Discord is one of the most popular group chat and VoIP tools. However, while it was originally a gamer-heavy platform, it is now very popular among non-gamers as well – in fact, 78% of Discord users use it for non-gaming activities or for both gaming and non-gaming.
Discord allows users to communicate via text message, voice calls, video calls, and file sharing. Communities on Discord are built around servers, with different servers focusing on different niches. Each server can have multiple channels, including text-based channels and voice channels.
Discord also allows one-on-one messaging, including screen sharing; private groups can allow up to 50 people to communicate with each other via private messaging. Discord also added a livestreaming option, which made it even more popular with gamers.
However, Discord does have many issues; in particular, privacy is a big concern. Discord doesn’t use end-to-end encryption, which means your data and messages are theoretically susceptible to hacking attacks.
Also, a lot of people find Discord to be a bit cluttered and hard to use when starting out; there can be many channels and servers in your sidebar, which can get overwhelming. Finally, Discord isn’t open source.
Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing Discord alternatives, including those that use end-to-end encryption, are open source, do not have any premium subscription tiers, and are less cluttered.
The best Discord alternative is the Matrix protocol, using the Element client for Matrix. It has a Discord-like design and feel, but it is open source, end-to-end encrypted, and 100 percent free to use.
For more on Matrix and other Discord alternatives, read on!
Best Discord Alternatives for Gamers
1. Matrix
Matrix is one of the best alternatives to Discord for gamers looking for an open-source platform. It’s an open-source protocol that uses end-to-end encryption for communication between servers, a feature that Discord is lacking.
Matrix is a decentralized federation of servers that can communicate with each other via the Matrix protocol.
There are various clients for the Matrix protocol that you can use as an interface for communicating with others on the server, with Element perhaps being one of the most popular of them.
However, due to the nature of Matrix, you can communicate with others via the Matrix protocol even if they are using different Matrix clients or apps. In fact, Matrix allows for bridging to Discord, so you can even communicate with Discord servers.
The goal of Matrix, which was created by the Matrix.org Foundation, is to change the way VoIP apps currently work.
Right now, if you are using a VoIP app like Skype or Discord, you can only communicate with users on the same platform.
Matrix wants to transform that into the way email currently works. In the past, email clients were only able to communicate with each other; nowadays, though, they are interoperable, and you can use one email client to communicate with email addresses from any client.
Discord isn’t the only service bridged into Matrix. Bridges have been created for apps like Slack and Telegram.
See more information on the FAQs page.
I recommend using the Element client for Matrix, although I will show you a few others as well.
Element is an app that looks very much like Discord but operates on the Matrix protocol. If you like the feel of Discord, Element is great – and it even has a mobile app for Android and iOS.
The Nheko client is another great desktop app client for Matrix, and it also has a glossy feel that will give you a similar experience as Discord itself. Here are other Matrix clients that you can use as well.
As an open-source project, Matrix provides extra privacy and security.
Also Read: Twitch vs Discord
2. Revolt
Revolt is an open-source alternative to Discord that was created by three students from the UK and the Czech Republic. It allows you to create private spaces for you and your friends to communicate while allowing for full customization of your private space.
Gamers can create private communities on Revolt and assign roles for moderators and admins.
While Revolt doesn’t have end-to-end encryption just yet, it is working on it, and it will be released soon. End-to-end encryption will apply to both group chats and one-on-one DMs.
As it is open source, Revolt is fully customizable. You can create your own Revolt bots and clients without any restrictions.
Revolt currently has a desktop app as well as an Android app. It doesn’t yet have an iOS app, but you can still use it on your iPhone by installing the web app to your screen using Safari.
Explore: Best Open-source Discord Alternatives
3. Guilded
Guilded is a chat and VoIP platform designed specifically for gamers.
The platform has a lot of features that are designed to assist gamers. For example, it has integrated scheduling and calendar tools.
