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- videogamesm12
With the recent news about Discord making moves to go public in the future and the subsequent huge amounts of enshittification that will follow, I've decided to make a thread dedicated to discussing alternative instant messaging platforms. Here's what I know about and have tried.
The main downside worth pointing out is that Signal's experience is mobile first. While it does have a desktop application, you need to have Signal installed and logged into on your phone to use it. Accounts also require a phone number to be created, but usernames are optionally available for use so that people don't have to know your phone number to add you and you can also prevent other people people from seeing your account's phone number by going into the privacy settings and turning that bit off. Still, some people may not want to have an account associated with something as personal as their phone number.
Like Signal, Telegram's experience is mobile first. It too has a desktop application but it requires you to have the mobile app installed and logged into to be able to use it. A phone number is required to create accounts as well, but like Signal usernames are available to use so that people don't need to know your phone number to add you. Same goes for the privacy settings. Unlike Signal, per its privacy policy Telegram does collect enough potentially identifiable information like IP addresses and phone numbers which it will disclose to authorities should they get a request for information mentioning that you're a suspect in a criminal case.
It's pretty outdated by today's standards, but some people might find the charm in that. Plus, it's not owned by any organization or corporation so it's probably the most decentralized out of the bunch.
Matrix
Matrix is an open standard for instant messaging that allows for decentralized communication as it does not rely on a corporate entity. To some extent, it can also support bridging onto other protocols like IRC. Unlike Discord, multiple different clients exist for it on mobile and desktop including (but not limited to) Element, FluffyChat, Cinny, and... Mozilla Thunderbird. Since 2022, I have actually had an account on Matrix as I was already beginning to dislike Discord and practically everything about it and went through a period where I was evaluating the options I had at the time. I kept it around as it has a really good IRC bridge and it's a sort of contingency plan in case shit hits the fan. It offers end-to-end encryption as well.Signal
Signal is a decently open source encrypted messaging application with a heavy focus on privacy. You may have heard of it from the news after it came out that certain people in the government were discussing wartime plans with it only to have it leak after someone added a journalist to the group chat. How the fuck you even do that is beyond me, but if government employees are using it then surely it's more secure. The platform has actually been hit with subpoenas by various government entities before, asking for practically any bit of information they might have. Their response every single time? Only timestamps about when an account was created and when it was last logged into.The main downside worth pointing out is that Signal's experience is mobile first. While it does have a desktop application, you need to have Signal installed and logged into on your phone to use it. Accounts also require a phone number to be created, but usernames are optionally available for use so that people don't have to know your phone number to add you and you can also prevent other people people from seeing your account's phone number by going into the privacy settings and turning that bit off. Still, some people may not want to have an account associated with something as personal as their phone number.
Telegram
Telegram is a private, cloud-based messaging application with a focus on privacy. A lot of people know about it in part because of the shady business that goes on in various groups. In fact it became so well-known that the platform's CEO was actually arrested in France and charged with a shitload of crimes due to its comparatively lax moderation.Like Signal, Telegram's experience is mobile first. It too has a desktop application but it requires you to have the mobile app installed and logged into to be able to use it. A phone number is required to create accounts as well, but like Signal usernames are available to use so that people don't need to know your phone number to add you. Same goes for the privacy settings. Unlike Signal, per its privacy policy Telegram does collect enough potentially identifiable information like IP addresses and phone numbers which it will disclose to authorities should they get a request for information mentioning that you're a suspect in a criminal case.
IRC
IRC is an ancient protocol from the 1980s that was incredibly popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. Even boxes like WebTV supported it. It is still used in 2025 by certain communities such as the Wikimedia Foundation, The Cutting Room Floor, and Archive Team. Accounts really aren't a thing, so most servers use bots like NickServ to automate account management and lock certain names behind passwords. It is possible to host your own server, but some communities tend to just rely on big IRC services like EFNet, Hackint, and Libera Chat.It's pretty outdated by today's standards, but some people might find the charm in that. Plus, it's not owned by any organization or corporation so it's probably the most decentralized out of the bunch.
