9
The steam voice chat feature really improved and is very intuitive to use now. I'll frequently use that.
We've been using steam for many years for our weekly gaming sessions. Can't remember why we stopped using discord but it was way before all the photo ID requests. I definitely don't miss discord downloading like 20 updates every week.
I went back to using in-game communication and social features and I can't believe we stopped doing it. It is so much more immersive to hang out in, say, a guild hall to chat with whoever happens to be online, than to be available 24/7 in an outside app.
Signal, but I don't play with randos, just people I know.
I don't do online multiplayer. If I'm playing a video game with someone, they're in the room with me and we can just talk.
When i play with my brother we use our phones to, get this, call each other. Obviously harder to do with more people but if its just you and a buddy your phone can be used as a phone.
isn't that expensive?
Many cell plans, at least in the US, offer unlimited calling.
Ventrilo. Hobbles away on my cane.
The dust hasn't settled yet. Still waiting for options like Fluxer or Stoat to cover the basic use cases fully.
We are using Fluxer, looks a lot like Discord, but is open source. It's hosted, but you can also self-host.
Look at Mumble. It's FOSS (Free Open Source Software)
Mumble lacks a ton of stuff that Discord has. There's no persistent text chat, no screen sharing, no video. What it does have is really really easy administration.
It frustrates me that all these Discord alternatives are trying to do everything Discord does when even Discord can't pull it off sustainably at scale. Discord has been in the "be really cool to attract users" phase, and now it's morphing into the "Oh crap we actually have bills to pay" phase. That's why you're seeing ads now, and it's only going to get worse.
I don't want a billion concurrent users. I want a place for my small group of friends to hang out that isn't hard to deploy or manage.
Discord is still king. People are way too invested.
Matrix is decent for me. Voice, video, and screen share, works well. Have not had issues with small friend groups
So all they're doing it making you a "teen' account if you don't want to verify. All that means is you can't join "mature" discords like porn and stuff like that. For gaming with friends it won't matter.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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