Matrix has spaces, which are collections of rooms.
There's also XMPP. It's not quite the same as discord, but it's another federated chat protocol.
It's not federated, but revolt.chat is probably the closest open source discord alternative.
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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You sure? It's not identical but it's close enough. (matrix) these are spaces
To answer your question, there's no alternative besides matrix. Sorry.
There is revolt and rocket.chat but yes I'd still do matrix over the others unless a direct discord-like clone is absolutely a must for some reason
Yep, but OP asked for a federated one and neither of those federate, which is why i didn't include them
In that case matrix also doesn't federate because its not interacting with the fediverse like here on lemmy.
But revolt, matrix, and rocket.chat are all deployable by end users to connect to the platform and interact with people.
Matrix definitely is federated.
You ran into the trap of taking "fediverse" at face value. It neither invented nor monopolizes federation. E-Mail is federated and has nothing to do with the fediverse. Wikipedia's page on federation lists the very internet itself as the prime example.
Not implementing ActivityPub doesn't mean Matrix isn't federated.
This is the point I was making yes
Accurate username
how is that the point you were making? it seems like the opposite of the point you were making. i'm confused and i think i just don't understand what you're trying to say when you say matrix doesn't federate. because from one matrix server you can talk to other matrix servers, but from rocket chat, that's it, that's the end of the line. your server is your server
Federation isn't exclusive to the Fediverse. Matrix is federated but not with the Fediverse. They only federate with other Matrix servers/instances.
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Activitypub and the matrix protocol are different things, they aren't supposed to interact with each other. Matrix servers using matrix implementations (synapse, tuwunel, conduit, etc) can interact with each other, since they are all based on the same protocol. Same way we do it, how AP servers with mbin,piefed,lemmy interact all with each other, since they are all based on the same protocol, too.
Revolt doesn't federate at all. They even admit this. ~~I stand corrected on rocket.chat, they actually implemented the matrix protocol, so it's interoperable with matrix.~~ See poVoq's reply
I think your last point is flawed, since even with multiple revolt instances; they don't interact at all. Which, is not federation. Matrix is federated, there's no other way to look at it and they're not comparable, and not meant to be compared at all.
actually implemented the matrix protocol, so it’s interoperable with matrix.
They originally planned this, but realized along the way that the Matrix specs are overly complicated and change at the wim of Element, so they ended up only supporting a link to Synapse via the appservice system, which isn't great as it means you have to run both Rocketchat and Synapse on the same server for it to work.
Ah, matrix being a PITA; what a surprise :D
Yeah, it's a far fetch calling it federated at all. Will edit, thanks.
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I guess i was taking the more generous route with the term then, I was treating capability to interact on the platform as federated which in hindsight doesn't make as much sense as in the normal context of it.
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Does it have voice channels?
yes it does, and it works as well as discord, it's just in beta and not supported everywhere yet
Really? My mistake (other reply) will edit, thank you
See blisterexes comment
Look my edit I created at the same time
It doesn't? What's the telephone icon then on the linked screenshot? Or is it like only 1to1 calls instead of multi user rooms to join like discord/teamspeak u mean?
Oh, i see your edit now. I did a little testing, sadly this only applies to rooms with two people (including you) only, so it only functions like a normal 1:1 call (there's group videochat tho)
What’s the telephone icon then on the linked screenshot
If you mean my very top comment, there's no telephone icon :p I guess you mean that person symbol? Those are DMs :D
Or is it like only 1to1 calls
Yep
multi user rooms to join like discord/teamspeak u mean?
Also yeah sadly. If you're insistent on it, as i said mumble is a good choice; FOSS, not tied to one server. Here's a link https://www.mumble.info/
How do you find spaces/communities to join?
This doesn't cover all rooms. However, for a bigger list use: https://matrixrooms.info/
On element:
Press "Join public room"
On cinny:
Ah my hero. Thanks!
Matrix has "communities" (or "spaces"?) which can kind of work like discord servers
There are "servers" on Matrix. They are called communities
Here is the relevant part of the documentation for that: https://matrix.org/docs/communities/getting-started/
Wait, I thought those were called spaces. Have I been calling them wrong all the time?
That document seems to use communities in the normal English sense and spaces in the "collection of Matrix rooms" sense. I would say spaces are what they're called and a community is just an informal group of like-minded people who can be better-organized using spaces.
No ActivityPub federated one yet. Someone might make it someday though.
Dansup of Pixelfed and Loops fame is working on an IM app called Sup. Info seems sparse on it though.
That isn't exactly a discord clone, though. More like WhatsApp but federated. At that point I'd actually just rather use matrix than a messaging app by that cocky dev.
I hope you're ok with waiting for a long time, dansup sure as fuck takes his time with everything.
it's only rooms instead of servers with channels..
Literally the same thing but with different names. I use Matrix with Element, and it is exactly the same as Discord. Laid out the same, functionally the same (actually better since it encrypts everything), and even the UI is nearly identical.
From a chat standpoint, the two are near identical - yes - but Matrix lacks the "voice/video calls as persistent rooms" feature that Discord has. This was planned a while back, but has recently been pushed on the backburner^[1]^ as they work on Element Call.
Early on Matrix was sort of being built up as an IRC/Discord alternative, but recently they've pivoted more towards a WA/Telegram/Slack alternative as most of their financial support comes from European governments and companies looking for strong and secure internal communication solutions they can manage themselves.
So, TL;DR you probably won't see the exact Discord like features you want land in the spec any time soon as they're not being funded.
So that means, right now:
- No persistent voice/video rooms (but they are on the roadmap!)
- No push-to-talk or "game friendly" settings like voice auto-detection (also not really on the roadmap)
Having said all that, Matrix is brilliant and I highly encourage people to check it out. I use a Matrix <-> Signal bridge for most of my comms with my friends, and we voice chat on Mumble. Not ideal, but you get to avoid Discord and you get a very similar experience! Bonus points for Mumble as it's super lightweight.
~[1] It's not really on the backburner so much as it's something that will have to be worked on after the new VOIP stack - Element Call - is integrated in the wider Matrix ecosystem. There is an experimental "video rooms" feature, but that really isn't the same as a native, persistent voice-only room.~
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The AP is not really good for chats, so I would rather use the Matrix protocol that Element, for example, offers as a client.
IRC still exists
I never became a discord guy, but it seems like IRC (not federated the same way lemmy/mastodon/etc are but functionally similar) would meet the requirements.
IRC is actually somewhat federated, as one network can consist of multiple servers hosted by different people.
Revolt
Not federated
Is Revolt actually Federated? I only see sign ups for a single instance, unless I'm missing something
It's open source but not federated
Which is not federated, otherwise I would recommend it immediately
While it's probably not exactly what you're looking for, I wanted to give vibe coding a try and wound up making a discord like client if you think it might be handy. It's not actually a chat server, it's just a client that uses a chat style layout to display posts under the mastodon api.
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