I know there is revolt as a FOSS alternative to discord but it’s not federated.

  • fruitywelsh@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • relyn@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Yote.zip@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, Matrix is not exactly trying to be a “discord alternative” so much as an “all messaging platforms alternative”, but it’s still embarrassing that this feature is not present yet. It’s been heavily requested by the discord crowd for years, and should have been a higher priority.

        As for friends switching, at least Matrix has bridges and puppeting/double-puppeting support. Unfortunately, I don’t think discord voice channel bridging/puppeting will ever work, so it’s really not that useful in this instance. I know ripcord has voice channel interop so it is technically possible, but it’s probably too hacky/abusive to put in officially, and it would probably only work with puppeting.

        • src@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • Yote.zip@pawb.social
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            1 year ago

            it’s all done voluntarily in people’s free time.

            Firstly, Matrix has plenty of paid developers that work on it - this is not even close to a passion project made by volunteers in their free time.

            Secondly, I’m not saying the work is embarrassing (the work is nothing short of incredible), I’m saying the priority to leave this feature on the backburner for years is. They likely ended up with more important priorities and didn’t have enough resources to dedicate, but on a practical level the lack of hotjoin voice channels sticks out like a sore thumb to new users.

            I’ve been championing Matrix for about 4-5 years now, and it’s been so long since this feature was requested/promised that it’s at the point where I’m too “embarrassed” to try to convince people to switch anymore. People just expect this feature in a messaging platform nowadays, and if it’s not there they’re going to leave immediately. When this makes it into stable with a good UX, I’ll be back on the new user pipeline.

        • Ahri Boy@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          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.

      • feinstruktur@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        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. 🤷

      • aksdb@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        TURN is only used as a relay. It’s just a low(er)level transport layer, not specific to VoIP. Typically it is used as fallback when P2P communication between the attendees is not possible (for example due to a restrictive firewall).

    • Marks@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      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?

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Element is kinda janky and crashes all the time for me. And also the UI is very confusing to use.

      • fruitywelsh@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I haven’t had Element crash on me in a while, but that was a big annoyance for me too for a long time.

  • DARbarian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You’re looking for Matrix, a federated, encrypted communication protocol used by clients like Element, fluffychat, etc.

  • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Teeks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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!

  • Tokinojin@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Old school Mumble, while is not federated, is still decentralized and perfect for game communication.

  • hoodlem@hoodlem.me
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • sinewyshadow@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Aether is kinda like that, but they support “free speech” and there are subs with slurs as the title. Use at your own risk, I guess.

      • hendrik@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        fediverse but not selfhosted? i’m not sure. that might almost be opposing requirements.

        • Meow.tar.gz :verified:@goblackcat.net
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          1 year ago

          @hendrik @zexu I believe that Rochko (spelling?) foresaw his software being run on many small instances versus several large players. Hence that is why I think scalability wasn’t an emphasis at the time. From the little I understand of Ruby is that it doesn’t scale very well. I think the idea behind Sidekiq is to mitigate that problem.

          • hendrik@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            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.