Is Signal really the best free alternative to Discord? I kinda think it might be
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  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    23·
    9 days ago

    To save you a click (because its a waste of an article):

    TeamSpeak, GameVox, Signal

    Except for maybe GameVox, these are not really discord alternatives at all. But thats closed source and this is their pricing page 🤮
    32kbps audio? 2h a month screenshare? 20 “AI banners” a month??? lmao. Get the fuck outta here.

    • mr_noxx@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      For me at this point, it’s looking like Signal is going to be my Discord replacement. I just want to be able to chat with my friends while playing games without compromising my privacy or security. I don’t need an entire social network in one app, like Discord. Signal isn’t perfect, but it will do what I need it to do.

        • 7toed@midwest.socialEnglish
          1·
          8 days ago

          The biggest downside is that you cannot stream and use your camera. Compression can be pretty heavy sometimes as well

          • mr_noxx@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            8 days ago

            Yeah, Signal isn’t specifically targeted toward gamers, so it lacks some features in that regard. However, most of the ‘gamer’ features it’s missing are things that I never - or rarely - use, anyway. Simplicity, functionality, stability, privacy and security are my primary concerns with a Discord alternative (Discord itself failing at almost all of these spectacularly). Signal just does it better than all the others that I’ve looked at, imho.

  • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
    12·
    9 days ago

    Open source options not mentioned in article:

    Movim: uses XMPP, supports E2EE, can do group chats, group video calls and screen sharing. Dev is currently developing discord-like channels with rooms.

    Fluxer: Newly released GPLv3 discord clone coded from scratch. Still rough with some features like screen sharing not working reliably. Doesn’t currently support E2EE or federation (is planned), but can be self-hosted.

    • stressballs@lemmy.zip
      3·
      9 days ago

      Also worth a mention is Spacebar.chat, formerly fosscord. This is my favorite overall, but sounds almost like it’s in the same spot as Fluxxer as far as where it is in the dev process.

      But having used Discord heavily since 2016, I’ve got to say even at the time of pandemic I wouldn’t really have considered Discord itself “feature complete”, and really was it ever?

    • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      Thankfully for Fluxer, E2EE and federation are not deal-breakers for the average Discord user, who has never had either of those things. The top priorities for a developer looking for Discord refugees should probably be speedy chat, media sharing, and smooth voice + video calls.