IS DISCORD REALLY THE BEST? - Voice Chat Platform Showdown
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,631 words · ~8 min read
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in the beginning there was
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teamspeak then came ventrilo skype mumble and
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skipping over a bunch of platforms that no longer exist
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discord so is discord legitimately better on top
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of being newer or is it just another flash in the pan
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let's find out after i talk about today's video being
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we'll begin with a quick rundown of our competitors teamspeak and mumble are
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both what are called self-hosted voice and chat platforms both of them require
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server software either running on your desktop or a rented server in a data
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center somewhere and both require you to be actively connected to receive
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messages skype and discord by contrast are hosted
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by microsoft and discord respectively
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both of them allow you to send messages to friends who are offline they'll just
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be delivered later and both offer video chat in addition to voice
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they are structured a little differently though discord is more like a social
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network so you can join an existing community or make your own while skype
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operates more like your address book so like your phone you start a conversation
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by scrolling through your contacts list and selecting one or more of them okay
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so now let's talk design and usability both teamspeak and mumble share a theme
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that's reminiscent of the beige pc cases
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of decades past though you can skin them
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well discord and skype are much more modern this is an aesthetic advantage
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but it should be noted that while skype does have a more conventional desktop
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app the Windows store version that microsoft is pushing users towards has
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generated many complaints about it actually being too simplistic to the
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point where it makes it confusing to use adding contacts for instance is done
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through the search skype box rather than intuitively
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by clicking on the plus button so do yourself a favor and don't use the
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Windows store version discord's design on the other hand is
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both beautiful and functional every server that you are a part of is
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displayed in the left tab along with of course your direct messages and
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my main gripe with discord is just the lack of joint voice and text channels as
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it's kind of jarring every time your friend says yo check out this link and
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you have to ask which channel to their credit though they finally added channel
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categories which is great but all of this ignores a huge factor so
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far cost teamspeak has a number of paid licensing
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options and if you don't buy one of them you are capped to 32 slots
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mumble on the other hand is open source and completely free with no slot
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limitations skype is free for up to 25 simultaneous
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users over the internet and if you want to call conventional phones allows you
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to pay for a subscription or a la carte for that service and discord seems to be
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taking the silicon valley social network startup
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approach their core service is free for
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as many people as you want and according to them that's how it's going to stay
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though we'll see how that goes after the insert
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multinational here acquisition anywho let's get to what matters most
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for gamers how do they all sound
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to answer this question for you guys once and for all Jake used three common
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microphones a blue yeti to represent the higher end a pair of hyperx cloud 2s to
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be a typical headset and a mod mic 5
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because it was on his desk at the time each test clip was played through a host
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computer and then recorded on the other end this is a test recording on the blue
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yeti every quality setting was cranked to the max and we turned off both echo
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and noise suppression youtube's audio compression though may
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make it challenging for you guys to hear the differences so if you're interested
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in the raw clips we'll have them available for download in the description
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we'll start with the yeti when discord is working well more on that a little
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later it's basically indistinguishable from teamspeak this is a test recording
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on the blue yeti blackout edition while both mumble and skype have a
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higher noise floor that you'll notice if you listen very closely
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this is a test recording on the blue yeti blackout edition
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switching over to the cloud twos we can hear that the gap between teamspeak and
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discord compared to mumble and skype is more noticeable with lesser source audio
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this is a test recording with the hyperx cloud 2 gaming headset this is a test
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recording with the hyperx cloud 2 gaming headset so mumble has a muddier sound to
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it while skype maintains its background hiss
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this is a test recording with the hyperx cloud 2 gaming headset then the story
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completely chase stays the same actually with the mod mic
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teamspeak and discord are very clear while mumble and skype are slightly
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worse so okay it seems like you can't really go wrong with teamspeak or discord as
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long as that one's working let's talk about that as a regular user our writer
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Jake has noticed a pattern of degraded or
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roboty voice quality on discord
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it's hard to say if it's load-related or completely random without a much larger
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sample size and it can usually be fixed
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by temporarily changing the region of your server but it's one of those things
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that happens often enough that it is worth mentioning
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let's move on to admin control this varies
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wildly across all four platforms skype groups are
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basically limited to kicking and banning while mumble teamspeak and discord offer
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fully fledged rank and permission systems
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teamspeak definitely takes the cake for having the deepest customizability but
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it does come at the cost of the time required to set up and learn the system
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discord on the other hand is much easier and there isn't much that you can't do
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with it so for most people it's probably the way to go here
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but security is another big consideration
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because teamspeak and mumble are self-hosted and can be encrypted
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all the data on your server is yours and
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no other party can access it without your permission discord and skype on the
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other hand both connect you to their servers and
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while discord says they don't sell your information according to their privacy
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policy they can share it with related companies
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so that's just something to keep in mind skype of course is a similar story and
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rs technica reported that microsoft may be snooping for example the urls that
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you send in chat onto overlays another feature not to be overlooked
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teamspeak has an excellent in-game overlay supplied by overwolf that gives
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you access to an easily repositional basically fully functional teamspeak
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window while in game mumble is much more
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limited by contrast but at least does show you which users are talking in your
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channel discord shows you who's talking and
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allows you to switch channels or servers on the fly
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and also has some great integration with twitch so you can auto sync subscribers
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and even show who's talking on stream talking talking talking
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leading us then to the final answer what is the best voice platform out there
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well in terms of pure sound quality it's hard to compete with teamspeak's
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reliable clarity but discord sounds just
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as good most of the time and i think our
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poll response numbers indicate what our viewers think of its excellent chat
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system and community building features if you're looking for an open source
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solution with top-notch security though mumble is probably the way to go and as
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for skype well at least the ip address resolving
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nonsense is finally fixed and it's blue so if you like the color
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blue then you should probably also still use
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freshbooks.com tech tips and entering Linus tech tips in the how you heard
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