I'm running a Matrix server with a FB Messenger bridge via mautrix-meta and that makes it a clear winner. Half my group chats have migrated entirely since I've set my close friends up with accounts in my server and they also use the bridge. The fact that people can slowly migrate chats without losing messages or groups is killer for adoption imo.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Are you saying you can import chat history with a bridge some how? I don't remember that being an issue, but would be very handy
I'm messaging Facebook users over Matrix via the bridge.
Did you follow a guide, or know one you could link? I'm thinking this is the path for me and my friends too.
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https://spacebar.chat/ looks like it will eventually be good, it looks like it's in its infancy right now though
Element/matrix all the way
if you want something that looks like discord there are themes for the clients, there's even commet.chat for a discord like experience (but they haven't added calls yet)
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man I wish mumble had a better interface and a chat function, it could real FOSS competition with Discord, but the lack of a chat feature is holding it back
It's so much easier to set up and install than Matrix.
It’s so much easier to set up and install than Matrix.
Unbelievably so. Mumble is... basically one setup command. Don't even need a domain. And it needs absolutely no resources, can run on a Pi Zero.
Setting up my own Matrix server was honestly one of the most difficult things I've ever attempted in decades of non-professionally using computers and I'm still not sure I'd be able to properly take care of the installation if it breaks. Sooo many moving parts. All the federation-oriented projects that rely on adoption rates reaaaaally desperately need setup wizards before any other additional feature.
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It never made sense to me how popular discord was to begin with.
It used to be fast and not full of useless bloat like what you see right now. The usual enshittification.
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If you're self hosting, it's Revolt. But the default instance limits you to 20mb or something for files, which is a problem for me, personally.
Revolt is also an annoyance to self host and the apps don’t support self hosted instances without you rebuilding them because the server is hardcoded.
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Doesnt discord also have a max of like 25mb? Unless you pay for nitro?
It was 8mb then 25mb then 10mb now (for non-Nitro users)
I believe it's ~100mb. I don't mind paying for more. That's not an option on Revolt.
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What are your thoughts on xmpp? Recently I have come to like a lot and am pretty active with friends there.
There are people using xmpp? Last time I set up a server and tried using it with Pidgin, I couldn't find a soul that used it
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Why use Element for matrix?
From what I can tell it collets and links data to you: Location, identifiers and contact information.
How is that private or better than Signal?
Because people don't use discord for privacy. They use it for gaming, voice chat, communities and streaming.
@Nikelui is 100% right: a chat room may be private, but it's not secure. Even in an encrypted room, every additional person you add reduces your security. I'm sure there's some paper out there that studies this, and that the graph of # of members vs security is an inverse power ratio.
If it's a public chat, there is no security.
However, with Matrix, if you run your own server and restrict access to your friends, at least you can be fairly certain your chat room isn't being used to train an LLM, or to harvest information about you for advertising.
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I use Signal for private and personal messages. I use Discord solely for gaming and voicechat. A good alternative doesn't need to be overly private (although that would be a bonus of course). It just needs to have a good UI and feature parity with Discord.
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The Element web client will break encryption when you clear your browser data.
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