I use Discord and Element/Matrix exclusively, and have groups of friends that use both. They always gravitate towards Discord for voice. I think there's a couple small reasons that kind of add up
1. When there's an active call going, you can't see who's in it unless you join. It's just this ominous box with some unknown number of participants, and it creates this feeling of "should I join them? Am I interrupting? What's going on in there?". In discord, being able to see who's in a room and even who's talking goes a long way in removing that little anxiety.
2. As others have said, having the voice channels listed as their own room, showing the current participants, that you just one-click-to-join feels different. For whatever reason it feels less like you're joining a conference call and more like you're just popping in and out. I can't fully explain why, but it does.
3. The jisti widget is pretty janky. It doesn't really size correctly, the text overflows, and it general it just doesn't feel native.
I've been using, self hosting, developing for and prosthelytizing Matrix for many years now. It started out rough, has steadily gotten better, and now I think in many ways surpasses other chat services. But the voice just doesn't quite do it.
Those all seem like things that could be fixed at a lower cost than creating a whole new app, but maybe there is some technical reason I'm not familiar with
I think the problem is that Matrix has a different scope than being a Discord alternative. It's a protocol and designed to do more complex things like creating federated networks or bridging IRC networks, etc.
I use Discord and Element/Matrix exclusively, and have groups of friends that use both. They always gravitate towards Discord for voice. I think there's a couple small reasons that kind of add up
1. When there's an active call going, you can't see who's in it unless you join. It's just this ominous box with some unknown number of participants, and it creates this feeling of "should I join them? Am I interrupting? What's going on in there?". In discord, being able to see who's in a room and even who's talking goes a long way in removing that little anxiety.
2. As others have said, having the voice channels listed as their own room, showing the current participants, that you just one-click-to-join feels different. For whatever reason it feels less like you're joining a conference call and more like you're just popping in and out. I can't fully explain why, but it does.
3. The jisti widget is pretty janky. It doesn't really size correctly, the text overflows, and it general it just doesn't feel native.
I've been using, self hosting, developing for and prosthelytizing Matrix for many years now. It started out rough, has steadily gotten better, and now I think in many ways surpasses other chat services. But the voice just doesn't quite do it.