Discord is banned in Turkiye. The reason is some data theft, blackmail, AI montage photos, etc. As usual, our government made the easiest and most illogical move :)
I am looking for an alternative platform to talk and chat with my friends. Which platforms do you recommend?
The ones I tried:
- Revolt: Voice chat is not stable. They do not accept new registrations.
- Matrix: Unstable overall.
- TeamSpeak: ancient interface. We can still try it.
- XMPP: It has an old interface like TS. Not sure if it has voice channels.
- Your recommendations?
matrix: unstable overall
“Unstable” is an understatement, and this comes from a girl who uses it all day every day.
KiwiIRC is a web based IRC client. Does not have voice chat afaik, but since it’s IRC it’s very lightweight and had a low entry barrier.
Teamspeak 3 is ancient, but works.
However there is a new version of Teamspeak (TS5) which is much closer to Discord and looks much nicer. You could give that a try
Alternatively mumble and murmur, but the setup is more elaborate.
I use Steam Chat for playing games with family and friends. It has better audio quality than discord in my opinion, and you can make groups (something like Discord servers) too. It doesn’t have all the functionality of servers, but the basic idea is there.
I am actually surprised nobody mentioned it yet Why use some third party application, when you can use the Steam’s one.
It’s not like the OP is concerned about privacy. They were using discord. They didn’t say it has to be open source.
For talking outside of gaming or away from PC, I use signal.
You could self host revolt.
SimpleX or Signal. Not sure if they work on desktop though.
Signal should still have a desktop app, I believe
If only it synced messages with the mobile app properly
Req if not using mobile tho?
It does
Theres also zulip, but I havent tried it yet, but its supposedly open source discord, but you have to host the server yourself I think.
To those suggesting mumble, are there any good guides out there? The website is shockingly bad for introductory information.
https://github.com/mumble-voip/mumble-docker
myself, I run a docker container of mumble in casaOS
In fact matrix is great
How? A few weeks back I had to deal with getting spammed with invites to CSAM rooms. I’ve also been harassed many times on it. And not to mention lack of moderation tools and state issues.
Do not have really the problems you mentioned,but sadly it’s more a problem of community than service …
Jitsi meet is what I use for calls with my friends. You can continue using revolt or matrix or something for the text channels.
Matrix is probably the closest to Discord overall. If Element is bugging out on you, it might be worth trying other clients. Nheko worked well when I tried it, for example. Do note that the matrix.org homeserver is sometimes overloaded, so if you’re having responsiveness issues, choosing or running a different homeserver will probably clear them right up.
Mumble.info is great for voice. If your text chat needs are pretty basic, it might be a good fit. I don’t think it saves message history.
XMPP is a protocol, not an app. If you you saw an interface you didn’t like, you could always just use a different client. I don’t usually recommend it, since setting it up with all the features people usually expect is a bit complicated and error-prone, but it would probably be fine among a small group of friends if one of them has tech skills. I don’t think it offers voice, at least not in any widely-supported way.
Our group uses mumble for voice and discord for text and backup voice or external voice. The voice quality is better, free, faster on mumble. Extremely low server requirements. It technically saves chat history but as server logs, not for the client.
XMPP/Jabber has whatever interface you choose (determined by the client you use), and does voice pretty darn well.
I’m currently using Jmp.chat as a SIM/data provider, and they provide an XMPP account via Snikket. I can connect to that account with pretty much any XMPP/Jabber client.
To me, XMPP/Jabber is the most flexible, because it’s a protocol, and you choose which parts you want. And you can choose which clients you use. I have 2 clients on my phone and one on my laptop. They all work fine with the same account, with messages showing up at all simultaneously. One client (Snikket) has multiple accounts in it. The thing is XMPP/Jabber as a protocol is like SMTP - it’s a standard, so all clients can communicate with each other, if they support the same features (eg OMEMO encryption, which is popular now).
Alternatively check out:
Teleguard, it’s from the folks at SwissCows. They claim E2E, and from the way you connect devices, and that you can’t recover an account from them, I tend to believe it. Though I haven’t seen a third party evaluation (I belive they’re closed source, unfortunately). So do with that what you will.
Simplex Chat, self hostable, they claim it’s very secure. I’ve used it some, the phone app is a bit heavy on ram use.
There are numerous others out there.
xmpp is a protocol, it doesn’t have interface. you may be thinking about some specific software using xmpp, in that case you have to say what software you are talking about.
Which is exactly what I said. You get the interface you choose.
waits for matrix fanboys to still chime in
My client shouldn’t be bugged when I enter a room with a long history, right? Right?
Hey, they’re fixing that. Soon. Really. Any day now. For reals!
(That’s the #1 thing that makes Matrix utterly unusable for me: if there’s more than like, 10 messages, it’s a game of is-it-broken-or-is-it-just-crap.)
Couldn’t decrypt message
Matrix is the only discord clone I know about. Does it have massive problems?
Yes. Without a question of a doubt.
I setup a Mattermost server for me and the boys. It’s more slack than discord. But chat, rooms and voice all worked. Push notifications worked on android and Apple. But, I had to admit defeat. No one wants to leave discord because they all have at least 1 friend who won’t leave it.
I tried to self hosted matrix, but it suffered the same feigned interest.
We need client compatibility with discord
Discord is a closed source system. Matrix with a discord bridge would work. You just use your matrix server and a bot to send and receive on your behalf. There is functionality between but technically the two systems are independent. I also see issues with it not being 100% all the time. Typical of something bridging to a closed system.
What compatibility are you looking for? A non discord application connected directly to a discord server and can send text, audio and visual via discord infrastructure? Nah, probably won’t happen. Bridging is the closest right now.
IRC.
irssi for cli, hexchat for gui
When it got banned? My Friend is from Turkiye. He still used it.
Todays news
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/turkiye/turkiye-bans-discord-amid-concerns-over-platform-safety-62896/
For now, Discord users in Türkiye face limited access to the platform, though it remains unclear whether a full ban will be implemented in the coming days.
Still working for me on hotel wifi.
Edit: it won’t launch on my laptop now. Stuck trying to update. Still works on my phone.
Some groups have allegedly used the “901” tag in their usernames to identify themselves, raising alarms among officials and parents alike
What does this mean? I can’t seem to find info on what a 901 tag even is.