The calendar tool allows you to inform the community of scheduled video game streams, virtual gaming events, scheduled YouTube uploads, and more. Users can select the “attend” option from within the app.
One thing that many people like about Guilded is how it allows gamers to focus on their specific games. When you are in a server, you don’t have to worry about getting bogged down with multiple channels; instead, you can create focused sub-servers that allow you to hone in on a specific activity or game.
Overall, the look of Guilded is very clean. It places a large emphasis on organization.
For example, you can have threaded conversations within a chat. Another awesome feature is that you can create image-only channels, which is perfect for meme channels.
Servers can upload announcements in either the announcement channel or the announcement page, if you don’t want to have an announcement channel.
One of the biggest things that sets Guilded apart from Discord, though, is monetization.
First of all, Guilded itself is entirely free to use, unlike Discord, which has a premium subscription option called Discord Nitro for some advanced features.
While Guilded itself doesn’t have a premium subscription, though, it allows server creators to monetize their servers themselves, something that Discord doesn’t allow.
You can charge your subscribers different tiers – think of it as something like Patreon built into Discord. Your server members won’t be required to sign up for a subscription – it’s only if they want to support you and get premium perks like flairs and sub roles.
Guilded only takes a commission of 2.5% of each subscription, which is a lot less than platforms like Twitch and Patreon.
According to Guilded, it also provides a much better voice call quality than Discord for free. While the Discord voice call quality is 96kbps, Guilded provides 256 kbps.
Also Read: How To Stream YT Movies On Discord Without Black Screen?
4. Mumble
If you’re looking for a Discord alternative for voice chat, consider using Mumble. It’s an open-source, low latency, voice chat application for gamers.
It’s particularly useful for situations in which you need to have a lot of participants in an audio channel. It allows for self-hosting and gives you full control over your privacy.
Communication on Mumble is always encrypted to protect your security.
Features that gamers will love include the in-game overlay that lets you see who is talking and positional audio.
Find out the best alternatives to Mumble here.
5. Steam Chat
If you’re playing on Steam, why not use Steam Chat? Steam Chat has come a long way, and while it doesn’t have as many features as Discord, it also has a cleaner interface and isn’t as difficult to figure out when using it for the first time.
Steam Chat is available on desktop and mobile – apps are available on Android and iOS. You can chat with friends one-on-one or create a group for your friends, sending text messages, emojis, GIFs, videos, and more.
Your friend list will help you keep track of who is online and playing the game you’re playing. Adding friends to Steam Chat is easy – just share your special invite link.
A cool feature is the ability to organize your friend list, so you can quickly find people. For example, you can “favorite” certain friends or groups so that they are always at the top of your list.
When friends are playing games on Steam, they will automatically be grouped by the games they are playing, so you can quickly join in with them.
Game developers can also customize which information is displayed next to friends who are in a game, such as whether they’re available for matchmaking.
For the full experience, though, you will need to use Steam Chat on the desktop client. The mobile apps are good and getting better, but they still have a limited selection of features compared to the desktop client.
Steam knows how popular Discord and other apps are, which is why it has stepped up its game in an attempt to get more people to use Steam Chat. For example, it has added voice chat capabilities – to the desktop version, that is.
Creating private groups and adding friends is easy. Share your invite link to get your friends to join your group channel.
Within a group, you can also create multiple text or voice channels for different purposes, such as sharing memes, announcements, etc.
Within a group, you can also see which people are participating in a voice channel, so you can join in on the conversation.
Voice chats on Steam Chat are encrypted, and your IP address is hidden.
You can download Steam Chat for Android here or for iOS here.
Also Read: How To Stream PS5 To Discord?
6. IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
If you’re a younger gamer, you probably never heard of IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. Internet Relay Chat is one of the oldest forms of text-based chat messaging on the internet, although it was mostly popular back in the early days of the internet – before 2003.
Jarkko Oikarinen from Finland created IRC back in 1988, and it was extremely popular in the 1990s. It is still used by some gamers and others, and it now has additional features that it did not have in the early days.
