I’ve been exploring alternatives to Discord and came across Matrix clients, Guilded, and Revolt.
The Matrix protocol is open-source, decentralized, federated, and can be self-hosted. However, Matrix clients seem to struggle on mobile; my friends often complain about how slow and buggy the Element client is. As for other Matrix clients, they don’t seem to like the interface either.
Guilded, unfortunately, lost its charm when Roblox acquired it.
Revolt is open-source and doesn’t have paid features like Discord, or so I’ve heard. But is that the only thing that sets it apart?
I’ve used revolt off and on but adoption is slow. It’s very dearth of features, it can basically do text, small files, and audio calls only (no video or sscreen sharing, thats a long ways off). And it’s still centralized so it’s not safe at all.