implementing "live-update" support for Profile Fields in Matrix. For most of the history of Matrix, users have only been able to attach two data points to their profiles: display names and avatar URLs. This changed in August 2025 when Matrix v1.16 included support for Custom Profile Fields (specified by [MSC4133]( But while clients could now set and get arbitrary fields, there was no mechanism for getting updates to changes in these fields. That made it unworkable to display fields in timelines or any other "live"

https://cdn.media.ccc.de/events/matrix-conf/2026/h264-sd/matrix-conf-2026-101353-eng-Making_Custom_Profiles_in_Matrix_More_Useful_sd.mp4

Image: https://static.media.ccc.de/media/events/matrix-conf/2026/101353-5ea1206c-52ba-5aa0-a2d1-9f0b2317bf19.jpg

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Canonical URL: https://qwibbit.com/q20836

Created: 2026-10-24T18:00:38.613685+00:00

Last edited: 2026-10-24T18:00:38.613685+00:00

Board: 3

Origin: Syndicated

Original source: https://cdn.media.ccc.de/events/matrix-conf/2026/h264-sd/matrix-conf-2026-101353-eng-Making_Custom_Profiles_in_Matrix_More_Useful_sd.mp4