I know there is revolt as a FOSS alternative to discord but it’s not federated.
Matrix is amazing.
Matrix and clients for it like Element have always been my go to for federated chat like discord/teams/mattersmost. The main missing feature is voice channels imho.
Which is coming. Eventually. At some point.
Man I hope so! The beta is out for element support https://call.element.io
Oh hey I remember you from my reddit post :D
Hello! Welcome to greener pastures.
This interaction made my day, love this place
The lack of voice channels is huge for something that looks like it is trying to be a discord alternative. I really can’t believe it still isn’t really implemented.
Honestly though even setting aside the lack of voice channels there is a bigger issue. Getting people to switch to something like matrix. I have so much trouble trying to get my group to switch to ANYTHING new. Tried to get them to switch from iMessage to telegram or signal. They tried it for a day and then went back. Getting them to switch from razer comms to discord was even a removed back in the day. People just don’t like trying new things.
Sorry for the rant I just find this endlessly frustrating. Lol.
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Calling other people’s work embarrassing is easy when you’re not the one building or contributing to the codebase. Implementing voice chat is no easy task, and it’s all done voluntarily in people’s free time.
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Matrix Spaces are broken enough. Even Conduit doesn’t support that feature. Don’t expect Matrix to fully resemble Discord, not even Cinny. Matrix is meant for secure conversations.
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I feel your pain. I once wanted to guide my buddies away from WA and had them in a Telegram group. And you know what the comment was? ‘Boring, nothing happening here.’ That’s like complaining that nothing happens in a phone booth… everyone, except for me, went back to WA. 🤷
WA is better atleast you got E2E encryption there. It works or not well that’s an another question.
What’s WA?
WhatsApp
I hear everyone talk about element but when i go to check it out i see it is minimum 50 users. Am i missing the smaller tier?
To clarify, that’s for them hosting the service for you, and is intended for enterprises mainly. You can self host element, since it’s open source, while only paying your own server costs, or just use an existing instance like on https://app.element.io
Self hosting might make sense on that small of a scale.
Element is kinda janky and crashes all the time for me. And also the UI is very confusing to use.
I hear a lot about Matrix, but the instructions for self hosting seem very complicated. If anyone has a simpler method, or script I’d be happy to use it.
This repo does a great job of simplifying it. The deployment process is completely automated with ansible, has the best documentation you could ask for https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy
Awesome thanks so much!
It is complicated. Most complex thing I’ve ever set up.
I don’t think there’s a simplified version, every step is needed.
I am self hosting matrix synapse, it’s actually much easier than XMPP with SSL certs generated by Caddy. Ejabberd doesn’t play well with them.
EDIT: with docker.
Old school Mumble, while is not federated, is still decentralized and perfect for game communication.
Matrix is federated and pretty good. It’s not ActivityPub though…
Modern IRC combined with a Mumble server works pretty well.
For smaller groups XMPP is also fine, but group calls are not widely implemented yet.
Jitsi-meet also works ok for voice chat.
Revolt had us all intrigued, but without federation, it’s like a pizza without the cheese.
Enter, Matrix and Element - FOSS, decentralized, and yes, federated.
Element, built on Matrix, provides real-time communication with end-to-end encryption. But voice channels, alas, still our Achilles heel.
Yet, remember, we’re the pioneers of this brave new digital world. A federated voice solution may not exist now, but give it time. We’ve got some amazing and selfless coders chomping at the bit!
You’re looking for Matrix, a federated, encrypted communication protocol used by clients like Element, fluffychat, etc.
I just wish element was in the official Debian repos. It sucks having to add another repo
If you have Flatpak setup on Debian, Element can be found on and installed from Flathub!
Matrix comes close
Matrix is your best bet.
I also like it very much.
Maybe thats what Spacebar is aiming for?
Looking good. though I’m not looking for self hosted solution.
fediverse but not selfhosted? i’m not sure. that might almost be opposing requirements.
I mean, i don’t wanna host it. i need plug & play type thing.
Sure. I’m always kinda uncertain why people ask for libre software and then not want it for the same things i like about it. If you want something plug and play and decentralization isn’t important to you: Maybe you don’t need an alternative and Discord is the right thing for you. Otherwise it’s not the software (architecture), you just want to go to an existing instance and let someone else do the self-hosting for you.
