FOSS alternative to Discord?

3 years ago by Secret300 to c/opensource

Now that people have moved from reddit to lemmy I'm glad to be using more FOSS software. Now all that's left is discord but I can't find a good replacement.

fubo 20 points 3 years ago

Matrix is a Fediverse real-time chat/messaging system.

IRC is an old-school federated chat system (originally created in 1988!)

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Secret300 2 points 3 years ago

I like Matrix for text but voice calls aren't the best

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illectrility 2 points 3 years ago

I actually think that voice calls via Element are really solid. 1 on 1 calls can be done via P2P which is amazing for audio and video quality. Group calls are also pretty great with the upcoming (and already available) voice rooms. I really enjoy it and barely use Discord anymore since I got most contacts to switch.

I mean, let's be honest. Discord is actual garbage. Their clients are slow and usability on Linux is extremely limited. For example, streaming with audio is not possible on Linux for some really stupid reason. They use a very old version of Electron for everything. They are financed by China afaik. Push notifications on Android aren't reliable. It's just a hot mess. I'd take Element any day. Although, I will admit that Element has issues, too. The voice rooms are still in Beta, there are some quirks and steaming with screen audio doesn't work on Linux.

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Secret300 2 points 3 years ago

I didn't know matrix had group calls. That's nice I'll have to check it out. And yes discord client is fucking trash and doesn't support wayland so I want out

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Helix 1 point 3 years ago

Matrix is quite a long way from Discord still. Even the devs know and track that: https://github.com/...

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lockieluke3389 5 points 3 years ago

revolt, it’s self hosted so you can make ur own instance

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leraje 2 points 3 years ago

It has good potential but I won't use it until E2EE is fully realised.

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Secret300 1 point 3 years ago

I like it but it isn't federated. right now I made an account and I'm checking it out, seems better than discord

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WheelcharArtist 4 points 3 years ago

https://matrix.org/ might be interesting to you

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Helix 4 points 3 years ago

If you get Beeper.com which is based on Matrix.org you can have both: FOSS and chatting with your friends on Discord.

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Vexz 1 point 3 years ago

Interesting. Never heard of Beeper. Looks like they even have a client for desktops. Does it also cover (video) calls and screen sharing for Discord and/or Signal?

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ZeroXHunter 1 point 3 years ago

Isn't it subscription based?

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Helix 2 points 3 years ago

Thought so too, but they actually don't charge anything. Wonder if I'm the product then.

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ZeroXHunter 1 point 3 years ago

https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-is-now-free Turns out they are going to provide a "Plus" version with extra features for paying customers. So, its not bad I guess!

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hschen 4 points 3 years ago

Revolt and Matrix/Element

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MochiGamer 3 points 3 years ago

If you remember using teamspeak or ventrillo... Their is a FOSS alternative called mumble that works similarly. Its essentially the closest to what you're asking that has both VOIP and other features. Some communities especially mmorpg clans and gaming clans still use it. Idk how popular it is in general though. Discord is supported by huge donations which is why they've been able to dominate, but teamspeak/mumble still exist and essentially are the same thing but less modern.

https://www.mumble.info/

IRC and Matrix are both IM systems but are alternatives to discord if that's all the functionality you seek. Matrix is also in the fediverse.

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Secret300 3 points 3 years ago

Someone said matrix moved to voip so I wanna try that. I made an account a while back but never used it

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908musdf 3 points 3 years ago

There is also Rocket.chat, to complete the list, though it is supposed to be difficult to host.

I would recommend Matrix. My small instance is running Conduit, and it works great!

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Secret300 1 point 3 years ago

How's voice chat on matrix done?

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908musdf 2 points 3 years ago

It has native voip now, where it used Jitsi before. But I've only used it as a messenger—no experience with calls.

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Secret300 1 point 3 years ago

That's nice. I need to try it

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BrikoX 3 points 3 years ago

Matrix
XMPP
IRC

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dylan 2 points 3 years ago

While the other comments are more in the spirit of Lemmy and the Fediverse, I'll also give a shout-out to Revolt: https://revolt.chat/

It's quite literally an open source clone of Discord.

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Secret300 1 point 3 years ago

I downloaded it and I've been using it for the past couple days. I found a nice active server and everyone's cool. Which so far is better than matrix because I can't find an active matrix room that's just focused on talking and playing games together. My only problem with revolt is that it's no different from discord in the sense that they both have full control. I want to get away from discord because they have full access to every message and server and can do whatever they want. Revolt is no different. You could host your own instance but then it's completely isolated

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PenguinTD 2 points 3 years ago

We'd need something that can be indexed, can host dynamic voice chat across instances (p2p) and competitive compression to be able to compete against Discord.

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cmnybo 2 points 3 years ago

Mumble is a good program for voice and text chat.

The resource usage is minimal, so you could even run the server on a Raspberry Pi if you have a half decent internet connection.

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Kajika 2 points 3 years ago

Self hosting gitea : https://about.gitea.com/ is going to give you the github UX. You can also go for the forked forgejo : https://forgejo.org/.

Gitea is getting into corporation/IP territory while forgejo is 100% community driven.

Self-hosting might feels intimidating for some but once you have your server the speed and "snappiness" feels insane.

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vipaal 2 points 3 years ago

https://www.opensourcealternative.to/ lists rocket.chat as an alternative to Slack and Discord

I have not used it. I have used Mattermost. And it can do channels, teams, hashtags, @ mentions etc similar to Slack. Though it requires the server be hosted and administered by you or someone you know.

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BendyLemmy 1 point 3 years ago

Confusion here between 'Service' and 'Software' methinks...

Here's Discord running in a FOSS browser...

So I wouldn't be worrying about software.

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Secret300 3 points 3 years ago

Alright buddy you got me I used the wrong term. I meant service

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melmel 1 point 3 years ago

Matrix is good but it feels more like a WhatsApp group or something. Definitely room there to have a client that’s more fun, like Discord

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Secret300 2 points 3 years ago

Been checking out matrix clients and so far Cinny looks and feels closer to discord and fluffychat is pretty good to. Both work better then element in my experience

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eshep 1 point 3 years ago

@Secret300 This really depends heavily on what parts of #Discord you're trying to replace, as nothing currently has a 1:1 similarity with it. #Matrix will likely get you most of what you want but self-hosting it can be quite a sizable task. #Mumble is an excellent choice if your main concern is voice rooms, text chat is not so great. The ""best"" option would probably be to mix mumble with xmpp, as both do what they're designed to do very well and are also quite easy to maintain.

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Secret300 1 point 3 years ago

Is self hosting Matrix really that hard? So far it looks like matrix is what I want. They don't have good voice features right now but it looks like they are working on it

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eshep 2 points 3 years ago

@Secret300 I wouldn't say it was hard. The replication part of matrix can get very big, very fast. If you're not prepared for that, it could easily get out of hand.

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Secret300 2 points 3 years ago

So basically have a lot of storage ready?

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sv1sjp 1 point 3 years ago

I would say matrix, but it still has many issues in calling and I dont feel like Discord. On the other hand Telegram nowadays supports many features of Discord. It not opensource, but at least the client application is opensource.

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bizdelnick 1 point 3 years ago

Jitsi Meet

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BendyLemmy 1 point 3 years ago

I used the 'betterdiscord-installer'.

Ferdium still looking good.

However, Discord isn't so much an application as a protocol - you're just changing the client.

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