I’ve been wondering—does a Fediverse-based equivalent to Discord exist?
I know there are alternatives like Matrix, Revolt, etc., but what I’m looking for is something more akin to Discord that’s Decentralized, Open-Sourced, and makes use of ActivityPub.
If it doesn’t exist, has anyone ever thought about attempting something like this?
What I envision is something that would potentially serve as a decentralized clone of Discord, with features like voice and video chat, text channels, stickers and emojis, customizable communities, etc.
Perhaps make each of the communities an instance, self-hosted by the instance owner(s).
Names for such a project could reflect its functionality or ethos, perhaps something like:
ActivityChat
SocialHub
MeshTalk
Or maybe a name that’s the complete opposite of “Discord,” such as:
Harmony
Concord
Rapport
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time, energy, or technical knowledge to start such a project myself, but I thought that this might be an interesting idea for the community to discuss or brainstorm.
Would this kind of platform fill a gap in the current Fediverse landscape?
What challenges do you think it would face?
Would it gain traction in the Fediverse?
I agree with your initial paragraph, certainly to the point that we shouldn't focus on ActivityPub as some grand unifier or a goal in itself. It's just the protocol that currently federates with the most different platforms.
AFAIK some bridges from AP to other protocols currently exist, but we would really need to bridge (or somehow fully integrate) all the federated protocols you mention to talk about one fediverse. Whether it will be made possible through ActivityPub or some other protocol, that remains to be seen.