The fascist noose is tightening the world over thanks to proprietary big tech. We have to escape now while we can to open-source alternatives.
Currently the best (in my subjective opinion) self-hostable, encrypted and federated (like lemmy/piefed) alternative is Movim.
It offers 90% of the features of Discord, including group video calls, group texts, and even screensharing with audio (must use a Chromium based browser currently to share the audio). The only feature missing is discord-style rooms, which the dev is currently working on to release as fast as possible.
It doesn’t even require an email to create an account, and runs right in your browser, so it has an extremely low barrier to entry. Give it a try with a friend to see if it can meet your needs! :D
For a more complete guide to swapping proprietary apps for safe open-source ones, I suggest referring to this post: lemmy.cafe/post/18663514
camelwize@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
I’ve made Stoat and Matrix accounts.
Matrix because it seems like the most logical choice, largest platform that’s federated and has end-to-end encryption.
Stoat because realistically being more similar to Discord I know more users are going to go there. So I thought I’d hedge my bets.
nfreak@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
The one I’ve been seeing crop up a lot these past couple days is Fluxer, which is literally almost a 1:1 discord clone, even more than Stoat. Though E2EE isn’t currently on the solo dev’s roadmap, which is a shame.
Matrix seems like the best bet in terms of privacy and security, but I swear every single client is hot garbage for some reason or another. I can’t imagine non-tech-savvy users will ever be willing to stick to it.
Realistically I think Stoat or Fluxer is going to win out here. I’m setting up all 3 for now, and I plan to ditch discord completely at the end of this month.
camelwize@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Oh yeah I was looking at Fluxer too, though haven’t made an account yet.
In the “What’s coming next” section on the website it mentions opt-in E2EE. So maybe it is actually on the roadmap? Unless the listed features aren’t actually on the roadmap or I’m misunderstanding.
I hope it is anyway, I accepted no E2EE with Discord just because every single person I knew was using it, but I’m crossing my fingers to not have to make that compromise again if possible.
I’ll probably give Fluxer a try as well then and give all three a go and see which one sticks, hell maybe I’ll end up on more than one.
artyom@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
If you read the blog, it’s because the dev studied the Discord code very closely and did their best to mimic it.
It is on the roadmap. It says it right on the project homepage.
Bahnd@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For Matrix on android, I use Shildichat. Works great, very boiler plate UI and it keeps things simple. I will admit Element for everything else is fine… Enough.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Your link is to example.com. The actual link is fluxer.app
inlandempire@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
There’s also Fluxer fluxer.app which seems to be halfway between the two you mentioned, and self hostable
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have decided on Haven, since self-hosting is a requirement (I don’t trust anyone but me), it’s UI is similar, and it can do text, voice, and video. I found it a few months ago when the discord data breach broke, but waited because it doesn’t have a docker image.
Well a week into this and I have been giving issues, feature suggestions, and feedback to the dev, and I think it’s best combo of ‘in control of my data’ with ‘ease of setup’ and genuine, working, features. And the dev seems really excited to see users, and the back and forth on Github is something I don’t expect - just the excitement, the welcoming of ‘can we do this’ and ‘could this be changed to make that easier’.
It’s almost discord, as a web app, controlled by you, and made by just the one dev and a couple contributes. And the differences are easy to understand.
Mika@piefed.ca 3 weeks ago
Stoat is locked into google services on Android, hard pass from me.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Actually it’s not because there are third party clients available that you can use without any interactions with google services. I’m using Clerotri on GrapheneOS right now.
CafeFrog@lemmy.cafe 3 weeks ago
Personally I’ve had consistent problems with messages not un-encrypting in Matrix, requiring frequent re-sending of messages. I’m also not a fan of how much Metadata is shared across the Matrix network even with encryption, nor am I fan of the group who developed and funded it, or the willingness of the Matrix/Element team to sell their services to law enforcement.
Movim has all of the same features as Matrix without those downsides, if you’d like to give that a try instead.
echolalia@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
On selling services to law enforcement: I disagree. You would want your E2E encryption platform to be respected and recognized by law enforcement, so they don’t just think “oink oink, only criminals use this service, this guy must be a criminal!”
I recommend this defcon talk if you haven’t watched it (I think its the right one, TOR developer talks about why he teaches federal agencies how to use TOR)
nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
You seem to be knowledgeable about XMPP… How does XMPP’s E2EE compare to matrix’?
I tried XMPP and Matrix a few days ago. The XMPP experience is SO MUCH BETTER. HOLLY FUCK.
Matrix is so laggy and clunky and slow and annoying. XMPP was just perfect. And the “Conversations” client, for XMPP, is so fucking fast. It is missing a few things, such as swipe to quote/reply to a given message, but damn, is it fast.
RelativityRanger@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If we follow your stupid logic, you should stop using RSA immediately, as it was co-invented by an Israeli
lemmy.ca/comment/21700498
RelativityRanger@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
@Dremor@Dremor@lemmy.world @JonsJava@lemmy.world @PerfectDark@lemmy.world A strawman is when someone misrepresents the other person’s claim in a weaker or distorted way and then attacks that distorted version. I did not, instead I used reductio ad absurdum reasoning. This person claims that matrix is controlled by Israeli intelligence which is blatant disinformation. What about disinformation now?
lemmy.ca/comment/21700498
Abizaga@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Honestly both stoat and matrix are seriously legit. I have my own matrix server, and I’m thinking of learning to self host.