Discord alternatives

Matrix like you. Most foss projects are in matrix as well. Matrix call is awesome.

There isn't a 1:1 app for Discord imo.
Selfhosting a teamspeak3 (ts3) server solves the voicechat.
Signal works great for text chats especially now that you don't need to give other end users your phone number.
Then I would probably look at hosting a web forum for adding calendars and other planning tools. There should still be possible to show current ts3 users on that site too.
For open source projects codeberg for code repository/issues/feedback.
I completely understand those who use Discord for ease of management, as time taken to host the above is time taken from the actual project.

Mumble would be better for VC than TeamSpeak, in my humble opinion.
- In your Mumble opinion*
Yea that is kinda what I have been noticing aswell. I don't want perfect privacy like hiding my phone number with signal.

I just want to talk with my friends, share my screen and have text channels without being harvested for data :)

Element has all of this, the only problem I encountered is that everyones mic is suddely quite noisy as we are used to using discord's noice suppression. I gues you have to sacrifice something for privacy. And I heard it can be quite a pain to self host, but I still have to try that out myself
- Elements first self hosted tier is Enterprise at a minimum of 100 users with a cost of $10/month per user.
  I would rather look at selfhosting Synapse as it's the only Stable Matrix Homeserver release at the moment.
  https://github.com/element-hq/synapse
  https://matrix.org/ecosystem/servers/
Hold my beer

https://revolt.chat

Although, I have never used it (=
I wish I’d find something that is as easy and performant as discords in-server screen sharing/streaming.

If you still end up using Discord over other solutions, you can use https://vencord.dev/, it is discord, but with all the telemetry pulled out of it. Been using this for when I need to use Discord, assume it's better than using normal discord at least, but probably still not a perfect solution.

I would add the caveat that since discord don't allow third party clients, you run the risk of getting your account banned for violating their ToS.

I'm fine with this personally, but it's reasonable to not be so keen if your account is important to you.
- Yup that is a fair warning. However I have been using it for as long as it has existed, and not have my account banned. But can see this being more of a problem Should Vencord get really popular.
- Afaik no one has ever been banned for using a third party client in and of itself. People have been banned for userbotting or spamming but afaik not for using a third party client as a normal human user. But yes it is technically against TOS

Mumble + IRC or XMPP works well.

I was going to say: is IRC not still a thing?
Don't many of the IRC servers expose your IP address and have bots that store every chat message?
- Some outdated ones do, but it is very easy to run your own modern IRC server that does none of that.
- For a foss project irc logs of channels are important makes irc into google able knowledge. For privacy, use matrix and encryption.
How do you set this up? Do you use two seperate apps or are there apps that integrate both?
- It's separate, but you can use Matterbridge to connect the chat if you really want.
  
  Alternatively you can use Jitsi Meet, which can be integrated with Ergo and an IRC webclient like Convos, but that isn't a simple setup then anymore.

If you just want group chat, Signal works well. It's more suitable for smaller groups though, so YMMV.

Other than that, Matrix works well.

Matrix is pretty good, only problem is my friend groups can't seem to make the switch. As in we all want to but we have other groups we talk to on discord so we'd have discord installed anyway, and I think some of us aren't motivated enough to move our server over. I think generally the problem with privacy-respecting chat apps is everyone's on whatsapp, everyone's on discord, few "normies" or even less privacy-conscious communists will want to install a new app/program just to talk to you.

Yup, the network effect is real.

Maybe you can set up a bridge for those who want to switch? You'd still need both until all everyone moves over, but it reduces friction in that process.
- That's a good idea! The next time my friends bring up switching to Matrix I'll probably try set us up a bridge to encourage the move

The Cinny client for Matrix is pretty good if you want to replace discord 1:1. There will be differences though but it should make the transition easier.

Worth checking out for more privacy :

As much as I appreciate what SimpleX is doing, it's a massive memory hog on Android - 120mb all the time.

I do look forward to seeing it mature though, I think that will improve, along with device linking.
- Oh no ! In the age where everyone and their cat has atleast 32 gigs simplex is using my 120 mb whatever shall we do ?faints
- My current stats:
  
  Molly: 445 Schildichat: 218
  
  SimpleX doesn't sound so bad in regards to memory
Molly is a fork of the Signal app. Worth checking, but ain't a service.

