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Join Matrix!
Menu
 1. The Guide
 2. Public Homeservers

 * The "Join Matrix!" Guide
 * More Features of Matrix
 * Popular rooms/spaces
 * Comparison to other platforms
 * Matrix vs. Discord
 * Matrix vs. Guilded
 * Matrix vs. Telegram
 * Fix decryption error
 * Questions & Answers


MATRIX VS. DISCORD

Thank you for considering Matrix.

Matrix has been a popular alternative to Discord, but many people still don’t
get the why. We will start with why you should move from Discord to Matrix,
followed by comparisons of specific feature and some helpful tips. But before we
do that, let’s start with…


A DISCUSSION ON THE PROPER DEFINITION OF “SERVER”

Recall the computing definition of the word “server”:

>  1. A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in
>     the same computer or over a computer network.
> 
>  2. A computer dedicated to running such programs.

The definitions can hold true for a server for a multiplayer game (eg.
Minecraft), a server reserved for a group of people for communication (eg.
Mumble & TeamSpeak), and a server where Discord bots are being operated from. In
each case, the server software (such as the Minecraft server jar file) meets
definition #1, whereas the server infrastructure (eg. VPS) meets definition #2.

But that’s not the case for a Discord “server”: it’s just some data, together
with data of other “servers,” resting on Google’s computational servers running
the Discord server software. A Discord “server” is not a program on its own, nor
has any computational infrastructure been dedicated to any specific “server,”1
thus violating both definitions. Presumably to attract gamers who often utilizes
the correct “server” concept, Discord attempts to equate it to a chat group,
muddying the waters for the definition of this technical term. (Hence Discord
refers to “servers” as guilds in API documentations.)


WHAT ABOUT MATRIX?

In Matrix, a homeserver is a server, in that it meets both definitions:
Dedicated infrastructures (definition #2) running a server software (definition
#1). Furthermore, these homeservers, while operated independently of each other
and not under the control of a single entity, communicate (transmitting messages
and such) with each other using an agreed-upon protocol, thereby keeping the
Matrix platform alive. Platforms that use such structure, such as Matrix,
fediverse and email, are called federated platforms.


WHY NOT DISCORD?

I’m sure you can find a lot of valid criticisms of Discord, like here or here.
Give them a read if you have time.

In the scope of this guide, the key reasons to move from Discord to Matrix are:

 * Lack of privacy for private communications, as private conversations are not
   only unencrypted, but also actively scanned (scope of which depends on your
   settings, but some happen even when you disable all the filtering-related
   toggles). People reported their messages were substituted with cooking
   recipes when they tried to send something that is considered a virus by
   Discord.
 * Excessive tracking, such as the science endpoint and the process logger (for
   activity status)2. Most third party clients and some client mods do not
   support science endpoint, nor process detection.
 * Hostile stance against unofficial clients or client modifications, thus
   preventing users from opting out of certain annoyances or tracking in a
   compliant way (even though users tend not to get banned for doing so).
 * Arbitrary phone number requirements. Some users that are deemed suspicious
   and users that join certain “servers” are required to verify their phone
   number.
 * Discord has made decisions against the users’ best interests, with the most
   recent ones being:
   * Biased consultations and unilateral proposal of cryptocurrency integrations
     (which were only dropped after massive backlash); and
   * Deprecating access to read text messages in “servers” with certain
     exceptions3, effectively equating to mandatory rollout of application
     commands based interaction flow, as well as KYC requirements, for running
     bots in more than 100 “servers” (which were not dropped despite backlash).
 * Closed source, thus cannot be independently inspected.
 * Lack of control for private data and no guarantee on reliability, as Discord
   is centralized, not federated. See here.
 * Paywalling richer expression abilities.4 A user with Nitro unlocks certain
   additional features, mainly related to what can be included in a message, and
   twice as more guild cap, and twice as long message length limit.
 * Not intended for serious use. A developer experience staff at Discord
   explicitly said, “We are just a casual chatting app.” Marketing campaigns of
   Discord, such as inclusion of gaming related figures, and use of funny memes,
   seem to agree with that stance.
 * Uses AI.com products to police the platform.

Matrix addresses all of the above.


SPECIAL NOTE

Matrix uses free software for its server and client softwares.

