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For most people, Element will be an alternative to a host of different encrypted messaging and VoIP tools available. It's cross-platform and advertises security, privacy, and control over your data. Element is trying to function as a decentralized alternative to a host of other services, including IRC, Slack, Skype, Teams, Discord, etc. It even interfaces with some of those services, making it a kind of central communications hub. The program is open source with an Apache 2.0 license.
Clarifications:
Generic name problem - In writing this up, I struggled a bit with how the program name gets absolutely flooded with other topics. I had real trouble even finding details about the service that weren't specifically from the homepage. It's like naming your software "dirt" and then coping with the fact that you're competing with a million gardening results. Even the Reddit thread is "elementchat." As such, I've included ".io" in the headline even though that's not the official name of the program.
More than one thing - "Element" refers both to the messaging service and the client. I've posted this to the "Not Portable" thread because I don't think the official client is portable. There is however a plugin for a portable messaging program Pidgin and you can run run the whole thing inside a portable browser.
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Site: https://element.io/
Download: https://element.io/get-started#downloads - You can download it locally but it's also available via a web interface, which takes up a lot less resources.
Alternative client: Pidgin + plugin
Reviews, intros, etc.:
* https://itsfoss.com/element/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/elementchat/
* https://www.zdnet.com/product/element/
* Opensource.com 5 open source alternatives to Slack for team chat (where we linked to the image below)
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A PortApps version is available but outdated and not recommended: https://github.com/portapps/element-portable
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Related: Privacy-enhanced Instant Messaging