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Matrix the protocol is not there yet. Element, its main client, lacks too many features to have the same experience:

- No concept of servers (in discord parlance). Its equivalent (matrix spaces, in https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/blob/matthew/msc177...) is in progress

- No included audio/video calls. You have to link them manually and use a third-party stack, such as Jitsi

- Even if you have Jitsi the experience is not the same. Discord's experience is like a chat room, except with audio and video. In Element it's more like a standard call




> - No included audio/video calls. You have to link them manually and use a third-party stack, such as Jitsi

To be explicit, no group audio/video. I run my own Matrix server for my partner and I and it uses webRTC based audio out of the box for 1:1 calls which we use every day, and sometimes video. No Jitsi enabled in my config. (I only share this so other readers can gauge if Matrix can meet their needs.)


It is also worth noting that the WebRTC calls are E2E encrypted and look fantastic as they are often peer-to-peer so you can get an amazing connection if you have the bandwidth available.


I'm blown away by the audio and video quality of my Matrix calls. I always thought it was because, as I run my own server, there's no bandwidth limit, but I hadn't considered the whole peer-to-peer thing.


Mind sharing the Synapse configuration changes you made to enable the audio/video calls over peer-to-peer?


I'm using https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy and I can't recall off of the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure out of the box the coturn server will make webRTC "just work". I also explicitly made sure jitsi was disabled to make sure it wasn't using it, and yeah, this ansible playbook is game changing. I tried to run Matrix 3 different ways before giving up and using the playbook.


What client do you use on your devices to talk via the server?


For now element, but I hope to add the functionality to Ditto and switch to that.




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