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You were the chosen one.

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It was said that you would unite gamers all under one platform, not divide them.

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Bring all services together under this one roof. Give me your Face ID.

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Please. Wait, what am I saying?

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There was a world before Discord, and with Discord announcing that it will be

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demanding government photo ID from a significant number of users as a way to

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verify their age, whether that's today or in the future, you can see that by

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this search trend, people are wanting to leave. They just don't know where to go,

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which is why we are going to be breaking down the best Discord features into four

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different categories and identifying three solutions that could be a

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replacement for you. Depending on how you use Discord with some honorable

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mentions along the way. At the end, we will see if any stand out across the

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board as the best all-in-one replacement because, spoiler alert, you might have

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to compromise on a feature or two in the name of retaining your privacy. But, you

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know what I'll never compromise on? Are these segues to our sponsor.

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Previously on The Coding Chronicles.

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Where am I? In the realm of Boots THE BEAR DEV.

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ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE BEST WAY to learn Python, Boots the Bear Wizard?

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>> You will learn to code the hard way. My

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name is Boots.

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Watch to the end for a new episode.

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The four categories that we have decided to focus on today were what we deemed

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were Discord's most important offerings for most people. That's voice calling,

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text channels, community, and usability. Obviously, there are other important

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features like forums and screen sharing, customization, and hey, maybe even the

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shop if that's your bag. But, these four strip Discord down to its roots and

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highlight why it ended up dominating the market in the first place. So, let's

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start with probably the most important one on this list, voice calling. Whether

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it's with your close friends or strangers in a community server, our

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three programs that we're going to highlight need to prioritize clear

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communication first with minimal drops or stutters. And Steam Chat is a real

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contender here, featuring high enough bit rate for a casual conversation,

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group voice calls, and even channels for these calls if you want to set up

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separate chats for multiple teams. The biggest complaint among Steam Chat users

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is that it has a bit of a higher latency than Discord, meaning while your calls

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are basically in real time, there is a

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bit more of a delay. Which can be awkward. Like that.

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For the best audio quality, you guys should check out Mumble. It's kind of an

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OG and its UI also kind of shows it.

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Like Discord, you can join multiple friends servers if you want to hop

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between different friend groups, and it even features in-game overlays to see

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who is chatting. Unlike Discord though, Mumble has positional audio. So, if you

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want to hear where your friends are in game. The catch?

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Hopefully one of your friends likes being a server admin because while there

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are guides to help, the setup process requires you to get your hands dirty.

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TeamSpeak can also require users to get their hands dirty, but it is a lot

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easier than Mumble and is probably the closest looking to Discord out of these

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three. But, don't think that means it'll be an easy adjustment as it behaves

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completely different. Being a voice chatting focused software, you have to,

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for example, be in a voice call in order

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to type text into the chat. Not to mention it's the first on our list where

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you might need to bust out your credit card. If you like being the server

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admin, you'll probably end up needing to buy a license before you can host more

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than 31 friends. And speaking of friends, we need to talk about one of

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Discord's biggest advantages, and that's

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community. While Discord is a bit confusing to start out for the first

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timers, There is no denying that having thousands of different servers and

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communities to easily join and be a part of is incredible. Whether it's a Linux

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community to help you troubleshoot or even a financial advice group to help

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you plan your retirement, there is probably a Discord server for just about

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anyone these days. As for our alternatives to the community aspect,

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TeamSpeak gets another mention here. If you're wanting to game with like-minded

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individuals and probably go hard on the roleplay in Arma, TeamSpeak is perfect

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for that. Sure, it lacks persistent text chats or the forums like Discord has,

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but if I'm being honest, Discord forums suck. They often result in three people

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answering the same handful of questions because of how terrible they are to

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navigate, but let's get back on track. At the moment, TeamSpeak appears to have

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the greatest amount of people dedicated to their communities. But, other than

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TeamSpeak, that's it. In order for an application to have a community-focused

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side, there needs to be community.

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And while there are multiple applications that could be great

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community hubs or seem to have potential like Stote, Matrix, and Circle just to

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name a few, until they see mass adoption from users, they will never really have

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the same community momentum Discord has captured. But, if you are looking for

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something that is focusing on text channels and the ability to send

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messages, organize chats, and send memes with your small community or friend

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group, those options I just mentioned are incredible for that. Matrix is one

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that can be self-hosted, is open source, features end-to-end encryption, and

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allows you to choose from a variety of client-side interfaces because Matrix is

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actually just the back end of this messaging service. To connect to

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someone's host server, you will need a separate app like Element, FluffyChat,

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or Cinny, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, but you can mingle

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with users from any one since they all run on Matrix.

