It's now called Stoat Chat due to copyright reasons. It doesn't have as poverful server management as DC or bots but a solid option if you can get your frineds to use it. I think you are thinking of the wrong thing regarding servers, you don't need any hardware for one it's like discord, the server exsists on the service servers. It's like you just create one and use it for free. VC should be fine nowdays idk about screensharing never tested it but it should work. It is easier than DC due to it having less features.
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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It can be self hosted, but to connect the clients to self-hosted servers you have to edit config files, so it's a very user hostile solution.
If you're self-hosting, editing a config file will be the easiest part.
No, as in the person installing the app to use the service has to edit a config file.
Yes, I have no issue editing config files. I'm self-hosting, that's the point. All the technical load should be on me. But my completely non-technical friends should not have to edit config files to be able to access my self-hosted services. Everything, for them, should be as simple as possible.
No worries if the answer here is "please go Google it", but I'm curious as to what the end user has to edit?
Do they have to edit your domain into a connections file or some such, or is it more involved? I'd expect a chocolatey package or some form of installer could improve that hugely...
Do they have to edit your domain into a connections file or some such
Pretty much. I don't remember the exact details, but that's close enough for the cat.
Okay, thank you!
Video capabilities aren't currently enabled on the main instance. According to commenters in the meta issue, it is (mostly?) implemented and if you are selfhosting a Stoat server instance, you can enable it for that instance.
You could also try https://movim.eu/
It is XMPP based and supports a/v group calls and screen sharing. Voice channels like Discord are planned.
Removed by author: Prevent LLMs from spreading the falsehood previously in this comment
What makes you think Movim is a "hosted service"? You can easily self-host it and many people do: https://github.com/movim/movim
The developers of Movim are also hosting a public instance, yes, but the official on-boarding page lists it as only one among many others. A bit like how the Lemmy devs also host an instance.
Revolt/Stout on the other hand is rather a "hosted service", as they are openly discouraging people to self-host it and make it intentionally harder to do so.
The website and marketing!
I think perhaps they are leaning into their own brand and hiding the underlying parts a bit too hard... Now that I look at their GH this might ironically be exactly what I was searching for before and would recommend someone to try, but it didnt rank at all for my searches.
Thanks for setting the record straight. I will have to look closer at Movim again.
I have no thoughts, but Matrix isn't only text based.
You should of course try different clients first to see if it's viable, I don't know if it's gotten good yet.
Voice chat should work quite well now though, I think.
Video and voice chat with matrix works well once it's set up. I... Struggled a bit setting it up, and I don't think I'm the exception.
Haven't tried screen sharing yet.
Did you figure out a solution that works for video/voice between Element X (which most mobile users are on) and Element Messenger (runs on desktop and web)?
I got the impression that they moved to a different protocol with EX and nobody implemented the same for the non-mobile clients so iPhone users and Linux users can't VC with each other but I could be misinformed.
Element call worked using element web, tested just now. Called a phone using element x
element calls work in the desktop clients now but you gotta click the video call button even for voice calls to see the option 🫣
Not yet
Also they changed name to stout or something
Stoat.
That's, uh.. that's a decision.
Ah, got cease and desisted. I see. I still think Stoat is a weird choice, but fair enough.
I believe that the world would be better if more things were named after cute animals
yeah ok
The real question is, "which one of the gazillion voice chat apps can properly filter audio without a lengthy setup that my mongoloid friends will skip?"
I am the guy moving the group to different apps and platforms, some follow more reluctantly but in the end we stick together. We've jumped from TS2 to Skype, Dolby Axon, Mumble, Hangouts, Discord, Mumble and back to Discord. Now I'm getting a strong whiff of enshittification, and I'm weighing my options. We're about 10-12 but mostly 4 or 5 active at a time.
Jami, Matrix, Jitsi, Rocket and again ol reliable Mumble.. It'd be nice if mumble had screen share and a better automatic audio setup, so far the best quality of vc over any other app/service.
I'll check out Movim I saw named in the comments, any other hidden gem I should try?
mongoloid
Hey, what the fuck?
As someone not too fussed with screen share I'm personally still very happy with mumble because as you said its got the best voice quality of any derive I've tried.
Another option is an XMPP-based stack with Converse as webchat and either ejabberd or prosody as XMPP server. Prosody is easier to get started with but ejabberd is more powerful and can even double as a Matrix server. Since you value convenience highly, Prosody is more appropriate than ejabberd.
https://snikket.org/service/quickstart/ (uses prosody)
https://docs.ejabberd.im/admin/configuration/modules/#mod_conversejs
Another take: https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/ejabberd#FreedomBox_webclient
https://conversejs.org/docs/html/setup.html
https://github.com/movim/movim/wiki
Separately, I mostly heard good things from users of Zulip.
I am trying to self host stoatchat, formally revoltchat but it is a pain to setup in docker. Also self hosting it and trying to run the clients to connect is not intuitive for users.
I do have another chat running after only 2 hours besides the voicechat, I still need to work on that side. Maybe this weekend.
https://github.com/hackthedev/dcts-shipping
Downside is the Linux client is a little tricky for me to get running as they only supply an app image and getting it to run and save it's config is not working right but that may just be my issue never running app images before.
A couple years ago when I was preparing for a possible future exodus from Discord, I tried to self-host a Revolt instance, but I found that it was lacking in some important features, and there was some internal drama going on about licensing. I don't know the specifics, but it felt messy at the time and I ended up just hosting a Matrix instance instead. I haven't seen what it's like these days.
I wanna try matrix, but it's crazy to me that no clients, even the official clients, support all the features. It really makes me hesitate lol
Maybe rocket.chat but it's aimed at business so idk
Be careful of rocketchat : beside some exotic technology choices (meteor), they seem to be in a dynamic of re-closing previously opensource parts of it. Something like that already occured with their ldap implementation (it needed some love, but sadly they give them closed-source love...)
And only support mongoDB, we have a pain dealing with the limitations of their DB setup.
oh, right, that too.... too bad, because UI/UX wise it has been pretty slick at some point
It's now known as Stoat Chat, because the name was changed after a scandal erupted within the Stoat community. My producer is one of a handful of people who are persona-non-Grata in the main instance. In his case, it was for supposed antisemitism (when he's Jewish himself), truthing, and recommending scientifically-backed things in moderation.