Spyke
xmpp·XMPPbyZeroOne

XMPP vs Discord (Viability-Edition)

So now that discord has made a major oopsie, people are now talking about alternatives. However I do not see people mention XMPP a lot (Compared to Matrix, which gets mentioned a lot).

So I was wondering if we all could brainstorm & share:

  • what features Discord has that XMPP currently does not
  • & whether those "features" are being worked on
  • & if so then; useful links can be provided.

Also let's keep this post as active as possible to track development, if you are interested.

View original on lemmy.world
8
Comments11
erebionreply
news.erebion.eu

Which Movim has implemented and will have in a release near you very soon...

3
briskreply
aussie.zone

Very happy to hear! I've looked into Movim before and am quite excited by what they're doing. I am hoping to see an F-Droid mobile app at some point, I haven't had much luck with PWAs in the past.

2
poVoqreply
slrpnk.net

It is very unlikely that they will make another app that is just a PWA in disguise (they used to have that, but depreciated it). I think you should look into what your PWA issue was, because it usually works great these days.

But if you are using Android, then https://f-droid.org/packages/de.monocles.chat/ is a pretty good native app with a lot of feature overlap with Movim.

2
poVoqreply
slrpnk.net

The XSF follows the IETF naming convention where "experimental" means it hasn't been in production use for a decade pretty much 🤷

The message moderation XEP is widely supported by XMPP clients since a few years already and works fine. Nothing "experimental" about it anymore.

1
brisk
aussie.zone

Space/"server"-specific permissions and permission hierarchies (users creating spaces and being able to assign moderators within them)

3
poVoqreply
slrpnk.net

This is indeed currently missing and will take some work to implement. You can work around it with RTBL and moderation bots though.

1
brisk
aussie.zone

MUC associated voice/video chats that can be joined at will

3
poVoqreply
slrpnk.net

This is work in progress in the strict sense of it being exactly like Discord/Mumble/Teamspeak, but the way group calls are implemented in Movim is pretty close, as they are also MUC associated and can be joined later.

1
ProdigalFrog
slrpnk.net

XMPP's capabilities can vary depending on the Client used.

Currently, the the most promising, best option for a Discord replacement is the Movim Client.

It has:

  • Group chats with image, video, and file transfer support
  • Group Audio & Video calls with screen sharing (currently must use a chromium browser to share the application's audio)
  • A universal PWA that works on all operating systems, desktop & mobile
  • Integrated blog posts

The only Discord features missing from it are rooms/spaces, and voice rooms that show who is inside, with the ability to seamlessly drop in and out of a call.

The rooms/spaces feature is being actively developed as we speak, with the first PR to add it in happening 3 days ago. After that, it is likely that the voice rooms will developed.

(As an aside, to any Slrpnk.net members reading this, our instance hosts an XMPP server and Movim instance, which you can access with your existing Slrpnk login, since it queries the same database).

For those who don't want to use a PWA, the native Desktop and Mobile options aren't currently quite as full featured as Movim.

You can find links most of the apps below from JoinJabber.org.

Desktop

  • Dino, a native Linux client, is only lacking the ability to screen share. It is compatible with Movim's group calls.
  • Gajim works on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. I'm unsure of its capabilities (they are not listed on the website).
  • Fluux-messenger is a newer option that attempts to mimic a Discord-like experience. It's currently only able to do group chats, but eventually calls will be worked on according to the devs.
  • Converse.js - Cool looking client, but unfortunately cannot yet do audio/video calls at all, only text chat.
  • Kaidan - Desktop client that can do 1-on-1 video calls (Linux only for now)

Android

  • Conversations, along with its forks Cheogram and Monocles, are native Android apps. Unfortunately they cannot do group voice/video calls, only 1-on-1 audio/video calls, and they cannot screen share.

Apple

  • Sisken is a native iOS client, it has the same capabilities as the Android apps, it is not yet compatible with group calls or screen sharing.
  • Monal is a native iOS and MacOS client, I have never used it and am unsure what its capabilities are.

Also @[email protected]

3

You reached the end

XMPP vs Discord (Viability-Edition) | Spyke