I know there is revolt as a FOSS alternative to discord but it’s not federated.
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.
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.
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. 🤷
WA is better atleast you got E2E encryption there. It works or not well that’s an another question.
What’s WA?
WhatsApp
Aren’t voice and video calls (basically VoIP) what Turn (coturn) is supposed to support?
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).
Element is kinda janky and crashes all the time for me. And also the UI is very confusing to use.
I haven’t had Element crash on me in a while, but that was a big annoyance for me too for a long time.
Old school Mumble, while is not federated, is still decentralized and perfect for game communication.
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.
