diff --git a/build/flatpak/element.desktop.in b/build/flatpak/element.desktop.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..04c8024558
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/flatpak/element.desktop.in
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Name=${FLATPAK_APPNAME}
+Icon=${FLATPAK_ID}
+Exec=element %U
+Categories=Network;InstantMessaging;Chat;VideoConference;
+MimeType=x-scheme-handler/element;
+StartupWMClass=element
+Keywords=Matrix;matrix.org;chat;irc;communications;talk;riot;vector;
diff --git a/build/flatpak/element.sh b/build/flatpak/element.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7a60354edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/flatpak/element.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+env TMPDIR="$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/app/${FLATPAK_ID}" /app/element/element-desktop --no-sandbox "$@"
diff --git a/build/flatpak/metainfo.xml.in b/build/flatpak/metainfo.xml.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..be1172ba0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/flatpak/metainfo.xml.in
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<component type="desktop">
+  <id>${FLATPAK_ID}</id>
+  <name>${FLATPAK_APPNAME}</name>
+  <project_license>Apache-2.0</project_license>
+  <developer_name>New Vector Ltd</developer_name>
+  <summary>Create, share, communicate, chat and call securely, and bridge to other apps</summary>
+  <metadata_license>CC0-1.0</metadata_license>
+  <url type="homepage">https://element.io/</url>
+  <url type="help">https://element.io/help</url>
+  <url type="translate">https://translate.element.io/</url>
+  <description>
+    <p>More than group chat: communication</p>
+    <ul>
+      <li>Communicate with your team and out of network colleagues more efficiently: use dedicated rooms which persist information from their creation and forever.</li>
+      <li>Forget group emails: join or create rooms per topic, per team, per event… Decide the level of transparency you want to provide across the organisation or project.</li>
+      <li>Cut through the noise by creating notifications that are customised by you and for you.</li>
+      <li>Grab the attention of your colleague by calling out their name and don’t miss a thing with keyword alerts.</li>
+      <li>Deploy bots for fun or practical use with our integrations store.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </description>
+  <screenshots>
+    <screenshot>
+      <caption>Element logged-in frontend</caption>
+      <image type="source">https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2221064/137519256-655fe0f9-55f0-44a4-b681-83711654fff0.png</image>
+    </screenshot>
+  </screenshots>
+  <releases>
+    <release version="${FLATPAK_VERSION}" date="${FLATPAK_DATE}"/>
+  </releases>
+  <content_rating type="oars-1.1">
+    <content_attribute id="social-chat">intense</content_attribute>
+    <content_attribute id="social-audio">intense</content_attribute>
+    <content_attribute id="social-contacts">intense</content_attribute>
+  </content_rating>
+  <provides>
+    <id>im.riot.Riot</id>
+  </provides>
+  <launchable type="desktop-id">${FLATPAK_ID}.desktop</launchable>
+</component>
diff --git a/dockerbuild/Dockerfile b/dockerbuild/Dockerfile
index 3e9566f59d..23f0127c2b 100644
--- a/dockerbuild/Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerbuild/Dockerfile
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-FROM buildpack-deps:xenial-curl
+FROM buildpack-deps:bionic-curl
 
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
 
-RUN curl -L https://yarnpkg.com/latest.tar.gz | tar xvz && mv yarn-* /yarn && ln -s /yarn/bin/yarn /usr/bin/yarn
 RUN apt-get -qq update && apt-get -qq dist-upgrade && \
   # add repo for git-lfs
   curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/github/git-lfs/script.deb.sh | bash && \
@@ -17,7 +16,13 @@ RUN apt-get -qq update && apt-get -qq dist-upgrade && \
   libsqlcipher-dev && \
   # git-lfs
   git lfs install && \
-  apt-get purge -y --auto-remove && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+  # used by flathub client \
+  apt-get -qq install -y --no-install-recommends flatpak ostree gettext appstream-util curl && \
+  apt-get -qq install -y python3 python3-dev python3-pip libgirepository1.0-dev gir1.2-ostree-1.0 libcairo2-dev && \
+  curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flatpak/flat-manager/master/flat-manager-client -o /usr/local/bin/flat-manager-client && \
+  chmod +x /usr/local/bin/flat-manager-client && \
+  pip3 install aiohttp tenacity PyGObject && \
+  apt-get purge -y --auto-remove && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/
 