For example, it now supports encryption, proxy detection, and bots.
IRC works via a server-client system. You’ll need a client that supports IRC to connect with a server.
The first step, therefore, is finding an IRC client. mIRC is a good one, but there are many other clients as well. Finding a client that works with your operating system is important, as some are restricted to certain operating systems.
mIRC only works for Windows, but Pidgin is a good alternative that is free to use and available on Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD.
For Android, you can use RevolutionIRC, while you can use LimeChat for iOS (it also works on Macs).
Libera Chat, which is one of the biggest networks on IRC, has a list of clients it recommends for different operating systems, including paid and free clients. There are also a few terminal clients on that list.
Once you download a client and choose a nickname by which you will communicate with others, you will need to join a network. Libera Chat is one network that I already mentioned; other popular networks include EFnet, Freenode, IRCNet, Undernet, and DALnet.
You will see networks you can join in your client application.
For gamers, I would recommend QuakeNet, which is known for its gaming community. However, QuakeNet also has many communities that focus on other niches, and other networks have communities that focus on gaming.
You can see a full list of popular networks that have at least 10,000 users on this page.
Each network will have different rooms/communities/channels, so find ones related to gaming or any other activity you like and join them. Again, you can find channels in your client app after joining a network.
A lot of people who use IRC prefer it because it’s simple and not cluttered like Discord. It certainly doesn’t have as many features – it’s a text-based chat system, not a voice or video chat platform – but that’s the beauty of it.
Also, a lot of people like the nostalgic aspect of using IRC.
While IRC is old and not as popular as it used to be, it definitely isn’t going anywhere. Despite new alternatives like Discord coming out, we can expect IRC to remain in use by gamers, developers, programmers, open-source enthusiasts, and others for quite a while. 7.
Explore: How To Stream Netflix On Discord Without Black Screen?
7. Tox Chat
Tox is a peer-to-peer messaging service that uses end-to-end encryption, unlike Discord; it is also open source. It was developed in the wake of the Edward Snowden saga, and it was designed to be an alternative to popular messaging apps.
Tox was meant to be a way to communicate with others without worrying about the government snooping in or a chat platform giving away your conversation details to the NSA.
To use Tox, you will need a Tox client, but there are a few of them. qTox is a good client for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD – it has a rich interface and supports file sharing, screen sharing, video calling, and more.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for a lightweight client, try uTox. For Android users, there is aTox.
You can see a full list of Tox clients here. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see which clients work on which operating systems.
When you want to add a friend to your contact list, you can simply provide them your Tox ID, which is usually a long string of characters, including numbers and letters, that identify you on the Tox network.
Blocking someone is unnecessary on Tox, because once you remove them from your contact list, they won’t be able to communicate with you any longer until you add them again. They will see that you went offline, but they will not know that you removed them.
One downside of Tox is that it does not hide your IP address from people on your contact list by default. You can hide your IP address by using Tor, though.
8. Valour
Valour describes itself as a movement for a more flexible, transparent, and open platform. The platform is still a work in progress – it is in a pre-alpha release, and it currently does not have any downloadable app for any platform, only a web based version.
You can add friends by searching for them by username. According to the FAQs page, voice chat may come in the future as well, after the product is viable and has received funding.
Wrapping It Up
As you can see, there are plenty of amazing Discord alternatives, regardless of why you’re looking for one.
Another option is to use a mod client for Discord. That way, you can stay connected to Discord communities and your friends and groups on Discord while not having to deal with Discord’s official app and interface.
There are many mods for Discord, including for desktop and mobile. A lot of projects have fallen by the wayside, though.
Aluicord is a good mod for Discord’s Android app. For Windows, Mac, and Linux, try Ripcord, which is a client for Discord and Slack.
Ripcord allows you to have multiple accounts and has a low CPU usage.
I hope you enjoyed this list of the best Discord alternatives for gamers. If you liked this article, please share it with a friend!
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