Matrix is great as long as you know how to use it and keep it organized. It’s Element client used to mix contacts and group chats but that’s better now on web/desktop and on mobile you just need to add group chats to favorites and select the space you want to limit your browsing to (or use FluffyChat on mobile).
There’s also Zulip, which is actually closer to Slack.
If you’re on PC, use Discord as a gaming VoIP chat and you’re already using Steam I’d tell you to take a peek at Steam’s voice settings and either use that or disable Steam’s overlay if you don’t like it for whatever reason. In my experience Steam’s chat performs much better than Discord but can be trickier to configure for some.
XMPP has an experimental XEP for group spaces too, but who knows if it’ll be ready soon or used in apps for all major platforms.
Stoat is probably the best competitor, although it shot itself in the leg by changing its name recently. It’s also missing video and screen sharing last time I checked, and the audio functionality barely works.
Matrix is utter chaos as far as organization goes. When you join a Discord community, chats are clearly laid out and separate from private messages or group chats. When you join a Matrix community, you must individually choose extra group chats to join, and they are often indistinguishable from things happening outside that community. It’s messy. And we haven’t even gotten to video or voice.
XMPP makes Matrix look organized and feature-complete. Good luck corralling a group of people onto that platform and figuring out disparate servers and disparate apps… I wouldn’t recommend it.
Basically, I don’t think the open source space has an answer to this, and I don’t think they can come up with one anytime soon.
Gross. Ok, who’s the next best competitor? Matrix?
Matrix is great as long as you know how to use it and keep it organized. It’s Element client used to mix contacts and group chats but that’s better now on web/desktop and on mobile you just need to add group chats to favorites and select the space you want to limit your browsing to (or use FluffyChat on mobile).
There’s also Zulip, which is actually closer to Slack.
If you’re on PC, use Discord as a gaming VoIP chat and you’re already using Steam I’d tell you to take a peek at Steam’s voice settings and either use that or disable Steam’s overlay if you don’t like it for whatever reason. In my experience Steam’s chat performs much better than Discord but can be trickier to configure for some.
XMPP has an experimental XEP for group spaces too, but who knows if it’ll be ready soon or used in apps for all major platforms.
XMPP, by a landslide.
Stoat is probably the best competitor, although it shot itself in the leg by changing its name recently. It’s also missing video and screen sharing last time I checked, and the audio functionality barely works.
Matrix is utter chaos as far as organization goes. When you join a Discord community, chats are clearly laid out and separate from private messages or group chats. When you join a Matrix community, you must individually choose extra group chats to join, and they are often indistinguishable from things happening outside that community. It’s messy. And we haven’t even gotten to video or voice.
XMPP makes Matrix look organized and feature-complete. Good luck corralling a group of people onto that platform and figuring out disparate servers and disparate apps… I wouldn’t recommend it.
Basically, I don’t think the open source space has an answer to this, and I don’t think they can come up with one anytime soon.
Spaces work pretty well if your client handles them
Damn, no Jitsi or Mattermost talk? Instead people are bringing up non-battle tested projects?
Stoat is the best option imo
Stoat