About Matrix Matrix is an open protocol for decentralised, secure communications.
Matrix Manifesto We believe:
People should have full control over their own communication. People should not be locked into centralised communication silos, but instead be free to pick who they choose to host their communication without limiting who they can reach. The ability to converse securely and privately is a basic human right. Communication should be available to everyone as a free and open, unencumbered, standard and global network.
Matrix isn’t the alternative for discord. Others have been named.
Matrix is a chat with a high regard for encryption, more an alternative to Whatsapp and signal then discord.
Matrix is considerably more like discord than both Whatsapp or signal.
You can get a WhatsApp/signal experience out of it but overall it is very similar to discord
I don’t see anything mentioned about calls… kind’ve a big part of discord.
Is it supported?
Yes. There is voip. Also video and screen sharing.
Both could work better, but they’re there, if the client you’re using supports them.
Wait since when. I’ve been waiting for VoIP. I am on Cinny tho so that might be why. The changed the way elements works on linux and it’s so cancer to use now
I think cinny is waiting to implement voip when group calls get merged into the spec, currently group calls are done via jitsi
This is also dependent on who is running the server and how it’s set up. If it’s the matrix.org you’re using, I couldn’t tell you. If it’s someone hosting/you’re self-hosting, you need a STUN server for traversing NAT. It’s not part of the default Synapse docker install and I’m not sure about non-docker installs.
Yeah it is more similar to discord. If I were to group chatting apps/services into two groups, I would do this:
I would agree with this. Purpose of the application rather than technical implementation defines its use. Though it can do many things Signal and WA also do
Matrix is the federated alternative to XMPP and IRC first and foremost, imho
Well xmpp is federated, it’s just slightly more centralised then matrix since if a server goes down the room/muc made on that server goes down as well
I too am wondering what makes you say that. What is it missing?
Voice Channels would be a start. Game Streaming is another use-case of Discord my friend group uses which is missing.
Matrix has voice chat and screen sharing. I don’t think it implements audio passthrough like discord but I could be mistaken.
I thought it only had voice chat for calls? Are there voice channels tho?
not yet, they are working on a native group calls stack, so once thats done and stable there will be voice channels in element and other clients
There is a jitsi widget for rooms though, so you can convert any group chat into a drop in/drop out voice room similar to discord’s voice rooms. The biggest struggle I have with it is that it defaults to asking about video every time, and there is no hotkey support. 🤮
my friend has used signal, whatsapp, discord bridges with her conduit server and has had 0 issues
That does sound rad. Mostly my point was just about not having push-to-talk or toggle mute in the jitsi plug in, but I am far from deep on what can be done with the matrix protocol.
Matris does not use E2E encryption for most channels. Its primary draw is federation, not security or anonymity.
It makes no sense to encrypt public channels.
There’s 0 point to encryption on public rooms