 * Those who are using or are planning to use Discord’s “Student Hub” feature
   should urge your institution’s IT department or your student union to set up
   a Matrix homeserver, which allows greater flexibility for communication,
   while ensuring your privacy and agency are respected. Germans are already
   using it.
 * Open source communities should be aware that using Discord is antithetical
   and discriminatory.


TERMINOLOGIES


CHANNEL & DMS VS. ROOM

In Discord, a place that allows sending text messages is called a channel (if
belongs to a “server”) or a DM.

In Matrix, a place that allows sending text messages is called a room.


“SERVER” VS. SPACE

In Discord, text channels that are not DMs (including group DMs) must be
associated with a “server.” Thus a “server” can be understood as a collection of
channels that share certain settings.

In Matrix, rooms can be included in a Space. A Space can be used in similar
fashion to a Discord “server” (controlled by the admins of the constituent
rooms) or a “server” folder (controlled by anyone). A Space may also include
another Space. Rooms do not share settings with Spaces, although rooms can
require Space membership for joining.


FEATURE COMPARISON

Note that Matrix does not (and cannot, due to its decentralized nature) paywall
features.

Matrix has a handful server implementations and about a dozen general purpose
clients maintained. Discord has one first party website, two first party clients
(web and mobile), two third party server implementations and about a dozen third
party general purpose clients maintained.

