Discord is banned in Turkiye. The reason is some data theft, blackmail, AI montage photos, etc. As usual, our government made the easiest and most illogical move :)

I am looking for an alternative platform to talk and chat with my friends. Which platforms do you recommend?

The ones I tried:

  • Revolt: Voice chat is not stable. They do not accept new registrations.
  • Matrix: Unstable overall.
  • TeamSpeak: ancient interface. We can still try it.
  • XMPP: It has an old interface like TS. Not sure if it has voice channels.
  • Your recommendations?
    • pisturko@lemy.lolOPEnglish
      341·
      2 months ago

      My client shouldn’t be bugged when I enter a room with a long history, right? Right?

      • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
        331·
        2 months ago

        Hey, they’re fixing that. Soon. Really. Any day now. For reals!

        (That’s the #1 thing that makes Matrix utterly unusable for me: if there’s more than like, 10 messages, it’s a game of is-it-broken-or-is-it-just-crap.)

        • dan@upvote.auEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          I’ve found that Conduit handles it a lot better than Synapse does.

        • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Tbf, they actually are. Element X and the sliding sync are ready I think. If the server and client both use it, I think you can use it today. Or maybe the whole matrix 2.0 where that’s all integrated isn’t pushed into main/master yet. Im any case, I read it was ready maybe a few weeks ago.

          • DiabolicalBird@lemmy.caEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            Element X is still missing a lot of features, “ready” is an exaggeration I feel

            No Spaces support in particular is a dealbreaker for me

            • mikemrm@lemmy.mrm.oneEnglish
              1·
              1 month ago

              Agreed. Element X and sliding sync don’t support sso yet, so I’ve been unable to try them :/

              Once those are added I’ll be excited to give them a shot.

              I currently use matrix and element with many bridges as my sole chat interface and it’s very slow. So I look forward to speed improvements.

            • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              Ahh, good point. I have only been “testing” matrix for a year and haven’t enabled sliding sync so haven’t bothered using element x yet.

              Well then theyre right- one day it might get done. 😄

              • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
                1·
                1 month ago

                It will be done the same year when it’s finally “year of linux”… Sad, but seems to be the case.

    • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      The lack of interest in it even amongst tech communities and bridges (they can link Matrix servers and Discord servers) constantly being down has kept me from giving Matrix a second chance.

      I think it was a Linux gaming community last time that got flooded with hate content after the bridge went down and the Matrix side was left to itself.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          11·
          1 month ago

          Eh, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. There is a lot of room for improvement, but it works pretty well today, especially if your rooms are relatively small (e.g. a few dozen people) and you don’t use an overcrowded instance (e.g. not the main Matrix.org one).

          If you can host your own, you can adjust the resources so it works well for you. If you can’t, just avoid the main instance.

  • mox@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    493·
    2 months ago

    Matrix is probably the closest to Discord overall. If Element is bugging out on you, it might be worth trying other clients. Nheko worked well when I tried it, for example. Do note that the matrix.org homeserver is sometimes overloaded, so if you’re having responsiveness issues, choosing or running a different homeserver will probably clear them right up.

    Mumble.info is great for voice. If your text chat needs are pretty basic, it might be a good fit. I don’t think it saves message history.

    XMPP is a protocol, not an app. If you you saw an interface you didn’t like, you could always just use a different client. I don’t usually recommend it, since setting it up with all the features people usually expect is a bit complicated and error-prone, but it would probably be fine among a small group of friends if one of them has tech skills. I don’t think it offers voice, at least not in any widely-supported way.

    • ProjectPatatoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Our group uses mumble for voice and discord for text and backup voice or external voice. The voice quality is better, free, faster on mumble. Extremely low server requirements. It technically saves chat history but as server logs, not for the client.

        • Ziglin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 month ago

          For that kind of thing I use jitsi, works great and I have access to a sort of private instance that I use occasionally. Works for just voice too but it can be a little unreliable (the last two times I had a weird issue where the others suddenly couldn’t hear me and vice versa but reloading fixed it) so something else might be better for that…

  • Cossty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    422·
    2 months ago

    I use Steam Chat for playing games with family and friends. It has better audio quality than discord in my opinion, and you can make groups (something like Discord servers) too. It doesn’t have all the functionality of servers, but the basic idea is there.

    I am actually surprised nobody mentioned it yet Why use some third party application, when you can use the Steam’s one.

    It’s not like the OP is concerned about privacy. They were using discord. They didn’t say it has to be open source.

    For talking outside of gaming or away from PC, I use signal.

  • Imma_lazyboy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    23·
    2 months ago

    I setup a Mattermost server for me and the boys. It’s more slack than discord. But chat, rooms and voice all worked. Push notifications worked on android and Apple. But, I had to admit defeat. No one wants to leave discord because they all have at least 1 friend who won’t leave it.

    I tried to self hosted matrix, but it suffered the same feigned interest.

