this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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I'm sorry, but signal is absolutely not discord replacement. It covers maybe a third of what discord does well. It's a features issue.
Revolt is the closest in terms of ui and function, with matrix being slightly closer than signal in terms of working the way a discord user might expect, but still not as close as revolt.
Heck, teamspeak and mumble both have android apps, and would likely be better than signal specifically for gaming and casual chats. Since desktop signal can be iffy, at least those options cover three out of four platforms (no idea if there's iOS/mac apps or not). Disclaimer is that I've never used either on Linux, just know that they have options for it.
I think it's the non-"gamer" crowd that always suggest things like Signal and Matrix as alternatives to Discord. If you only use Discord for calls and private messages, then yeah then perhaps Signal could work. Discord is a platform of communties, with chat channels, voice channels, activities, screen share, the lot.
There's no direct competitor at the moment, something like going back to Teamspeak could fill the space, but it is more of a self-host platform that will be harder to gain take up on.
Revolt is an open-source alternative that would probably serve as the best right now, a simple sign up and it's exactly like Discord, just missing features that would surely get built quickly with people migrating and helping out.
I think something like Revolt, but with federation added for self-hosting servers would be ideal.
Bit of an assumption there... I use Discord primarily for games :)
However, I hop on a mumble call for talking to friends while gaming nowadays
Of course it's an assumption, hence the "I think". I could swap to another service easily, the only real things I want is voice, text and screen share. I don't care about the community aspect, I'd like to see the return of forums for that! But alas, my friends use it as a community space too, participating in multiple servers, so it's not easy to convince them to switch at all. Discord has dug it's nails in deep, consolodating communities to a single space and it sucks.
I just don't agree Signal/Matrix offer any sort of alternative product for the masses of Discord, but keep seeing them suggested.
My goal isn't to ask people to swap, it's to get myself into a position where I'm using Discord less.
Some friends will use Signal if you ask them to, and not even leave Discord. I asked all my friends to use Signal/Matrix to talk to me, and some did. This allows me to not use Discord as much.