An Overview of Messaging Services

Originally I wanted to title this post something like “Discord Sucks, but so does Everything Else”, but I came to realize that was a bit misleading in regards to what the post was about. To put it simply, the messages we exchange with people have immense value, not to just the intended recipients, but also to advertisers who can use it for personal benefit. As such, I’ve been looking into messaging services that respect their users, that potentially don’t harvest and sell user data. Discord, the service I’d consider to be my primary messaging service, doesn’t fit this. So, I’ll detail what I think about every messaging service I’ve tried and what I think of each, both in terms of what they have to offer and how they compare to Discord as a replacement.

Note that none of these are comprehensive reviews or my personal endorsements of any of the services. Its really just closer to a first impressions for each one listed. If you’re curious about any of them, do your own research and look into them before making any decisions.

Discord

Discord is probably the largest and most well known service on here. No encryption, sells user data, the desktop application constantly monitors what applications that are running, among other issues. I’ll keep it brief and just say if you have any hopes for privacy, look elsewhere. Further reading here, here, and here. Another thing I dislike about it is that it largely killed off forums. A lot of online communities have migrated to primarily focus around a Discord server instead of a forum or dedicated website. These make it incredibly difficult to find information that has been shared in communities. You can no longer just do a web search to find relevant information. And the search feature within Discord sucks, so that isn’t of much more help. Discord fails at giving the user any privacy and actively makes sharing any information in communities worse.

Guilded

This is an interesting pick for this list, given I’m looking for something a bit more, privacy focused. But I believe Guilded to be the most compelling offering compared to Discord, if you don’t care about privacy that is. Guilded is what Discord could have been had Discord not dropped the focus on gamers. It has features such as an integrated calendar system, group scheduling, dedicated media channels, even more detailed server organization, a lot of Discord Nitro’s features for free, and much more. Guilded offers a seriously compelling alternative to Discord. However, unlike most of the other services on this list, Guilded collects and sells user data. Guilded features no encryption. Guilded is by no means private. But compared to Discord, a service that already lacks that, it offers a lot of unique and compelling features.

IRC

Ah, good old Internet Relay Chat. A true classic when it comes to online chatting. Somehow still used since its release in 1988. From what I’ve seen, its mostly open source projects with some channel on Libera. There are still a major IRC servers around, but as previously stated the communities on it are mostly focused on various open source projects. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t spin up a server of your own for you and your friends, although I wouldn’t recommend it. IRC misses one major thing all modern chat services have, and that is chat history. With IRC, the only messages you see are the ones you’re online for. Heck, if you aren’t online you can’t receive private messages. If you aren’t online someone can even take your nickname (unless the server has a registration system). An IRC bouncer can help alleviate some of these problems, but most people don’t have the time or resources to have one constantly running. IRC really isn’t the best for more personal and consistent communication, but it excels at what its used for. Chat rooms without registration. There is a reason IRC is so popular for open source projects. Anyone can easily be in a chat room and participating in a moment. Just maybe not the best for other forms of communication.

XMPP

XMPP, or the eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, is the first of the alternatives I tried on this list. It is also one of my favorites of the bunch. The two main factors I like about it are that its decentralized and it supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE). So, first and foremost, the decentralized nature of the protocol means anyone can run their own messaging server. And these independent servers can communicate and exchange messages between them. No one central server has control over the entire network. But the most interesting thing about the servers relates back to XMPP’s name. XMPP is a protocol, not some set of software. Its a specification for how things should be implemented, meaning anyone can write their own server or software client for it. To me, this is key. Having the option to choose in incredible for user freedom. Users can pick the client that best suits their needs, wether it be for simplicity, privacy, added features, or simply just looks. The best part is, if it doesn’t exist you can make it. Same goes for the server software. Want something that supports larger file uploads? Or what about voice and video calling? The open source nature means there are many different implementations to choose from. I wouldn’t say XMPP does everything great, because group chats are a little cumbersome and if you’re looking for public groups to join and chat in they basically do not exist.

