+++
title = "Discord"
date = 2026-02-16T19:45:02+01:00
tags = [ "micro" ]
+++

Since
[Discord announced](https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-default-settings-globally)
it will start asking users for age verification, I became obsessed with reading
about alternatives to the platform. And there are a lot of them. As a
self-hoster, I immediately thought of Matrix and XMPP. Both have their pros and
cons and different implementations.

I was almost ready to pick one of them when I stopped and thought to myself,
_would I really use them?_

And my answer is a clear: **No!**

I will not replace Discord because _I don't even use Discord now_. I haven't had
an account there for years. When I message my friends, it's either on Signal,
WhatsApp, or iMessage, which are all end-to-end-encrypted (E2EE) messengers. The
only thing I'm waiting for is E2EE RCS (Rich Communication Services) so I can
ditch WhatsApp at some point.
