IRC: it’s open source, it’s free, its retro

How about Guilded?

waits for matrix fanboys to still chime in

Matrix is probably the closest to Discord overall. If Element is bugging out on you, it might be worth trying other clients. Nheko worked well when I tried it, for example. Do note that the matrix.org homeserver is sometimes overloaded, so if you're having responsiveness issues, choosing or running a different homeserver will probably clear them right up.

Mumble.info is great for voice. If your text chat needs are pretty basic, it might be a good fit. I don't think it saves message history.

XMPP is a protocol, not an app. If you you saw an interface you didn't like, you could always just use a different client. I don't usually recommend it, since setting it up with all the features people usually expect is a bit complicated and error-prone, but it would probably be fine among a small group of friends if one of them has tech skills. I don't think it offers voice, at least not in any widely-supported way.

I use Steam Chat for playing games with family and friends. It has better audio quality than discord in my opinion, and you can make groups (something like Discord servers) too. It doesn't have all the functionality of servers, but the basic idea is there.

I am actually surprised nobody mentioned it yet Why use some third party application, when you can use the Steam's one.

It's not like the OP is concerned about privacy. They were using discord. They didn't say it has to be open source.

For talking outside of gaming or away from PC, I use signal.

IRC.

I setup a Mattermost server for me and the boys. It’s more slack than discord. But chat, rooms and voice all worked. Push notifications worked on android and Apple. But, I had to admit defeat. No one wants to leave discord because they all have at least 1 friend who won’t leave it.

I tried to self hosted matrix, but it suffered the same feigned interest.

Discord is banned in Turkiye.

Considering the nature of these programs, I think the most important thing to hone in on is: what's popular in Turkiye? Features and functionality don't mean squat if no one's around to enjoy them.

...tad off topic, but this thread is making me miss xFire. That shit was better 10 years ago (maybe more like 15? idk, I'm old) than Discord was at its peak. ...litigated out of existence by Yahoo's frivolous weaponization of our legal system. This is why we can't have nice things.

Edit - Fuck you, Yahoo.

Jitsi meet is what I use for calls with my friends. You can continue using revolt or matrix or something for the text channels.

https://meet.calyx.net/

You could self host revolt.

Teamspeak 3 is ancient, but works.

However there is a new version of Teamspeak (TS5) which is much closer to Discord and looks much nicer. You could give that a try

There isn't a full replacement for Discord out there, it'll have to be old school with multiple things together.

Teamspeak is great for voice comms (or Mumble). And you could use Matrix or XMPP for text chat. Matrix should be a lot better if you either self-host or join a smaller server that isn't so overloaded all the time.

For game streaming Broadcast Box paired with OBS Studio seems like a good option for low latency streaming.

matrix: unstable overall

"Unstable" is an understatement, and this comes from a girl who uses it all day every day.

If you or one of your friends can self-host, my group used mumble before discord. I still don't really know why we switched.

XMPP/Jabber has whatever interface you choose (determined by the client you use), and does voice pretty darn well.

I'm currently using Jmp.chat as a SIM/data provider, and they provide an XMPP account via Snikket. I can connect to that account with pretty much any XMPP/Jabber client.

To me, XMPP/Jabber is the most flexible, because it's a protocol, and you choose which parts you want. And you can choose which clients you use. I have 2 clients on my phone and one on my laptop. They all work fine with the same account, with messages showing up at all simultaneously. One client (Snikket) has multiple accounts in it. The thing is XMPP/Jabber as a protocol is like SMTP - it's a standard, so all clients can communicate with each other, if they support the same features (eg OMEMO encryption, which is popular now).

Alternatively check out:

Teleguard, it's from the folks at SwissCows. They claim E2E, and from the way you connect devices, and that you can't recover an account from them, I tend to believe it. Though I haven't seen a third party evaluation (I belive they're closed source, unfortunately). So do with that what you will.

Simplex Chat, self hostable, they claim it's very secure. I've used it some, the phone app is a bit heavy on ram use.

There are numerous others out there.

When it got banned? My Friend is from Turkiye. He still used it.

In fact matrix is great