It’s also made to be decentralized. Seems voice chat works already. Screenshare and video chat don’t seem to be released yet, but I was told that if you host your own instance, you can turn them on (vidchat and screenshare are probably still in beta/are experimental features I assume). UI layout is comparable to Discord.
Me and a friend are considering installing an instance on the server our peertube instance is installed on.
Are you sure it’s decentralised? Last time I checked you could just install your own server, but servers are not interconnected.
Decentralized ≠ Federated
But I don’t know if there is federation. It is decentralized because compared to Discord, everything isn’t on a central server but can be hosted on an independent instance. However bots that bridge servers between instances seem to already exist.
It would be a real game changer if it was federated!
Yeah afaik it’s not federated. It’s been a month or two since I’ve checked up on it though
“UI layout comparable to Discord” is not a selling point. Will check it out though and see how it evolves compared to Matrix. Thanks for posting.
A lot of people do not like the layout of Matrix. A lot of friends hate Matrix and absolutely do not see it as an alternative to Discord.
Also I hate it that everytime I bring up Discord on the Fediverse, people bring up Matrix, even though they are only vaguely similar.
Imagine you talk about Mastodon and someone constantly says “But Friendica is better. They are both microblogging sites.”
That’s how it often feels here.
Matrix is an interoperability protocol (like activityPub, which mastodon, friendica, Lemmy, pixelfed etc… all use to communicate with one another) rather than the actual application being used.
The UI you’re describing is probably Element, which is the most common matrix implementation used, though others do exist. A good example is probably rocket.chat; they’ve leaned harder into the discord like feel, whilst making use of the matrix protocol.
As for Stoat chat; It’s a rebrand of revolt chat, who have previously resisted calls for federation due to the perceived complexity of implementing (or creating their own i guess) protocol. That’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s uses; but it would be silly to assume people won’t try to steer you towards federated services on the fediverse 😉 and stoat don’t seem to have changed their stance on the matter.
A “bot” or something can maybe be made to bridge to Matrix protocol stuff as they already have ones that bridge to Discord and Guilded. Someone just needs to make it.
The bridge for revolt/stoat has been around for some time now. You might still need to search for matrix-protocol-revolt (or something like that) rather than stoat; as the name change is fairly recent, and may not have been implemented by the team responsible for matrix.
That being said, native federation support is always better. The bridge will require you to run a matrix backend like synapse alongside stoat chat, (so two different chat services rather than just one running) at which point you might as well just look at a discord designed frontend for matrix instead.
That’s why “bots” exist. Usually bots are linked to such backends.
Yes… Like the one I just described to you?
I don’t get this. To me, Matrix looks a lot like discord. I use Element X, and the UI looks the same. Maybe it doesn’t have all the features yet, but I never used Discord for more than messaging anyway, so I’m not aware what Matrix is lacking comparatively.
As far as I’m aware, there are different apps one can use to access Matrix, just like the case with Lemmy. So if you don’t like the layout of one, why not just choose another?
I mean it’s cool that there’s another option available; diversity might prevent enshittification and offer a backup if one sells out like so many platforms do (discord, reddit, etc.). But to say Matrix isn’t comparable to Discord kinda flies over my head…
If you haven’t used Discord for more than messaging, then you haven’t experienced it to the extent most others have experienced it. Matrix isn’t like Discord. Comparing the two is like saying Twitter and Facebook are similar. Just because they have one feature/function in common doesn’t mean they are alike.
What features does Discord have that Matrix doesn’t?
Isn’t Matrix the perfect fit for this?
No. Please don’t ever mention Matrix as an alternative to Discord ever again. A lot of people I know from Discord would never switch to Matrix because it lacks the ease of Discord. Matrix is rather an alternative to Slack or Mattermost.
Why not Matrix?
Because it’s supposed to be something to replace Discord. I use Matrix, but you can’t seriously compare the two. The features are different. You wouldn’t compare Matrix with Zoom, would you?
Why not? Matrix has a call feature too, has it not? Can’t you share a link that anybody can use to join a call too? How is that different from Zoom?
deleted by creator
Because Matrix is not a Discord alternative. It has a completely different layout and features (such as custom roles). Plus no one of my usual friends likes Matrix.
How many of your friends use Stoat?
One. The rest is still on Discord, because Stoat hasn’t officially released video chat and screensharing yet. And because Matrix is not a viable alternative for them. Anyone familiar with Discord won’t seriously claim Matrix to be an alternative. I may use Matrix, but not for stuff I use Discord for.