Matrix

If I were to describe Matrix in a few words, it would be “modern IRC with federation”. Maybe that is a bit of an obtuse observation, but its somewhat right. Matrix is structured in an interesting manner. As a user, your primary join various channels. These channels can then be organized into spaces, which just function more as a directory of channels. You can also join spaces directly, but still need to join the individual channels. The whole channel system reminds me a lot of IRC. Federation is federation, you have a ton of individual servers coming together to create the network, just like XMPP. In fact, Matrix and XMPP are similar in that regard, both on paper are just an outline for how the network should be laid out, the users implement the servers and clients to make it a reality. That means there are plenty of options for users to choose and find the one that suits them the best. But Matrix also supports other modern features such as E2EE, profile icons, nicknames, and such. I really want to like Matrix and say it could be the Discord killer, the issue is that its far from it. It isn’t structured the same, its missing a lot of features Discord has, and generally just feels a bit more obtuse. Its good, don’t get me wrong. There are tons of communities that have channels or spaces on Matrix. This platform definitely has the most potential for growth.

Revolt

Out of all the services, this is probably the most niche one on the list. Due to the nature of this service, I wanted to put it closer to Discord and Gilded, but I feel it fits better right after my discussion of Matrix. Matrix has a lot of potential when compared to something like Discord, but it ends up being its own thing. Revolt is basically a one-to-one recreation of Discord, except with some more privacy oriented features, or so they say. The project is still in development, but the lack of privacy oriented features is a bit concerning. I find it concerning that a chat service that has its key selling point is privacy lacks E2EE in its current state. The team behind it currently has no plans to add federation. I’ll let you decide if this is a good thing or not, but individuals can still run their own instances of the software, there just isn’t any crossover between them. In its current state, Revolt probably isn’t the best choice, but it has potential to become a great privacy oriented chat service in the future.

Signal

If you’ve heard of this one, its probably because Snowden has recommended it. And it really does look like a compelling option. If its good enough for the famous NSA whistle-blower, it should be good enough for you and me, right? Well, maybe. The service looks fine, its great that its open source, independently audited, and has great encryption. Signal also operates very transparently. They make it publicly known whenever a government requests user data along with their response. I just hesitate with two things, the lack of decentralization and the sign up process. Decentralization is great as it means the service no longer depends on one central server. If one server goes down, the rest of the network stays up. Signal however has a lot of backing, both in community support and money, so its unlikely that its going anywhere any time soon. But that is a bit more forgivable, what isn’t is the sign up process. You need a phone number to use Signal. A phone number. Now, if you didn’t know, a phone number is kinda deeply personal information. Not something you should just be handing out. It links you with the device you have with you every moment of every day. The same device that constantly makes connections with cell towers and GPS that can be used to find your location. The same device that probably collects the most data on your for advertisers. Am I being a bit paranoid? Probably. But if Snowden, probably one of the most well known advocates for privacy, is recommending giving out that sensitive information, it either means he has a lot of faith in Signal or maybe he was paid for the endorsement. But enough of the tin foil hat, I’m no where near qualified to be talking about that kinda stuff. Signal makes privacy easy. It isn’t some option you have to turn on or something extra to fiddle with. It just works out of the box. E2EE just works for everyone. Signal also possesses a lot of extra features found in less secure messaging applications, like stickers. This might make it a bit more appealing to use over other services.

Conclusion

If I had to pick one service out of the ones on this list, it would be a difficult choice. In an ideal world, it would be either XMPP or Matrix. Both offer secure messaging (E2EE) and are decentralized which minimizes risk to the user and allows for freedom to run your own server. Between the two, I think Matrix is much better for larger groups and communities, especially with the clients that currently exist for it. XMPP is much better at person to person exchanges in my opinion. Either one is a viable alternative for raw messaging, but Matrix is probably a better replacement for Discord.

However, there is an issue that I’ve more or less brought up in passing with some of these services. The install base. The people using the service. Who is on it and who isn’t. Because at the end of the day, what good is a chat service with no one to chat to? Sure, look hard enough and you’ll find communities, but as I’ve stated, a lot of these communities tend to focus on things like open source software and other similar topics. Not to say you won’t meet some nice people in those communities, they just aren’t for everyone. And I’m sure you might be able to find groups for your interest, but there’s no counting on how active or how in demand they will be. And that is the one thing Discord has, people. At least for me it does. So, I hesitate to recommend dropping whatever you current use and forcing all your friends to download this one app just to be able to message you (because it probably won’t end up well). If what you use works well enough, keep using it. If you’re really worried about privacy, maybe consider more private services for that sensitive material.