Feature Discord Matrix Spacebar (third party Discord reimplementation)
Registration Requires email. Discord may demand your phone number if it detects
“suspicious activity.” Depending on homeserver (especially if you’re running
your own), email may be optional, and phone number is usually optional. There is
no automatically enforced human check after registration. Depending on instance
(especially if you’re running your own), email may be optional, and phone number
is usually optional. There is no automatically enforced human check after
registration. Price Free, with certain features paywalled. Free for most
homeservers (but please consider donating to them). Hosting a private homeserver
may also incur cost (could be free). Note that paying (not donation) only
affects where your data is hosted and (to a much lesser degree) server
performance; it has no effect on features. Usually free. Username Users are
identified by Twitter-like unique usernames (bots by display name (maximum 32
characters) + discriminator (4 randomly-assigned digits)) to fellow users, and
user IDs (Around 19 digits) for programming purposes. Users are allowed to pick
an additional Steam-like non-unique, Discord-wide displayname. Users are
identified by their email-like ID called MXID (eg. @alice:example.com), composed
of a username (must be ASCII characters, upper case letters are not allowed) and
the server name (not exceeding 255 characters when combined, including the
introducing at symbol and the colon separating the parts). A display name can be
optionally added (up to ~65200 bytes)5. Same as Discord. Server operators can
configure whether to use unique usernames or usernames with discriminators.
Avatar Static, maximum 8 MB. Cannot be zoomed unless using a bot or manually
entering the URL to higher definition images, in which case the returned avatar
has a maximum definition of 1024x1024. See “Attachments” for limits. Can be
zoomed (at least in Element/SchildiChat), in which case the avatar will be shown
in the uploaded definition. Animated avatars are supported. Static, up to ~1 MB.
Can be zoomed. Profile description and background Supported. Not supported
currently, will be supported using profile rooms. Same as Discord. Ability to
read messages while offline Official web and desktop clients artificially block
viewing anything at all when it loses the real-time connection. No such
limitation in official mobile clients. Messages in client cache can be read
without restriction. Currently, the client behaves the same way as Discord’s.
Profile status Supported. Not supported. Supported. Nicknames6 Supported.
Maximum 32 characters. Supported (/myroomnick). Up to ~65200 bytes. Supported,
length limit depends on the instance. Specific avatars6 Requires Nitro.
Supported (/myroomavatar). See “Attachments” for limits. Free, depends on the
server. 2FA Email, WebAuthn or SMS/TOTP. Not required for login, but required
(QR code, emoji verification, or Security Key) for viewing past encrypted
messages. TOTP. Text messages Maximum 2000 characters. Supports Markdown (with
some modifications). Up to ~65200 bytes (up to ~21270 bytes if a formatted
message with plain text fallback sent).5 Supports Markdown and HTML. Length
limit depending on the instance. Supports Markdown (with some modifications).
Attachments Maximum 50 MB (maximum 500 MB for users with Nitro tier 2, and also
for all users in a “server” with boost tier 3). Discord Inc. has implemented
hotlinking protection using expiring signatures. Size limit depending on the
server. Maximum 50~100 MB (for most homeservers; customizable if you run your
own homeserver. However, users from the servers with smaller attachment limits
will not be able to receive large attachments, as each homeserver receives a
copy of the attachment). Attachments sent to end-to-end encrypted rooms are also
sent encrypted (unless forwarded from an unencrypted room, in which case only
the identifier will be encrypted). Other than that, no hotlinking protection.
Size limit depending on the server. Hotlinking protection depends on the server
operator’s whim. Custom emotes in messages Free users can only use static emotes
defined within the “server”. Using emojis from outside the “server” and using
animated emojis are limited to Nitro users only. It is possible to insert
user-defined static emotes in messages, see here. No support for animated
emotes. Static and animated emojis supported. Reactions Only emotes (Unicode or
custom ones). Use of custom emotes subject to the same limit above. Unicode
emotes and text. Support for custom emotes reactions are inconsistent across
clients, but this may change in the future. Only emotes (Unicode or custom
ones). Stickers Only stickers defined within the “server”. Unlimited with setup.
See here.   Public read receipts Not supported. Supported. Planned.
Notifications and notification settings Mostly sender-controlled except for a
small receiver-control of blocking the sender, server-side. In plaintext events,
receiver-controlled, server-side, including pattern matching. In end to end
encrypted events, receiver-controlled, client-side in the receiving device. Note
that for Android users, Matrix supports UnifiedPush. Some amount of sender
control planned. Sender-controlled by default, additional receiver control
planned, server-side. Direct messages Not encrypted. Encrypted by default,
including VoIP. Not encrypted. End-to-end encryption support planned. Starting a
DM Depending on privacy settings, initiating a DM requires the two users to have
established “friendship” or have certain mutual “servers.” Users are given the
choice to accept, remove, or report a DM (since late 2021). Initiating a DM
solely requires the recipient to accept the request7. Users can leave DMs
anytime they wish.   Group chats A group chat channel is associated with a
“server.” You can only join 100 “servers,” 200 with Nitro. Additionally, there
are group chats not associated with servers, called group DMs, with far more
limited features than servers can. A room is standalone, but can be optionally
included and associated with a Space, which is just a room linking to other
rooms. You can join unlimited amount of rooms (in theory). Same as Discord. VoIP
in groups Supported. End to end encrypted VoIP support using MLS implemented,
albeit with a huge security issue: the session is silently downgraded if there
is a non-E2EE-capable client. Supported. The room plays the role of signalling,
audiovisual data is sadly routed through a separate WebRTC channel. End to end
encryption supported. Supported. End to end encryption using MLS planned.
Organizing chats “Servers” can be organized into folders, but each “server” can
only belong to 1 folder. Channels in a “server” can only be organized by the
“server” owner and moderators with “manage channels” permission, in a many to