      • Imma_lazyboy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        Discord is a closed source system. Matrix with a discord bridge would work. You just use your matrix server and a bot to send and receive on your behalf. There is functionality between but technically the two systems are independent. I also see issues with it not being 100% all the time. Typical of something bridging to a closed system.

        What compatibility are you looking for? A non discord application connected directly to a discord server and can send text, audio and visual via discord infrastructure? Nah, probably won’t happen. Bridging is the closest right now.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    2 months ago

    Discord is banned in Turkiye.

    Considering the nature of these programs, I think the most important thing to hone in on is: what’s popular in Turkiye? Features and functionality don’t mean squat if no one’s around to enjoy them.

    …tad off topic, but this thread is making me miss xFire. That shit was better 10 years ago (maybe more like 15? idk, I’m old) than Discord was at its peak. …litigated out of existence by Yahoo’s frivolous weaponization of our legal system. This is why we can’t have nice things.

     

    Edit - Fuck you, Yahoo.

    • jagermo@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      Ohhh, xFire, that takes me back. To a time of dedicated servers and not that bullshit service game fuckery.

    • morbidcactus@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      xFire was great, didn’t know the whole yahoo thing

      Kinda liked the separate applications for voice and chat, we used ventrilo over teamspeak for reasons I don’t recall but all of that is just ancient history at this point (was using that like literally 20 years ago)

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      Eh, I’m honestly trying to give Yahoo another shake now that Google is so terrible. That said, Yahoo still sucks to use, and it lost most of the charm that it had in the 90s. And BTW, the xFire suit was around 20 years ago, so you may be older than you want to admit.

      • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        the xFire suit was around 20 years ago, so you may be older than you want to admit.

        There comes a point where it kinda just blurs together. I’m old enough that when people ask how old I am, I have to stop and think what year it is, and do some quick head math to figure out the answer.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 month ago

          Dang, that hits too close to home for me too. I have kids, and sometimes I forget how old I am because I care far more about how old they are that it just isn’t as important to me.

  • twoface@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    16·
    2 months ago

    Teamspeak 3 is ancient, but works.

    However there is a new version of Teamspeak (TS5) which is much closer to Discord and looks much nicer. You could give that a try

    • Lennny@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      There was a TS4?

      There’s guilded, have an old guild leader in tech that always tries to get us to be guinea pigs for different voips, and that one isn’t terrible if discord isn’t available.

      Ventrilo, is that even around anymore?
      Mumble wasn’t too bad,

  • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    There isn’t a full replacement for Discord out there, it’ll have to be old school with multiple things together.

    Teamspeak is great for voice comms (or Mumble). And you could use Matrix or XMPP for text chat. Matrix should be a lot better if you either self-host or join a smaller server that isn’t so overloaded all the time.

    For game streaming Broadcast Box paired with OBS Studio seems like a good option for low latency streaming.

  • everypizza@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    152·
    2 months ago

    matrix: unstable overall

    “Unstable” is an understatement, and this comes from a girl who uses it all day every day.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      Isn’t it generally better if you use a smaller instance/host your own? Most of the complaints I’ve heard have been on the busier instances.

      That said, I only use it occasionally to catch up on dev updates.

      • everypizza@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        My current instance has ~160 users, and it’s okay. I once used a friend’s instance, where I was the 2nd user. It was very bad. That might in part be the fact that it was running Conduwuit though.

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
    121·
    2 months ago

    XMPP/Jabber has whatever interface you choose (determined by the client you use), and does voice pretty darn well.

    I’m currently using Jmp.chat as a SIM/data provider, and they provide an XMPP account via Snikket. I can connect to that account with pretty much any XMPP/Jabber client.

    To me, XMPP/Jabber is the most flexible, because it’s a protocol, and you choose which parts you want. And you can choose which clients you use. I have 2 clients on my phone and one on my laptop. They all work fine with the same account, with messages showing up at all simultaneously. One client (Snikket) has multiple accounts in it. The thing is XMPP/Jabber as a protocol is like SMTP - it’s a standard, so all clients can communicate with each other, if they support the same features (eg OMEMO encryption, which is popular now).

    Alternatively check out:

    Teleguard, it’s from the folks at SwissCows. They claim E2E, and from the way you connect devices, and that you can’t recover an account from them, I tend to believe it. Though I haven’t seen a third party evaluation (I belive they’re closed source, unfortunately). So do with that what you will.

    Simplex Chat, self hostable, they claim it’s very secure. I’ve used it some, the phone app is a bit heavy on ram use.

    There are numerous others out there.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.eeEnglish
      22·
      2 months ago

      xmpp is a protocol, it doesn’t have interface. you may be thinking about some specific software using xmpp, in that case you have to say what software you are talking about.

  • suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.mlEnglish
    121·
    2 months ago

    If you or one of your friends can self-host, my group used mumble before discord. I still don’t really know why we switched.

  • sag@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    When it got banned? My Friend is from Turkiye. He still used it.

    • everypizza@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      How? A few weeks back I had to deal with getting spammed with invites to CSAM rooms. I’ve also been harassed many times on it. And not to mention lack of moderation tools and state issues.