Alternatives to Discord

[cyberfun1 (dizz)]

I suggested to my friend Danny Proto to use Matrix and he really likes it. He says it's reinvigorated his interest in chat clients. I personally like it myself, but it needs a more consistent feature set across all the clients. I think the 2 best clients for matrix are FluffyChat and Nheko; I use the latter. Its got a more skype like feel I think, and it's less bloated than the Element client thanks to using the Qt design library. Ive found it really nice to use and less confusing that Element, although calling on Windows is a WIP because the Windows version of the calling software in the app didnt have Qt compiled in, so they have to compile it themselves.

This is my main issue with alternatives. Nearly everyone i know is not involved in the web revival circle so they have little to no technical or secure knowledge (they log in to a lot of stuff with google). I would have a lot of trouble migrating people from an ecosystem that they not only know well, but have customized with things like pins, favorited gifs, bots etc. I'm afraid that if I try to convince them to move off the platform, I'll be met with flat out refusal -- or worse, begrudging acceptance that leads to no one using the new setup.

You'd be surprised how mean and or stupid people get when open source software is brought up. They always send memes that say Linux people are fat lolcows or that one thats like "have you heard of *insert stupid sounding name*. They legit do not listen at all! I got in so many fights everytime I mentioned to someone about using matrix after they complained about Discord.

Unfortunately it seems that no service has been able to replicate everything that Discord does, in a single package. Things like Matrix do chat very well, but their voice / screensharing are not great.

I thought Matrix's voice and screensharing were pretty good actually. We used in in our first voice channel on Imperial Protogenia and it was really nice. We all were satisfied with the results

[Sunset Swanson]

Honestly, for now, as a discord alternative, I'd pick a mix between internet forums (like this one) and Jitsi Meet (or any VoIP software that allows group chat and screen sharing, hell I'd even take an XMPP client). That's it. It's sure a more archaic solution, but it works and they have all the features I need ! 

[boreal_cryptid]

people above me mentioned many cool alternatives, and i kinda don't have anything new to suggest.

i think the main problem with switching platforms in this case is: Discord is all-in-one service. video calls, screensharing, (group) voice chat, servers, forums (as of new), channels (inside the servers), roles, bots, file sharing...

and depending on what the specific person (or group of people) is using Discord for, some might feel strange.

combining a few services seems like a good idea to me (also mentioned above), like Mumble/TeamSpeak/Jitsi for voice/video + Stoat/Matrix for channels OR XMPP/Signal for simple group chats.

no matter how much we would advocate for privacy, too many people just don't have time or desire to tinker with more "complex" services, even if it doesn't seem hard for us. it doesn't mean we have to stop, i just don't want to have any illusions.

XMPP/Matrix registration requires to find a server. this is just a ONE additional step, but it will discourage many people from joining. not because they're "stupid" or "bad", it's just their tolerance for inconveniences (a.k.a. setting things up) might be very low. everyone decides for themselves how much time and energy they are ready to put in those things.

[grubbyfox]

XMPP/Matrix registration requires to find a server. this is just a ONE additional step, but it will discourage many people from joining. not because they're "stupid" or "bad", it's just their tolerance for inconveniences (a.k.a. setting things up) might be very low. everyone decides for themselves how much time and energy they are ready to put in those things.

exactly this. i dont even mind that i'd have to split things into different programs. like, chatting in one, video in one (tho that happens so rarely its not a concern of mine).

i'm trying to look into xmpp (im considering pidgin and/or gajim. i've touched upon pidgin before, but that's prob like 5+ years ago at this point (and it didnt work due to limitations lol). but information is so scattered, and almost all information is told as if I'm supposed to already know half of it. That's very unhelpful.

And If I'm motivated - but dont have the know-how or the time to get a degree in online protocollin', how am I supposed to sell this to friends? "Oh it's great, you just need to sit down for hours and hours to try and figure things out because there's not a single proper youtube video that will actually show you everything from start to finish".

And I've used IRC and the likes back in the 00s, but it's not the same now. Now I'm having to sift thru weirdo websites and shite web searches and 3+ year old reddit posts with like 2 replies just to find a possible server, but no explanation further what to do with that. then there's the clients, with seemingly dead websites, a subreddit with like 14 people, no boots on the ground tutorial on how to use, no information on how much you can customize etc.

