Problem with the use of element (Android) in Russia

[Parodontitis]

Steps to reproduce

1. Start element app.
2. Click on "sing in".

Outcome

What did you expect?

New view to select server and insert credentials.

What happened instead?

The circle-arrow turns endlessly.

This only happens when using it in Russia. My assumption is that element is trying to establish a connection to matrix.org/federation at this point, which is not possible in Russia. Hence the endless circle.

But there is no possibility to skip this step and enter own server and user/passwd.

X-check with fluffychat was successful.

Your phone model

oneplus 10 pro / Motorola

Operating system version

Android 13 / 14

Application version and app store

Element version 1.6.20 from F-Droid

Homeserver

Synapse

Will you send logs?

No

Are you willing to provide a PR?

No

[ShadowRZ]

To me it looks like a duplicate of #7078

However the conversation in this issue seems pretty unreasonable to me.

[spaetz]

Yes, EA first tries matrix.org and only then offers connections to other servers, IIRC. And if matrix.org is blocked by a country, login will not work. Not sure if this will be fixed, given that most attention goes into the Element-X clients nowadays.

[ara4n]

dup #7078