one fashion, and cannot be moved to another “server” once created. Rooms can be
included within an unlimited amount of Spaces. Spaces may also include other
Spaces (similar to Discord’s channel categories). Same as Discord. Group chat
privacy Denying “View Channel History” permission prevents users from reading
messages prior to their most recent login. However the “server” owners cannot
enjoy that privacy, as “server” owners cannot deny their own permissions due to
how Discord’s permission system works. You may deny new members from reading
messages prior to them being invited / joining. You may also allow or deny guest
access (such as Matrix Static) from reading messages. You may also enable
encryption8. Same as Discord. Server-side deletion guarantees Messages that are
removed from Discord are garbage collected from discord.com databases within
less than 2 days.9 Guild messages from deleted users are mapped to the unified
ghost user, including mentions to them. Direct messages stay unless explicitly
closed by the counterparty. As Matrix follows an event chain model, there is no
true deletion. The closest thing available is redaction, which instructs the
users and servers to blank the content but not the metadata of the event.
Redactions are best-effort10. Depends on the instance. Publicity Although
Discord offers its own “server” discovery feature, the requirements are somewhat
arbitrary, so third-party services are often used. Only “server” owners can
apply to Discord’s own “server” discovery directory. Additionally, there is an
experimental feature that allows users to list “server”s in a private directory
listing, but this is currently only available to user with certain university
e-mail addresses. Third-party directory services may differ. Each homeserver has
a room directory which anyone in that homeserver may publish to. The third-party
MatrixRooms.info allows searching room directories of various public homeservers
on the web. Similar to Discord, except anyone can create a private guild
directory. Invite Through generating invite links or using an OAuth-based
integration. Through directly inviting users, or through shareable addresses.
Invite links and registration tokens. Permissions in group chats Single-owner,
up to 255 roles. How long did it take for you to learn role hierarchy?11 A
“server” can only be shut down by its owner, and that affects everyone. Members
cannot demote their own permissions. Roles of a member are reset when a member
leaves hence do not survive rejoin. Up to 2^54 power levels (-2^53 to 2^53-1,
however I highly doubt you will ever reach that limit). A user acquires a
permission if their power level is equal to or higher than the power level
required for the specific permission. Rooms are not owned by any user or server,
hence cannot usually be forcibly shut down without coordination. Members can
demote their own permissions. Power levels of members survive leave and rejoin.
Similar to Discord, with optional moderation capability of range deletion
(“purge”). Pre-moderation capabilities Partly mandatory, partly opt-in.
Keyword-based pattern matching, automated community rules enforcement using
natural language processing (partially powered by AI.com products), spam and
scam link matching, user nickname, custom status and biography sanitisation,
virus file detection. Called AutoMod in the product. No standard method exists.
Can only be enforced by the homeserver of the original message. Not implemented
yet. Size limits of group chats 10 in group DMs, several tiers in “servers”
ranging from 125 thousands to 1.5 million, subject to manual transition across
those tiers.12 No artificial limits, albeit current implementations do not
perform well with rooms having more than a few tens of thousands of members and
a few dozens of homeservers. No artificial limits, albeit the current
implementation does not perform well with guilds having more than a few
thousands of members. Bans Bans are only visible to “server” moderators. One can
also see their own ban when they attempt to join a “server”, but not the ban
reason. Bans are public to all members, along with the reasons. Note that if you
ban a user from a room (directly, not by using Mjölnir), regardless of whether
they have been a member of that room, the user will be notified. Same as
Discord. Disabled and deleted account handling Disabling an account is
reversible until 2 years after disabling. Accounts that do not log in for 2
years get automatically deleted every 45 days. Messages sent to a “server” from
deleted accounts stay unless explicitly removed by somebody else. User name and
user settings from deleted accounts are removed. Deleted users are coalesced to
a single ghost user, with the user ID 456226577798135808. “Servers” owned by
accounts shut down before November 2022 may stay. “Servers” owned by a manually
deleted accounts have always been automatically shut down, so do any “servers”
deleted after November 2022. Disabling an account is usually irreversible. Users
can cause their messages to be forgotten while disabling their account: in that
case, their messages are not sent to further users and servers. Rooms created by
disabled accounts stay. Disabling an account is reversible. User deletion is
irreversible. Running a bot Running a bot in more than 100 “servers” requires a
proof of identity, similar in manner to one encountered in international
borders. Selfbotting is forbidden, but this is inconsistently enforced. You can
run bots on any user accounts13 14. Selfbotting is permitted (but be nice).
Self-botting is possible, as is application-based botting. Apps to access
platform By ToS, you are only allowed to use the official Discord app (including
its PTB and Canary variants). This is not enforced consistently: some
modifications and some third party clients are generally tolerated, while others
may be forbidden. Third party clients that do not touch certain user profile
related features tend to be not caught. Element is the main app, but you’re
welcomed to use whatever you wish. You can even make an app yourself14! Spacebar
has its own client, but any Discord client is welcome. Network access IPv4 only.
Users and bot developers have raised this issue repeatedly, and staff stated
this is not urgent at all, despite the fact that IPv4 addresses have been
exhausted worldwide: “We of course care of the future of the platform however
ipv4<->ipv6 connectivity is not really going away any time soon with the
availability of nat64 - and there are much more important things to work on.”
Most if not all homeservers participating in the public federation have IPv4
connectivity, but IPv6 connectivity varies from homeserver to homeserver. The
homeserver list allows you to filter by IPv6 support. While the code supports
IPv4 and IPv6, certain parts do not function well with IPv6.