I still dont even know how or where to actually make a user account for XMPP. I dont mean to say that it's impossible or that it's inherently bad or anything. But it feels like it's been around for so long that the ones actually using it have no way of properly explaining anything to newcomers.

And that leaves me in a situation where I'd have to be a newbie trying to sell this and probably help friends while still being a newb myself. Which is just gonna be miserable.

[arcus]

Fluxer seems to have the best bet of becoming a Discord replacement. The dev is getting paid, they already hired a lawyer to help with legal issues, and hired a former Discord staff member. There's no end-to-end encryption, but that is by design.

This article goes into depth about other alternatives. Note that the part about Matrix is outdated: Tuwunel is a good server for those thinking of self hosting.

I still dont even know how or where to actually make a user account for XMPP. I dont mean to say that it's impossible or that it's inherently bad or anything. But it feels like it's been around for so long that the ones actually using it have no way of properly explaining anything to newcomers.

• Go here (or somewhere here or here.)
• Create an account.
• Download Gajim or client of choice.
• Log into the account using the client.
• Add others and post in the XMPP thread.
• Join some chat rooms.

I agree. It's one of those things no one thinks of being confusing, but is unless one already knows. It's the same deal as email, but if Gmail and Outlook didn't exist, and one had to use Thunderbird or some other client to use it.

[Rubbereon]

Better question is how do i convince discord users to ditch discord and use any alternatives?

People are still to this day unwilling to leave this behind just like they refuse to stop using paypal. It's annoying. 

[lakes]

Better question is how do i convince discord users to ditch discord and use any alternatives?

People are still to this day unwilling to leave this behind just like they refuse to stop using paypal. It's annoying. 

it depends on the discord user
i've had some friends switch to matrix on their own and some stay on discord
one piece of advice i heard tho is to tell your friends to contact you over [whatever you prefer]
but i'm worried about doing it because i use a bunch of different messaging platforms
so idk which one to tell people to use (some i haven't even had a chance to use), especially since they might have their own preferences
matrix? xmpp? irc? session? signal? briar? simplex? delta chat? whatsdown? jitsi meet?

[grubbyfox]

I was lucky enough that I had an entire group chat for a long time on FB messenger. And at some point we all had so many bugs with Messenger, and obviously didnt like the Meta universe, so we sort of looked around and found that Signal was our best option, since we wanted the most security + something with a dedicated program for desktop as well.

Signal offers a lot in terms of stickers and stuff, so that's very cool. And if privacy is a concern (it should be), it really is the best option IMO.

My main gripe is that I also want a chat program that is more about customization and such. I want a status bar, colors, themes, large avatars, being able to swap display name and all that cool stuff that I assumed I would always have.

Signal is very lacking with that, which I can understand is not a priority for them, but still... ya know? Why does their level of protection mean I cant have colored usernames or a custom theme? Anyway, their product is still very good, so I can accept it. And I mainly use it for a group chat that is concerned about privacy, so that is what matters the most.

Right now, I'm also testing Fluxer. As an alternative for discord, I would say it's the absolute best as far as true discord alternatives. But they dont offer E2EE and they never will, from reading their FAQ. So for me, that is a pretty big "hmmmm idk". I just dont know why encryption is so....unimportant in this day and age. It boggles me. But what I love about Fluxer, is that they offer themes and lots of cool customization. So I might try to steer people away from Discord at some point. I'm just so sick of the ugly UI of Discord, I want to puke, haha

So as of now, these are the options I consider "alternatives" (but not a carbon copy)

- Signal (if you're privacy-minded and dont care if the UI is bland and boring. stickers are really fun)
- Fluxer (Still buggy but that's OK, lots of customization. Will never have E2EE encryption)
- Crosstalk (Especially with MSNplus, looks cool, is fun, nostalgic, customizable. If you dont care about privacy/encryption, you might as well just go all out and have fun on this rather than some janky discord clone)

Discord alternatives I probably wont consider but that could be good:
- Matrix (apparently has ties with the Mossad...so)
- Stoat (UK based so might be forced with ID verification and all that nonsense, AFAIK doesn't offer E2EE but I think that was further down the roadmap?)