 WORKDIR /project
 
@@ -36,7 +41,8 @@ ENV NODE_VERSION 14.17.0
 RUN curl -L https://nodejs.org/dist/v$NODE_VERSION/node-v$NODE_VERSION-linux-x64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local --strip-components=1 && \
   unlink /usr/local/CHANGELOG.md && unlink /usr/local/LICENSE && unlink /usr/local/README.md && \
   # https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/4531
-  npm config set unsafe-perm true
+  npm config set unsafe-perm true && \
+  npm install --global yarn
 
 ENV RUSTUP_HOME=/usr/local/rustup \
     CARGO_HOME=/usr/local/cargo \
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 29a67e0005..630fa260cc 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@
     "docker:install": "scripts/in-docker.sh yarn install",
     "debrepo": "scripts/mkrepo.sh",
     "clean": "rimraf webapp.asar dist packages deploys lib",
-    "hak": "ts-node scripts/hak/index.ts"
+    "hak": "ts-node scripts/hak/index.ts",
+    "flatpak": "yarn build && scripts/in-docker.sh scripts/build-flatpak.sh"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "auto-launch": "^5.0.5",
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@
       "webapp.asar"
     ],
     "linux": {
-      "target": "deb",
+      "target": ["deb", "dir"],
       "category": "Network;InstantMessaging;Chat",
       "maintainer": "support@element.io",
       "desktop": {
diff --git a/scripts/build-flatpak.sh b/scripts/build-flatpak.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..3448950f73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/build-flatpak.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -eu
+
+: "${FLATPAK_ID:=io.element.ElementNightly}"
+: "${FLATPAK_APPNAME:=Element Nightly}"
+: "${FLATPAK_VERSION:="0.0.0-nightly$(date +%Y%m%d)"}"
+: "${FLATPAK_DATE:="$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"}"
+: "${FLATPAK_BRANCH:=nightly}"
+
+export FLATPAK_ID FLATPAK_APPNAME FLATPAK_VERSION FLATPAK_DATE FLATPAK_BRANCH
+
+[[ -d dist/flatpak ]] && rm -rf dist/flatpak
+install -d dist/flatpak/
+install -d dist/flatpak/build/files
+
+cd dist/flatpak
+
+cat <<EOF > build/metadata
+[Application]
+name=${FLATPAK_ID}
+runtime=org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/21.08
+sdk=org.freedesktop.Sdk/x86_64/21.08
+EOF
+
+cp -r ../linux-unpacked build/files/element
+install -d build/files/share/applications build/files/share/metainfo
+install -Dm755 ../../build/flatpak/element.sh build/files/bin/element
+install -Dm644 ../../build/icons/512x512.png build/files/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/${FLATPAK_ID}.png
+envsubst < ../../build/flatpak/element.desktop.in > build/files/share/applications/${FLATPAK_ID}.desktop
+envsubst < ../../build/flatpak/metainfo.xml.in > build/files/share/metainfo/${FLATPAK_ID}.metainfo.xml
+
+appstream-compose --prefix=build/files --origin=flatpak --basename=${FLATPAK_ID} ${FLATPAK_ID}
+appstream-util mirror-screenshots build/files/share/app-info/xmls/${FLATPAK_ID}.xml.gz \
+  "https://dl.flathub.org/repo/screenshots/${FLATPAK_ID}-${FLATPAK_BRANCH}" \
+  build/screenshots "build/screeshots/${FLATPAK_ID}-${FLATPAK_BRANCH}"
+
+# TODO: baseapp with deps
+# TODO: zypak-wrapper
+
+flatpak build-finish build \
+  --socket=x11 \
+  --share=ipc \
+  --socket=pulseaudio \
+  --device=all \
+  --share=network \
+  --filesystem=xdg-download \
+  --talk-name=org.freedesktop.Notifications \
+  --talk-name=org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher \
+  --talk-name=org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver \
+  --own-name='org.kde.*' \
+  --talk-name=org.freedesktop.portal.Fcitx \
+  --filesystem=xdg-run/keyring \
+  --command=element
+
+flatpak build-export repo build $FLATPAK_BRANCH
+flatpak build-update-repo --generate-static-deltas repo
+flatpak build-bundle --runtime-repo=https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo \
+  repo ../element.flatpak $FLATPAK_ID $FLATPAK_BRANCH