HELPFUL TIPS

 * There is a public bridge that allows you to connect a Discord channel with a
   Matrix room. There is another bridge that allows looking at your Discord
   direct messages from Matrix side, but that one requires self-hosting and more
   extensive setup than the public t2bot bridge. (Although, backlinking Matrix
   data to Discord will reduce its privacy, so please take ethical concerns into
   account when using them.)
 * Your user colour is chosen by a hash function (varies by app) that takes in
   your MXID.


FOOTNOTES

 1.  More accurately speaking, guilds are mapped to the guild servers in a
     many-to-one fashion. This can easily be confirmed by “server” outages,
     which happen when the guild process in the respective server restarts or
     the guild is being migrated to another server. However, the end users still
     lack any control on choosing a particular guilds server instance to host a
     guild. ↩

 2.  Process detection only exists in the desktop client. Somebody reverse
     engineered this process detection. Unlike Steam’s similar process
     detection, this detection only sends the successfully detected games, not
     the list of every process running. Can be opted out by disabling the game
     activity detection. Science endpoint is said to drop the data server-side
     when the relevant toggles are disabled, however no one has verified if that
     toggle actually works. Hence assumed as “cannot be opted out”. ↩

 3.  The exception is messages that @-mention the bot user can still be seen
     without the message content event. As many bot developers said, this is
     still a band-aid and not a useful solution. Direct messages are not
     affected by message content intent. ↩

 4.  Paywalling features related to customisation and expressivity is Discord’s
     core business model, stated repeatedly by themselves and also verified by
     various third party sources. See here and here. ↩

 5.  Limited by Matrix event size limits. The current event size limit is
     specified to be 65536 bytes. Formatted message size limit assuming the
     formatted body takes approximately twice as much as plain text body. ↩ ↩2

 6.  For Discord “servers” and for Matrix rooms. ↩ ↩2

 7.  Note that Matrix has no concept of “friends” or “contacts” per se, although
     the DM list can serve the same purpose. However, user-based contact
     ignoring exists on Matrix, using two different methods. The former method
     prevents any and all messages from reaching the recipient, and the latter
     method using policy rooms hides them client-side by interpreting an ignore
     list. The latter method is currently only available in Element as a labs
     feature. ↩

 8.  Enabling encryption is irreversible for security reasons. Note that it is
     pointless to enable encryption in a public room, with one exception: the
     case you want to have a persistent cryptographic trail of who read the
     messages. Furthermore, enabling encryption means users will not see
     messages before their invitation (if applicable) or their entry. ↩

 9.  Somebody actually tried to report a message after deleting it and they got
     “no such message in our database” from T&S. Also backed by Stanislav
     Vishnevskiy’s blog post on infrastructure of Discord. However, deletions
     are basically a free-for-all matter: users (including bots) may decide to
     keep or repost deleted messages, and there is nothing stopping this. ↩

 10. Most Matrix servers are known to keep the pre-redaction content of the
     event for a week, while immediately sending the redaction instruction to
     their fellow users. Again, redactions are basically a free-for-all
     matter. ↩

 11. May be more accurately described as ban hierarchy, as the order of roles
     only affect role changes, nick overrides, kicks and bans. Discord’s
     permission system is otherwise “explicit allow wins”. ↩

 12. Discord “servers” have an initial limit of 125000 members. “Server” owners
     can request this limit to be increased by filing a support ticket, in which
     case Discord engineering team looks at the activity of the guild and
     manually migrates it to a guilds server instance with a larger member
     limit. Known tiers are: 125k, 250k (beyond this tier, brand verification
     required), 500k, 1M, 1.5M. ↩

 13. Matrix has no distinction between user and bot accounts (nor is there any
     dependency between the two). Unless specifically exempted by the homeserver
     (not needed in most cases), bots have the same ratelimit as other users. In
     Element and SchildiChat, the user token of an account is available by
     accessing “User Settings” then “Help & About.” When running an autonomous
     bot, please be courteous and indicate to others (in username or display
     name) that the account is a bot. Bots that want to control other user
     accounts need to create an application service, which needs to be approved
     by an administrator of the homeserver that the bot is using. ↩

 14. If your app/bot is good, then matrix.org would love to hear from you (with
     the potential possibility of featuring you on their blog)! ↩ ↩2

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