Some friends are concerned about Discord apparently being taken over by Activision hiring a former Activision exec and worry that the platform could end up becoming pretty much unusable without payment. They're currently trying to think of potential alternatives if things end up getting too bad, but so far pretty much everything mentioned has issues for at least some of us. (And a few of us are also here on RPR, so there's that, at least.)
From what I can tell, the goal is something that still functions very similarly to discord, allowing a fairly private group that's rapid-chat focused, can still have something like "channels" for sorting different sorts of conversation, allows voice chat, video, and screenshare, is cross-platform (at least Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and doesn't require phone numbers or real names to set up (or at least does not display them or use them to connect to each other).
Among things mentioned in the group so far have been Google Hangouts, Facebook/Messenger (which prompted general discomfort), Skype (which was mentioned to be shutting down), Slack (which is more of a business thing), Signal (which apparently uses phone numbers to connect), Guilded (which was mentioned to require a Roblox account?), Revolt (which has iOS compatibility issues), Teamspeak (which would require payment), and possibly others I've missed.
Of course, I'm sure options will shift with time, too; they just want to do what they can to plan ahead just in case.
Quick edit: I originally misunderstood what happened with Discord & Activision and have corrected that line.
From what I can tell, the goal is something that still functions very similarly to discord, allowing a fairly private group that's rapid-chat focused, can still have something like "channels" for sorting different sorts of conversation, allows voice chat, video, and screenshare, is cross-platform (at least Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and doesn't require phone numbers or real names to set up (or at least does not display them or use them to connect to each other).
Among things mentioned in the group so far have been Google Hangouts, Facebook/Messenger (which prompted general discomfort), Skype (which was mentioned to be shutting down), Slack (which is more of a business thing), Signal (which apparently uses phone numbers to connect), Guilded (which was mentioned to require a Roblox account?), Revolt (which has iOS compatibility issues), Teamspeak (which would require payment), and possibly others I've missed.
Of course, I'm sure options will shift with time, too; they just want to do what they can to plan ahead just in case.
Quick edit: I originally misunderstood what happened with Discord & Activision and have corrected that line.
Just slipping in to get nofits from here. Appreciated Zel. 🧡
Teamspeak looks pretty similar