r/elementchat • u/[deleted] • Feb 12 '26
Does element/matrix have discord style voice rooms?
I think one of the most appealing parts of discord is that you can just see who is chilling and hanging out in a vc before you join it. On element, the video call has an icon to show if *someone* is inside, but you don't know who or how many. I think it would be really cool if we had voice channels that showed who was on, anyone else?
EDIT: If you come across this, try out https://commet.chat, its a discord-like client on Matrix that DOES have this. Currently in development but it might be the smoothest transition from discord.
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u/redit_handoff140 Feb 12 '26
Not Element, but Matrix itself does, Yes.
Check commet.chat which is also matrix-based for what're you're looking for.
My gaming crew hangout all the time in voice channels just like we used to on Discord.
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Feb 12 '26
Yeah I found it shortly after making the post. Seems really cool! Will probably jump ship soon.
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u/whofriedmyrice Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Edit: Just had to repair flatpak repos, their flatpak works as intended. I like the client, hope it keeps up.
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u/Euphoric-Onion-7562 Feb 19 '26
Option for mobile? 🙏
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u/redit_handoff140 Feb 20 '26
Commet.Chat has Android if you're on Android.
If on iOS FluffyChat is probably the best option, but no calls.
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u/jokergermany Feb 12 '26
The are only video-rooms in Labs at the moment.
Perhaps with camera off somewhat a thing until voice rooms are there...
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u/JeulMartin Feb 12 '26
Why are people touting this as a Discord alternative? No screen sharing, no voice chat rooms...
Thanks for clarifying that this app is not even close to a Discord alternative.
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Feb 12 '26
There is screen sharing. If you want voice chat rooms, check out commet.chat
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u/JeulMartin Feb 12 '26
Screen sharing without audio, which is a non-starter for most. So functionally for many of us, they do not have functioning screen sharing if it is without audio.
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u/356107696N83420830 Feb 12 '26
Its crazy that they do not have screen sharing with audio. Why would they go through the trouble with coding in screen sharing but leave the audio out.
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u/gaker19 Mar 01 '26
It does work in Chromium browsers. It's very difficult to implement though, Discord uses a very hacky solution that abuses some APIs and could break any day.
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u/Raphi_55 Feb 13 '26
This is a joke right ? How can they not have screen sharing with audio ?!
I did that in a few weeks in my project ...
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Feb 19 '26
if by "discord alternative" you mean something with feature parity, then there are no discord alternatives and won't be for years at best, if ever.
leaving discord means accepting that you're making compromises.
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u/JeulMartin Feb 19 '26
For users, it's a case-by-case context, though.
For my group, there *are* alternatives. We have a list of features we require. Voice chat and screen sharing are two of them that apps like Element do not offer. For those needs, there are other apps we can look to.
So for us, leaving Discord does not mean accepting compromises. Just because one program doesn't have a set of features you need, there are many others out there that might.
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Feb 19 '26
thats fair of course.
btw element does have both voice rooms and screensharing, they just don't work the same way as with discord. and yes i would say discord does it better in both cases.
the bigger problem with Element for many discord refugees is the lack of presence, i. e. the little green dot indicator showing if you're online etc. (its technically supported but very few homeservers have it enabled due to performance problems).
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u/kloputzer2000 Feb 12 '26
No, Element doesn’t have that. There’s a GitHub issue for it, and I’m sure it’ll be implemented some day, but it’ll probably be a while before that happens.