# The Problem Discord fits a LOT of niches at this point. There's not really much in the way of perfect replacements for all things. Honestly while looking for a replacement for my personal needs sucks, it's gonna be a lot worse for communities that have decided to embed themselves in deep. Especially those that decided to make Discord a replacement for every aspect of community engagement, tech support, and general discussion. Though also, to be perfectly blunt. You were all warned. Ultimately though, what makes for a good replacement depends on what that niche was. Not every server or use needed the voice or video call functionality. While some pretty much relied on it exclusively. So here are some possible options, and my unvarnished thoughts on them. These are off the cuff, possibly even poorly researched, and should be taken as nothing more than my opinion right now. I'll group then into what I'd consider more group chat vs community for a modicum of organization. Subject to change, quite possibly ignorant if not outright stupid. ![[targrus_wink.png]] ## Groups ### Group Texts Look with SMS this is a non-starter entirely. RCS getting better makes this a bit better, and Apple is close to playing ball nicely here finally. Though honestly this is only a preferred communication option for me in the first place if we're both on Apple devices and so we're using iMessage instead. Not an ideal solution in general. Inherently fragmented. Best off as a one on one way to keep in touch with folks. ### Telegram Telegram has a lot to love. Groups, channels, stickers, apps that work pretty damn well. Solid clients all over. But, it's not really ideal for a large community. They do SUPPORT channels in groups, but it's a fucking mess that feels cripplingly half baked. It's also worth noting that as a private company they keep flirting with crypto in extra unpleasant ways and their CEO is BFFs with Tucker Carlson. If those are all things that make you feel squicky, well, good. I say this as someone that still uses Telegram but tries to minimize it. I'm not gonna turn off my ability to communicate with some folks outright but it's my lowest preferred messenger for a reason. Also, trust the fucking furry. https://soatok.blog/2024/05/14/its-time-for-furries-to-stop-using-telegram/ ### Signal Okay now we're talking. At least in a number of ways. A good chunk of what there is to love about Telegram. With some inconveniences baked in over the privacy angle. Stickers are here and work well, BUT, are more work to make and maintain. Encryption is way better by default. The user friendliness of it has improved dramatically the past couple years too. You do need to be a bit more savy, but it works. This is great for group chats, and even covers voice and video calls decently. Hell it's even got Stories much like Telegram or Instagram. The big gotcha is the phone number requirement. This is only used to create your account initially, can be kept completely private, and in my opinion, isn't a big deal. But again, my opinion. It does have a drastic impact on spam mitigation. Yet another big problem on other platforms you don't see much of here. ### Delta Chat More genuinely open than Signal, less oomph behind it but actual OSS. Seem otherwise quite basic for now though. ### Ventrilo Look I don't think I can go back to this shit but it'd cover voice calls nicely. ### Teamspeak Ditto. ## Communities ### IRC Talk about reject modernity, return to tradition. Very centralized, single server focused. No frills, bells, or whistles, but for text chat this is still great. Not so good for direct messages or the like. It really is as basic as it gets. Notifications, on your phone, in this economy? ### Stoat (formerly Revolt) Look the vibes are rancid. They've got the biggest "we're the OG discord you love" pick me vibes imaginable. They don't seem to have their act together. I think it's incredibly telling that they only added numbers to the end of their usernames in response to Discord deciding to change to unique usernames. The desperation is off the fucking charts. ### Matrix I want to like Matrix, but it's such a clunky protocol. The idea of running a server for it is incredibly daunting and looks like an exercise in pain and if you wanna enable any of the connectors, it might be more cost effective to just set fire to your wallet. ### Zulip Okay, this is looking promising. Very Slack like, but without trying to just rip off Slack or Discord. Self hosted or reasonable hosting by them. Seems like a possible winner to me. Note that they do permit NSFW content however. So not a great fit for all communities. ### Mattermost Concerningly commercial looking, looks like the company is big into AI. The app itself looks just fine, but I don't think this is gonna be it. ### Chatto VERY interesting but pretty early to pin your hopes on just yet. ### Spacebar Even earlier, and maybe not the best route if your goal is open AND truly independent. ### Sharkord This too is VERY early in development. Though having a functional demo server is nice. ### Root Closed beta. Maybe has potential, but also likely the same pitfalls of Discord. No NSFW content permitted.