Hi all, I’m looking for some Discord alternatives. All I really need is the ability to do voice calls and screen shares. It can be either via DM or channels, I only need to it be able to speak with a few friends that’d be open to moving over. I’ve tried Matrix/Element but there doesn’t seem to be a screen share function. There’s Teamspeak but I don’t think that’s FOSS nor does it support screen shares as well. Any other options? Basically just voice calls and screen shares is all I need, I couldn’t care about channels or servers or whatever other functionalities Discord has put into their app. Thanks!
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The Matrix network is the closest you’re likely to get to Discord’s features.
Nheko is a Matrix client that I believe can do screen sharing.
Eventually, whatever Matrix clients support Element Call might be what you want, but it’s in beta for now.
Jitsi Meet might also be worth a look, although its (optional) end-to-end encryption was too demanding for some laptops last time I tried it.
Jitsi now needs a MS or Goog account
Only for the main instance. Its selfhostable as well.
i can’t believe so many people didn’t get that part
Are there any limitations with the screen sharing for these alternatives? Audio support or resolution adjustment? I thought I’ve seen mentions of lack of something but I may be thinking of Discord on linux
discord doesn’t do audio on Linux
matrix clients that support pipewire should do fine
What? I haven’t had any audio issues with discord on Linux (browser or app).
screenshare audio, it just doesn’t on Linux. not the voice chat part
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I use the Mozilla homeserver
Is there at this point such a thing as managed hosting of Matrix? Like i pay somebody to install, keep upgraded and in general maintain a Matrix server with bridges to all the major things, then i just use it along with my small pool of users? Even further, would that be advisable?
Yes, managed hosting is available.
Element Matrix Services is the one that directly supports development of the project. There are others, too.
EMS doesn’t support bridges unless you pay for the highest tier, but the list you linked is good.
etke.cc does that.
Jitsi has screen sharing and can be tied directly into Matrix
All I really need is the ability to do voice calls and screen shares.
Have you looked into Jitsi?
I would recommend using Matrix. But if you really want the “Discord experience” than I would suggest Revolt.
I’ve never had revolt come close to working; it always felt really buggy.
It also seems abandoned looking at their GitHub, there’s been no activity in over 7 months.Where did you look at? The backend had a commit 2 days ago, the frontend rewrite 2 weeks ago. Looks active.
I was looking at https://github.com/revoltchat/revolt/commits/master though it’s been pointed out to me that’s an incomplete view.
Well yeah, that’s only a meta repository pointing to all the other repositories.
They’re still active but it’s slowed down a little. Their activity is spread out across a lot of different repos so some look inactive, sort repositories by last updated at the bottom of the page here to see the current activity https://github.com/revoltchat.
edit: iirc they’re also in the process of doing a major UI rewrite, not sure if certain parts of that are public yet or how far along they are on it.
Oh interesting, thanks
I don’t really understand Revolt, most people don’t want to self host an entire Discord (as in, a server full of servers), most people want to self host one server.
Element for Matrix
Since everyone is only recommending self hostable options and no hoster, here is a new candidate:
OpenTalk on tchncs.de
It is also free and open source and the server is hosted by a german who takes donations.
The also have a mumble (like Teamspeak but as you said without screenshare) and matrix instance running, which are great but not for your needs.
Signal. Works both on mobile and linked to desktop.
It should also work on Element Web, but not desktop clients.
Here to second the signal recommendation. Screen share and voice chat work without problems. No need to selfhost either. Secure and privacy friendly.
Jitsi, for sure
Matrix using element for the client and element call or jitsi should do the trick
Telegram has both of these. I shared my screen during voice/video calls before and it works just fine on my phone, i haven’t tried it on pc yet but i assume it also works fine.
Don’t use Telegram if you don’t have to.
The client is open source, but the server side isn’t. E2E encryption is only available for secret chats and voice chat. Contacts, messages, media, and their decryption keys are all stored on the servers together. And it’s just another big tech product like Whatsapp.
You’re not wrong, but in terms of a polished alternative to discord… Telegram is a pretty solid option. It’s ultimately still better than Discord.
Personally, I hope Telegram improves their privacy guarantees, or enough time passes that the true E2EE apps can “catch up” to the feature set and quality of the clients.
It’s been doing the exact opposite and implementing more targeted advertising after several previous monetization attempts (including a cryptocurrency integration) flopped.
Similarly the feature set is increasingly locked behind “premium” paywall.
It’s headed in no good direction if you ask me.
