Some of the key features expected by Discord users have yet to be prioritised (game streaming, push-to-talk, voice channels, custom emoji, extensible presence, richer hierarchical moderation, etc)
End to end encrypted chat, with the possibility to host your own instance, federated or not, and voice / video calls with screensharing.
However, bandwidth costs money, accordingly the free Matrix servers (remember: Discord was never free, you just paid with your data) can not provide the level of video streams that a commercial provider with a lot of money to throw at the problem can.
Also, federation of chat rooms.
Matrix is a mature chat client for secure communications, and more than that. But it is not aimed at gamers, it is not necessarily (as) trivial to use, and streaming gamers are definitely not the target group. So yeah, it’s not an alternative for a lot of what users seek from Discord, but it’s still a really good tool.
Complaining that matrix doesn’t have X & Y features of Discord is like complaining that you can’t use a Hammer to bake a cake. It’s designed for a different job :)
Basically fuck and all. It’s a barely functional corporate chat room with a mosh pit of a call feature that only sorta works.
Matrix is about as ready for daily driving as Wayland was 4 years ago.
It’s useable, but I less you have your head so deep in the sand that your finding dune worms. It’s impossible to argue it’s useable for anyone but the most die hard foss folk who would rather mutilate themselves then use anything closed source.
The funny thing is it really hasn’t improved since the pandemic, the last time I really evaluated element. What the 100 employees of element have been doing for the last 6 years… I have no idea
Basically working on all the matrix 2.0 stuff, which hasn’t landed yet, although it’s “almost done” now apparently.
Said matrix 2.0 stuff fixes encryption (i.e, makes it seamless like signal), proper voice and video chat and adds sliding sync which makes everything much faster
I tried to look this up to see what its status was. It looks like 2.0 was out (or mostly out) in 2024. Element X talks about using some of the features discussed in one of the Matrix 2.0 blogs, but I dont see explicit version numbers listed anywhere. For example, that sliding sync you mentioned is listed as implemented in the Element X client
It’s kind of confusing but: basically some matrix 2.0 features are implemented in an non-finished state by element X (and synapse) as a testbed for those features, but the actual features aren’t finalised or implemented in most clients. The MSC’s (matrix spec changes) aren’t merged, so clients won’t want to implement it.
2/4 of the MSC’s required for 2.0 are merged as of now, and the other two are close.
2024 was when those features began to be ready to be beta tested, but it takes a long time to get a protocol finalised, since it can’t be easily changed once done.
Think of it like a wayland protocol that isn’t merged, but a desktop, say kde, has an implementation already.
Thanks for the correction. I guess watching the appropriate MSC page would be a good way to check in on the status from time to time? Or the blog once it’s all done I guess.
My private groups solved this by using Matrix for text chat and Mumble for voice. It has push-to-talk and outstanding sound quality. Hosted Mumble servers are cheap, and self-hosting is pretty easy.
When Element Call (MatrixRTC) eventually leaves beta, we might switch to that, but it’s hard to beat Mumble for audio.
Not even push to talk!? What the fuq?
What does it have? Those are some pretty major features.
End to end encrypted chat, with the possibility to host your own instance, federated or not, and voice / video calls with screensharing. However, bandwidth costs money, accordingly the free Matrix servers (remember: Discord was never free, you just paid with your data) can not provide the level of video streams that a commercial provider with a lot of money to throw at the problem can.
Also, federation of chat rooms.
Matrix is a mature chat client for secure communications, and more than that. But it is not aimed at gamers, it is not necessarily (as) trivial to use, and streaming gamers are definitely not the target group. So yeah, it’s not an alternative for a lot of what users seek from Discord, but it’s still a really good tool.
Complaining that matrix doesn’t have X & Y features of Discord is like complaining that you can’t use a Hammer to bake a cake. It’s designed for a different job :)
Basically fuck and all. It’s a barely functional corporate chat room with a mosh pit of a call feature that only sorta works. Matrix is about as ready for daily driving as Wayland was 4 years ago.
It’s useable, but I less you have your head so deep in the sand that your finding dune worms. It’s impossible to argue it’s useable for anyone but the most die hard foss folk who would rather mutilate themselves then use anything closed source.
The funny thing is it really hasn’t improved since the pandemic, the last time I really evaluated element. What the 100 employees of element have been doing for the last 6 years… I have no idea
Basically working on all the matrix 2.0 stuff, which hasn’t landed yet, although it’s “almost done” now apparently.
Said matrix 2.0 stuff fixes encryption (i.e, makes it seamless like signal), proper voice and video chat and adds sliding sync which makes everything much faster
I tried to look this up to see what its status was. It looks like 2.0 was out (or mostly out) in 2024. Element X talks about using some of the features discussed in one of the Matrix 2.0 blogs, but I dont see explicit version numbers listed anywhere. For example, that sliding sync you mentioned is listed as implemented in the Element X client
It’s kind of confusing but: basically some matrix 2.0 features are implemented in an non-finished state by element X (and synapse) as a testbed for those features, but the actual features aren’t finalised or implemented in most clients. The MSC’s (matrix spec changes) aren’t merged, so clients won’t want to implement it.
2/4 of the MSC’s required for 2.0 are merged as of now, and the other two are close.
2024 was when those features began to be ready to be beta tested, but it takes a long time to get a protocol finalised, since it can’t be easily changed once done.
Think of it like a wayland protocol that isn’t merged, but a desktop, say kde, has an implementation already.
Thanks for the correction. I guess watching the appropriate MSC page would be a good way to check in on the status from time to time? Or the blog once it’s all done I guess.
That is a must-have not just for me, but any other fucker in the channel who doesn’t want to be muted.
I don’t want to hear the fuckin darth vader breathing, dorito crunching, parents arguing, dog barking bullshit on the other end of the mic.
My private groups solved this by using Matrix for text chat and Mumble for voice. It has push-to-talk and outstanding sound quality. Hosted Mumble servers are cheap, and self-hosting is pretty easy.
When Element Call (MatrixRTC) eventually leaves beta, we might switch to that, but it’s hard to beat Mumble for audio.