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Discord Alternatives, Ranked

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Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#111

Post by leetnewb »

ekianjo wrote: post #58
MarsIronPI wrote: post #5

I'm sad to see XMPP missing from this list. I wonder if the author was simply unaware of it or simply ignored it. IMO XMPP is technically superior to Matrix. It "only" needs a cross-platform high-quality, branded app àla Element. There's underlying protocol support for all the features: video/audio calls, group calls, threads and reactions. Maybe missing are custom emoji (I think?) and channel grouping (which is stil…

Xmpp clients are completely awful on Linux desktop, and can't do voice and video chat correctly with clients on Android like Conversations

In addition to Dino, you could use movim as a PWA.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#112

Post by nicoco »

ranger_danger wrote: post #82
MarsIronPI wrote: post #5

I'm sad to see XMPP missing from this list. I wonder if the author was simply unaware of it or simply ignored it. IMO XMPP is technically superior to Matrix. It "only" needs a cross-platform high-quality, branded app àla Element. There's underlying protocol support for all the features: video/audio calls, group calls, threads and reactions. Maybe missing are custom emoji (I think?) and channel grouping (which is stil…

I tried XMPP recently and was surprised to see just how barren it was. The tech might be good but if nobody is using it after all these years, what's the point?

It is used in a non-federated context as the underlying in a lot of places (NATO, Zoom, british Military, Grindr, Jisti…). Federated usage is mostly private chats that don't really want to advertise that they do use it. It is sad because public groups also just work, but I know clients are missing a few features that would improve usability/UX. Some people are working on that, cf https://movim.eu/ for instance.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#113

Post by leetnewb »

cookiengineer wrote: post #70
worble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a recommended or "blessed" server and client combo for someone who just wants to migrate their friends off discord? The main site https://xmpp.org/software/ lists lots of different options but I have no idea what core/advanced means and comparing all of these would take ages.

The ironic part is that those software description files are meaningless. AstraChat claims Advanced in all categories, but it's a proprietary commercial software, so nobody ran any kind of test suite to verify this. That software list, how it's done and how it's ranked is literally confirming my initial point of critique :D Last time I tried out several chat clients, most of them were alpha software, had lots of bugs…

Hasn't social media like HN, Reddit, fediverse, etc. become the real clearinghouse of information about those sorts of questions? I can see how it would be nice for xmpp.org to be an authoritative source of truth, but user response/consensus seems more relevant these days, at least to me.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#114

Post by leetnewb »

ranger_danger wrote: post #82
MarsIronPI wrote: post #5

I'm sad to see XMPP missing from this list. I wonder if the author was simply unaware of it or simply ignored it. IMO XMPP is technically superior to Matrix. It "only" needs a cross-platform high-quality, branded app àla Element. There's underlying protocol support for all the features: video/audio calls, group calls, threads and reactions. Maybe missing are custom emoji (I think?) and channel grouping (which is stil…

I tried XMPP recently and was surprised to see just how barren it was. The tech might be good but if nobody is using it after all these years, what's the point?

Isn't this the sort of moment that pushes users off of Discord into alternatives? Maybe pragmatic/opportunistic users should establish new channels or servers and advertise them when the shoe drops on Discord.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#115

Post by nicoco »

worble wrote: post #37
aaravchen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been brought up on HN before, and people smarter than me identified that this view is about 10 years out of date. Yes it's a bunch of XEPs, but there are standardized "sets" apparently that include all of the things any other similar tools do. It sounds like only very niche old/minimal XMPP clients don't support encryption by default for example, and virtually all servers have supported it for many years.

Is there a recommended or "blessed" server and client combo for someone who just wants to migrate their friends off discord? The main site https://xmpp.org/software/ lists lots of different options but I have no idea what core/advanced means and comparing all of these would take ages.

The targeted audience of this website is, for now, developers. Communicating is hard.

https://joinjabber.org/ is/was an attempt at something more user-focused. It is not linked to the XMPP Software Foundation. BTW, joining the XSF and participating in discussion around protocol evolution, communication strategy and these sort of things is free, and only requires asking for write permission on the XSF wiki to add an application page. Everything happens in the open (mailing lists, chat rooms). We value democratic processes.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#116

Post by neobrain »

pyb wrote: post #109
aaravchen wrote: post #16

Ironically, Signal actually ranks a -1 for privacy in this use. Presumably you're already using Signal and getting mainstream contacts to start using it too. You probably have a basic profile that at least includes your real name, and might also have your picture. Maybe you're even one of the 7 people in the world that use the Stories feature in it. Well good news, now all of that is also unconditionally available to…

How could Signal be considered privacy-conscious ? The first thing they do is ask for your phone number.

Signal has profiles nowadays that can be used to connect with people without sharing phone numbers. The latter are only used for signup and discarded immediately after.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#117

Post by rsynnott »

zer0zzz wrote: post #103
shreyaspapi wrote: post #21

Most Discord alternatives fail not on tech, but on polish. Signal → private but bad for communities Matrix → flexible but rough UX XMPP → powerful but fragmented Discord → centralized but frictionless Users pick frictionless every time. We probably don’t need new apps or protocols we need a client that works well.

Is it just element or matrix.org, but it feels so slow to me?

Element’s pretty not-great. FluffyChat is worth a go, despite the extremely silly name; much less clunky experience.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#118

Post by nicoco »

mfru wrote: post #62
worble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a recommended or "blessed" server and client combo for someone who just wants to migrate their friends off discord? The main site https://xmpp.org/software/ lists lots of different options but I have no idea what core/advanced means and comparing all of these would take ages.

Conversations is a great Android client (also brings their own backend instance if you don't want to host your own), I don't know about iOS or server though.

https://monal-im.org/ is my personal recommendation for iOS.

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#119

Post by troupo »

leetnewb wrote: post #114
ranger_danger wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried XMPP recently and was surprised to see just how barren it was. The tech might be good but if nobody is using it after all these years, what's the point?

Isn't this the sort of moment that pushes users off of Discord into alternatives? Maybe pragmatic/opportunistic users should establish new channels or servers and advertise them when the shoe drops on Discord.

To be an alternative it had to be an alternative. Not "we had a great community with image uploads, voice chats, client parity across all platforms, miltiple servers set up in one click, songle login, game integrations etc., so now we move to this broken disjointed landscape of inconsistently implemented features"

Re: Discord Alternatives, Ranked

#120

Post by troupo »

sdrinf wrote: post #28

can someone please try running the experiment of "but what if just forking&spinning up an OSS clone, scaling up to take in the migrants, acquire network effects, collect roughly same subscription revenue, but run on just, like, 10 people?" Discord has a financially and politically vulnerable posture that is downstream of having to operate a very large team, raise funding, be exposed to investor market pressure. Howev…

> scaling up to take in the migrants, acquire network effects, collect roughly same subscription revenue, but run on just, like, 10 people?"

That's how discord started, too. And then they scaled up. You probably need 10 people to handle infrastructure alone.

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