There is no truer adage to me than nothings is perfect. And when it comes to anything related to Discord it’s no different.
Discord itself to me has been an issue for years. Its use of data collection, the obsession of companies trying to buy it all were concerning. For me the latest age verification just further reinforces my beliefs. That being said the majority of users who ignored all this and kept going, really nothing would change. Most people I know use Discord lightly and aren’t in large chats that use hentai gifs. I still would tell anyone who would listen to get out of dodge. But if you never cared about data usage then you’re probably not going to start now.
For all the alternatives out there truth is, none are really anywhere near perfect. Matrix and most of its clients while encrypted don’t offer true jump in /jump out game chat. More a kin to Skype really. Foss Discord implementations like Spacebar are to all over the place and for me are not really functional. Stoat while probably my favorite is still really small and not holding up to the stress of the user influx. And of course it’s missing “discord features” and the new kid Fluxer while appealing is still to new and it’s monetization model a little to concerning. 300 bucks as a backer for unproven project ? And of course with the exception of Matrix none of the other projects currently offer encryption.
Truth is no option really is ideal. Truth is all the options have some pretty serious flaws. And truth is getting your large swaths of friends to move might be close to impossible.
So if you are looking to move please do some digging. Ask people who use the apps their opinions. Try to as a group of friends chose to make a move.
And the final truth is it’s a really good thing we finally have some options. No matter the flaws having competition brings innovation.
I hope this posts helps clear up some things for people who might be confused or concerned.
It seemed like it would work for me. The user experience is pretty different than Discord, but I caught onto it pretty quick. There are public servers you can join to see what it could be like. When you launch the desktop client, there is a “popular servers” section on the home page that lets you pick from a couple different community servers. I joined the “Official TeamSpeak Community Server” and then just jumped into the Counter-Strike channel and played around, tested streaming, chat, etc.
To be clear this is the TS6 client, not TS3.
As far as I can tell you can’t actually test creating your own server before you pay for a community, although the cost is cheap ($5 USD a month) and it looks like there is a trial.
From a longevity perspective, TeamSpeak might be a good choice for my group, since it’s been around in some shape or form for like 30 years at this point. My group has moved like 3 or 4 times. Not sure if we’ll find a forever home but the longer we can stay somewhere, the better.