Where am I moving my friends group? Revolt is nice but not quite ready for primetime / getting a rewrite, and I’ve always been iffy about matrix.
Is a signal group chat literally where we’re heading to!?
As someone who runs a Mumble server (and has for over a decade) – it’s really not a replacement for the user experience that is Discord.
People want a unified UI, the ability to create communities with some amount of customization, embedded/live content, plus voice and video so they can chill and play games together. Mumble is just voice, and while it’s a very good implementation of that, it’s not even in the same user space as Discord.
Matrix does have all of that, though? Except for voice.
I use matrix/element for socializing and Mumble for voice chat while gaming.
To respond to each comment:
Element is a unified UI, available on PC/Web/Mobile.
Starting and managing a community involves hitting the + button, creating a community, creating rooms in that community, then setting permissions and ACLs - pretty similar to discord, though with more control as you own the server.
Embedded content is possible through the embed button.
Video and voice work, but aren’t great for gaming (see below).
Element Call (aka the new MatrixRTC spec) is great for video calls, but leaves a lot to be desired for chatting while gaming.
While matrix/element is still very much in development, it is improving constantly. A year ago i sometimes had issues with desynced encryption keys and now that never happens anymore. There is now a modern group call and screensharing system and the new ElementX mobile app which is much faster than the old app. Now there is also OIDC and in a few weeks QR code login will be released, so no more manually entering login and encryption key verification stuff.
Where am I moving my friends group? Revolt is nice but not quite ready for primetime / getting a rewrite, and I’ve always been iffy about matrix. Is a signal group chat literally where we’re heading to!?
What’s wrong with matrix/element? We started running our own server for our household group chats and it has been solid.
SMS/RCS
Why iffy about matrix? You could always use mumble or teamspeak still
As someone who runs a Mumble server (and has for over a decade) – it’s really not a replacement for the user experience that is Discord.
People want a unified UI, the ability to create communities with some amount of customization, embedded/live content, plus voice and video so they can chill and play games together. Mumble is just voice, and while it’s a very good implementation of that, it’s not even in the same user space as Discord.
Matrix does have all of that, though? Except for voice.
I use matrix/element for socializing and Mumble for voice chat while gaming.
To respond to each comment:
Element Call (aka the new MatrixRTC spec) is great for video calls, but leaves a lot to be desired for chatting while gaming.
While matrix/element is still very much in development, it is improving constantly. A year ago i sometimes had issues with desynced encryption keys and now that never happens anymore. There is now a modern group call and screensharing system and the new ElementX mobile app which is much faster than the old app. Now there is also OIDC and in a few weeks QR code login will be released, so no more manually entering login and encryption key verification stuff.
QR code login is technically out, you just need to be running your own homeserver (and MAS) to use it.
But, yeah, exciting to finally have that.