I tested out revolt and element. Out of the two element seems to be the most well rounded. What do you people use to replace discord to protect your privacy?
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use xmpp
I will not say the typical thing. Discord has a community that Element and Revolt cannot rival in numbers. So I think treating Discord as a public forum, while segregating private activity to privacy respecting platforms is the best way to minmax freedom and privacy.
Keep Discord isolated/sandboxed in a Flatpak on Linux or in Android work profile with restricted camera/mic permissions, and I think it is good enough.
Element is not a solution, it is a client. Matrix is the protocol. Discord happens to provide both in a spectacularly privacy disrespecting way imo.
I know of two chat protocols which are quite popular: matrix and xmpp. Matrix seems to be the more flashy but also more energy consuming part. Xmpp is very old and apparently has been EEEd by google at some point which is the whole reason matrix exists imo.
As clients go, you can use one of dozens of them, each different. Element (and element x) are made by people who also are involved with matrix but run a for profit company as well so beware. They also make contributors sign away their rights if they ever wanted to take element closed source which is a red flag.
I mostly use fluffychat which isnt perfect but works very well imo. I also have bridges on my matrix server (i use synapse) which connect whatsapp, signal and discord for the folks who dont want to switch over but want to talk to me. This makes is convenient for me and I still have encryption and control over my data in the pure matrix chats.
I cant comment on running xmpp bc no experience but reports say its very fast. Running your own matrix server or using a known host means you have no ads, no tracking, e2ee and you will likely always know where your data goes.
Thanks for reading and have a good one.
Pretty much just matrix and revolt, armcord is a good client to use discord if you just need to use discord but eh
I’ve used Revolt before. It’s very similar to Discord superficially, but lacks a lot of features. Even though it’s more similar to slack, I’ve found Mattermost to have more feature parity.
Can you create voice rooms in mattermost?
It looks like it is supported via pluggins unfortunately
How do we know that these solutions are more private than Discord?
Even if open source, how do we know the compiled version wasn’t altered?
You can always compile from scratch, compare the checksums or use the version you compiled. In projects this large people usually do this, and there’s a certain level of trust that these checks have been performed.
A lot of compilers have things like timestamps in the finished product that could mess with hashes. I guess hashing the rest of it could work if hashes for non static regions are given.
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Sure but how do you know those encrypted requests don’t contain personal or unexpected information?
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Matrix is pretty good, only problem is my friend groups can’t seem to make the switch. As in we all want to but we have other groups we talk to on discord so we’d have discord installed anyway, and I think some of us aren’t motivated enough to move our server over. I think generally the problem with privacy-respecting chat apps is everyone’s on whatsapp, everyone’s on discord, few “normies” or even less privacy-conscious communists will want to install a new app/program just to talk to you.
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That’s a good idea! The next time my friends bring up switching to Matrix I’ll probably try set us up a bridge to encourage the move
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Element, Matrix
Try Ripcord.
That’s a client, not a service. Only help ever so slightly with Discord.
FluffyChat?
Is Matrix protocol too.
Yeah Matrix too mate.
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The Cinny client for Matrix is pretty good if you want to replace discord 1:1. There will be differences though but it should make the transition easier.
If you still end up using Discord over other solutions, you can use https://vencord.dev/, it is discord, but with all the telemetry pulled out of it. Been using this for when I need to use Discord, assume it’s better than using normal discord at least, but probably still not a perfect solution.
I would add the caveat that since discord don’t allow third party clients, you run the risk of getting your account banned for violating their ToS.
I’m fine with this personally, but it’s reasonable to not be so keen if your account is important to you.
Afaik no one has ever been banned for using a third party client in and of itself. People have been banned for userbotting or spamming but afaik not for using a third party client as a normal human user. But yes it is technically against TOS
This is good to know, much appreciated
Yup that is a fair warning. However I have been using it for as long as it has existed, and not have my account banned. But can see this being more of a problem Should Vencord get really popular.
I’ve been using it for a decent amount of time since the first party client doesn’t support wayland.
You’re right in that it’s probably a slim chance they’ll target you, though I don’t really care about getting banned in any case.
I wonder if they have a way of highlighting users who use vesktop / vencord to spoof access to nitro features like high bitrate streaming.
There is guilded.gg as well but I don’t know if it’s better for privacy.
Guilded is owned by Roblox Corporation last I checked, a company that promotes getting children addicted to stock market gambling, taking advantage of young child developers, and a platform that doesn’t respect your privacy in the slightest, asking for ID just to use voice chat (because of their major pedo problem).
So I probably wouldn’t use Guilded
wait what, I would like to know more
And Roblox Corporation is owned by Tencent Holdings which also owns Discord.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RBLX/holders/
Doesn’t seem like Tencent has that much ownership of it unless I’m missing something