Request for sources: Discord alternatives
38 points by icefox
38 points by icefox
I'm writing up a survey post on "chat systems you might actually want to use besides Discord", and it seems like every time I talk about this someone chirps up and asks about something new I've never heard of before. So, I want to try to head this off at the pass and collect as much as I can right off the bat. So, anyone have anything they want me to cover?
Things on the list so far:
I'd love to see a list of alternatives for people who like Discord in general.
For example:
I often see these lists come up and get a bit confused because for example IRCv3 is pretty much incomparable to Discord unless you limit Discord's functionality significantly (for those coming from Discord). I feel like "alternative" should be... mostly comparable?
There are also definitely things I don't like about Discord, of course, but from the perceptive of someone who is mid-30s, dad of two young kids, does OSS for fun on the side, etc. I really just want something I can pay for and forget.
Not the mention the "IRC-like" channels in Discord. Some of these options listed do not mimic IRC servers.
I often see these lists come up and get a bit confused because for example IRCv3 is pretty much incomparable to Discord unless you limit Discord's functionality significantly (for those coming from Discord). I feel like "alternative" should be... mostly comparable?
ObsidianIRC is decently competitive with Discord for text chat UX. i would really love if someone smashed Mumble into IRCv3 at high speed for voice chat capabilities though.
Minor correction: “mov.im” should be “Movim” for XMPP clients.
mov.im is the showcase Movim client + an XMPP server (which is free to join & hosted in the EU). This can be a bit confusing since you can use mov.im’s client to connect to any server (it’s just a web client after all), but Movim, the client application, is AGPL & self-hostable. I’m happy its on the list since you were last asking around.
A lot of folks use Ejabberd (Erlang) as their XMPP server. Snikket is also just a preconfigured Prosody (Lua) IIRC. There are others, tho active are less popular.
Movim is not just a web client, it has a web frontend+a php backend that connects to (and maintains) the connection to your XMPP server. I would add gajim to the list of XMPP clients, but full disclosure, I am a contributor.
Very true. I was quite focused on the other part that you don’t need to access it thru mov.im. I use Gajim every day so +1.
DeltaChat with its ChatMail servers. I'm not a user yet for lack of mutuals (i.e. the messenger issue), but looks interesting.
Not sure if everyone would regard it a Discord alternative, but since we're listing stuff like Signal here...
Slack. (I’m not saying you should use Slack, but if you’re writing an article about this you should probably mention it, if only to say “I don’t think Slack is a viable alternative because…”)
First let me note that I'm evaluating these alternatives in the context of a friend group chat, not a large community server.
While not open like other alternatives, Steam has recently updated their group chats to implement most of Discord's basic functionality, making a group chat roughly equivalent to a discord server (with multiple text chats and voice chats).
Steam's streaming/screen sharing tech is kinda lacking, and entirely nonexistent on linux, so for that I've been looking into Broadcast Box, which has an online and a selfhostable version and seems easy enough to use (provided that WebRTC works), though obviously not as convenient as just pressing a button while in a voice call.
Personally I've also been evaluating Mumble, Teamspeak, Matrix and Rocketchat, but almost everyone is already using Steam regularly, so it seems like the 'easiest' move.
Aeledfyr from IRC recommends:
Nerimity (nerimity.com) is an open-source community-focused discord alternative that's a bit more polished than the other open source ones (like Stoat).
It's not a well-known as Stoat, but it's been more reliably maintained and has a less buggy frontend (from experience contributing to both Stoat and Nerimity). I'm not associated with the project, though I have contributed some fixes.
Anyone know of a iOS XMPP client that feels as modern as Conversations for Android?
The iOS users at my organization are kind of being left out to dry, unfortunately. Monal is... Ok? Snikket does not have working push notifications, as far as I can tell. The apps feel like they're out of the 90s, weird visual bugs, UI completely inconsistent with modern design guidelines on iOS.
The Snikket iOS push notifications should work fine with a Snikket server, but most of the free public XMPP servers won't work with it.
Monal should be fine with any server. It is probably overall your best bet for iOS right now and is under quite active development.
The general "out of the 90s" thing is being fixed (we're working on a total overhaul of Snikket iOS, and Monal is currently in the process of rewriting their UI - I believe you can switch between the old/new UI in the settings).
Generally there is more friction for open-source apps on iOS. I don't think there's one factor, but many. Part of it is that the intersection of "open-source developers" is much larger with Android than iOS, so it's hard to find people to work on it. Nevertheless, we're committed to improving the situation :)
(any iOS developers reading this who are interested in lending a hand... give me a shout!)
The iOS users at my organization are kind of being left out to dry, unfortunately.
Good.
Someone picked an OS from an FOSS hostile company, why would we care to support them?
Working on iOS applications is a nightmare for someone that is not in iOS ecosystem, and it is all artificially and on purpose done by Apple. The basic fact that I can't easily cross-compile to iOS or run an iOS emulator, is not up to FOSS to fix.
Just let them pay 30%, scan their faces and someone charge them for dealing with Apple.
I have never used it myself but SimpleX looks interesting, am curious how it compares.
Delta Chat, too (though I think that's more for small chats).
I wonder how people here are using Discord?
I've mostly used it as an MSN Messenger and later Skype replacement, only for text chats with few friends.
One server started out as a place for my friends and so we could use voice chat while gaming without having to talk in team chat (a la Mumble or Teamspeak back in the day). It's grown to something like 70 people but it's like ~20 of us that actually use it regularly. That's basically the only place I use the voice/video capabilities of it.
Other than that, I mostly use it to stay in touch with other communities or, occasionally, to find support for communities that have decided they want to use Discord awful search.
to find support for communities that have decided they want to use Discord awful search
This is 100% of my discord use and I find it so overwhelming and confusing. You join and are bombarded with stuff, dozens of channels... I just want to ask a question!