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Element is the one that's recommended most often though, and I'm going to have

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more on that a little bit later. Revolt, formerly known as Revolt, seems to have

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a lot of potential. It is in its very early stages, but features community-run

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servers, and of course, private DMs and group chats, which they boast very

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proudly are secure and confidential. There are some people online expressing

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doubt and concern for Revolt, whether it's because of the name change or just

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the small user base, but I think it's a program that is worth trying just to see

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if it fits your friend group's needs. Our final text-focused application is

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Slack, which What? Corporate software, right? But hey, if

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you're willing to live with some of the tradeoffs that come with using the free

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tier, you can have a great organized chat experience with threaded

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conversations, as well as as many free users as you want. And besides, if you

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really need more than 90 days worth of message history or larger group calls

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and more app integrations, their monthly plan is cheaper than what Discord Nitro

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costs, which is kind of funny, right? Cuz you know that if you tried to

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convince your Nitro-using friends to pay for Slack, that they would look at you

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like you're crazy while their profile badge does a little spin in the background.

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Yeah, it's kind of a touchy subject, which I'm going to go on a small tangent

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before I get to our final category. I think going a paid route is a totally

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valid option. If you or anyone in your friend group really doesn't want to be

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the server admin worrying about self-hosting or maybe even accidentally

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giving out your IP because of the peer-to-peer nature of some of these

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applications, I think it could be worth paying money

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to a service if everyone in your group can get behind it. What I would

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encourage though, is if you and your friends are upset at Discord and the

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whole age verification change, you should cancel any paid services you are

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using with them, whether that's Nitro or server boosts. The only chance that we

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have at these big companies realizing that what they did doesn't really sit

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well with us, the users. We need to hit them where it hurts, man, in their

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earnings. Back onto our final category though, I don't even think I would put

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Discord in the top three here. That's ease of use or usability. Sure, most of

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you are probably used to it by now, but when it was first introduced, I remember

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seeing a ton of guides online about how

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to navigate the interface. Heck, today I even get confused when I can't find my

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DMs before I remember I have to click on the little Discord logo in the top left.

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Saying that, if you must have the exact

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same interface as Discord because you're used to it, Fluxer, which is about 2

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months old, is basically a Discord clone. It's currently in beta, but is

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open source and even allows people to self-host their servers on their own

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hardware, which unlocks more features than the non-self-hosted free tier

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servers. A big downside is no mobile support. Yet, their website does show a

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screenshot of what appears to be a mobile app, so fingers crossed on that

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one. Matrix pops up here again, but your experience will vary depending on what

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client interface you're using. For Element, it's pretty straightforward and

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most people will probably not have too much difficulty getting it to work. And

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there's even Comment, which looks a lot like Discord if you are wanting that

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again. This really does highlight the strengths of something like Matrix,

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allowing people to have different experiences based on preferences, but as

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someone who is currently going through the Linux challenge right now, sometimes

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having 30 different ways to do something can introduce choice paralysis and ends

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up doing more harm than good. Whether it's guides looking different because

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you're using a different client app. The final choice for ease of use is Steam

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Chat. Hey, it's back again, which at first glance is confusing, but when you

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stop thinking of it as a Discord replacement and more of a standard

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messaging app, it becomes second nature. Having tabs for different group chats or

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individual messages is convenient and fast. And when you fully utilize the

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Steam integration, cuz you know, it's Steam, being able to invite and join

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people's games with ease is a huge plus. With all of that in mind, if we compare

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all of the applications that we looked at today, I personally think that the best

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all-in-one replacement is probably Steam Chat. Great voice communication, great

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chatting experience, integrated well into gaming with the biggest downside

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being the lack of a massive community outreach or a hub. But all of these apps

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struggle with that because once again, if people aren't on these applications,

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it makes it really difficult to mingle. Now, I am very aware that we probably

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missed an almost infinite amount of other communication apps. So, please let

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us know down below what some of your favorites are. And maybe if there's

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enough, we can compile them all into a part two. There is some good news on the Discord

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side. Discord did cut ties with Persona, which was the controversial service that

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was going to be used for this face ID verification system, as well as delaying

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the initial rollout date for this. So, public pressure does work. Just remember

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that for when the next time they try something like this. Just like I will

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always try to do a better and better segue to our sponsor.

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Quickly. Quickly. Shh. It's about to start.

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The Coding Chronicles.

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Wait, so you want me to believe you're the real Boots The Bear Wizard and he's

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not?

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Yeah, okay. Larry.

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Larry? No, no, no, no, no, NO. THE COUNCIL SAID YOU WERE DE- DEPRECATED.

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NO. I'M STILL current enough to stop a

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deceitful script kiddie from twisting the magic of this realm.

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Boot.dev is the best way to learn to code.

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By making it fun, helping you build real projects, and mastering back-end web

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development.

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Because the smartest way to learn is to make sure you're never bored.

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Plus, you can use Codecademy to get 25% off your first month or year. NOW,

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BEGONE.

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UH SO, he's gone? For now. Something

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tells me we haven't seen the last of Larry the lion lizard.

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Lizard? Wizard. Ah, yeah. Uh your brain wants to go Come. Wha- What are you

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doing? I'm going to find my hat.

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If you guys enjoyed this video, go check out the time that we compared other VR

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headsets to the unreleased Steam Deck. It was kind of a similar vibe where we

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looked at the pros and cons of each of the headsets on the market and compared

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them to what the Frame has to compete with.