I'm using matrix and quite happy with it - element for pc and fluffychat on mobile. unfortunately nothing is quite like discord in terms of features or popularity but matrix is probably the closest with the latter

Pretty much just matrix and revolt, armcord is a good client to use discord if you just need to use discord but eh

Element, Matrix

Element is not a solution, it is a client. Matrix is the protocol. Discord happens to provide both in a spectacularly privacy disrespecting way imo.

I know of two chat protocols which are quite popular: matrix and xmpp. Matrix seems to be the more flashy but also more energy consuming part. Xmpp is very old and apparently has been EEEd by google at some point which is the whole reason matrix exists imo.

As clients go, you can use one of dozens of them, each different. Element (and element x) are made by people who also are involved with matrix but run a for profit company as well so beware. They also make contributors sign away their rights if they ever wanted to take element closed source which is a red flag.

I mostly use fluffychat which isnt perfect but works very well imo. I also have bridges on my matrix server (i use synapse) which connect whatsapp, signal and discord for the folks who dont want to switch over but want to talk to me. This makes is convenient for me and I still have encryption and control over my data in the pure matrix chats.

I cant comment on running xmpp bc no experience but reports say its very fast. Running your own matrix server or using a known host means you have no ads, no tracking, e2ee and you will likely always know where your data goes.

Thanks for reading and have a good one.

Spacebar is supposed to be a 1 to 1 discord alternative

https://revolt.chat/

It looks like it uses chrome for certain data, and I'm not a fan of that. Any idea if I can change that to use Firefox?
- Use the main app in Firefox as a Progressive Web App. Their app is just more a PWA container

FluffyChat?

Is Matrix protocol too.
- Yeah Matrix too mate.

I've used Revolt before. It's very similar to Discord superficially, but lacks a lot of features. Even though it's more similar to slack, I've found Mattermost to have more feature parity.

Can you create voice rooms in mattermost?
- It looks like it is supported via pluggins unfortunately

How do we know that these solutions are more private than Discord?

Even if open source, how do we know the compiled version wasn't altered?

You can always compile from scratch, compare the checksums or use the version you compiled. In projects this large people usually do this, and there's a certain level of trust that these checks have been performed.
- Yup. If you're paranoid, you can self-host and watch network traffic to ensure things are encrypted when they're supposed to be.
- A lot of compilers have things like timestamps in the finished product that could mess with hashes. I guess hashing the rest of it could work if hashes for non static regions are given.

I will not say the typical thing. Discord has a community that Element and Revolt cannot rival in numbers. So I think treating Discord as a public forum, while segregating private activity to privacy respecting platforms is the best way to minmax freedom and privacy.

Keep Discord isolated/sandboxed in a Flatpak on Linux or in Android work profile with restricted camera/mic permissions, and I think it is good enough.

There is guilded.gg as well but I don't know if it's better for privacy.

Guilded is owned by Roblox Corporation last I checked, a company that promotes getting children addicted to stock market gambling, taking advantage of young child developers, and a platform that doesn’t respect your privacy in the slightest, asking for ID just to use voice chat (because of their major pedo problem).

So I probably wouldn’t use Guilded
- And Roblox Corporation is owned by Tencent Holdings which also owns Discord.
- getting children addicted to stock market gambling
  
  wait what, I would like to know more

use xmpp

What are the privacy issues with Discord? I honestly hate its format, but I need it for Midjourney.

To keep it short, there isn't really any privacy.

Servers are public and Private messages are stored without any envryption. If you delete your account then the messages stay and can still be found with your unique ID (just like Reddit). From what ive read Discord also stores your HWIDs and monitors your running processes (with a valid reason considering their game integration). Some say they only store that locally, others claim something else, haven't seen any proof for either side so far.

The problem really boils down to the fact that people treat discord as a private messenger instead of a public forum despite it clearly beeing the latter.
- amen
- All fair points but some can be avoided by running discord in browser
Can't use it because they want my phone number for login but say it's invalid. 🤪

Try Ripcord.

That's a client, not a service. Only help ever so slightly with Discord.