we’re painfully aware that none of the Matrix clients available today provide a full drop-in replacement for Discord...

🙁

...yet.

😀

Loving the transparency on this post! It would be lovely if you could specifically fund the work which would allow Matrix to have those more gamer-foused features.

Practically speaking, that means that people and organisations running a Matrix server with open registration must verify the ages of users in countries which require it.

So if I just host my account on a home server on my raspberry pi, then I don't have to age verify? I see. And I can still invite friends and family, I just can't open up registration to the general public? I see.

However, it’s important to note that server admins are still subject to the law in the jurisdiction where they operate.

Practically speaking, that means that people and organisations running a Matrix server with open registration must verify the ages of users in countries which require it. Last summer we announced a series of changes to the terms and conditions of the Matrix.org homeserver instance, to ensure UK-based users are handled in alignment with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Since then Australia, New Zealand and the EU have introduced similar legislation, with movement in the US and Canada too. If you’ve been around for a while, you will have seen that we started raising the alarm about the dangers and potential risks of the OSA back in 2021 - but the reality is that these laws already apply, and the consequences of getting it wrong are serious.

TL;DR if you want a drop in replacement, it's not Matrix - yet! Donate to give people the means to make it so .

Their blog post addresses their roadmap for when they aim to reach complete feature parity with Discord, but the matrix protocol already has some features that Discord doesn't.

Here are the links to the clients that will feel at home:

• Commet
• Cinny

There are also 4 bridges to Discord from matrix that you can use to help transition communities to Matrix. You don't even need to be an admin on the server for some of them