Moving the Hangout

When Discord announced that mandatory age verification will be rolled out (I wrote about it here), I recommended that you to switch to the Matrix protocol and explained what is generally is. In the time between this and the linked post Discord has delayed the rollout of the age verification policy and doubled down on it.

Now you could possibly think something like "But my friends and communities are on Discord" and I want to give you here reasons and argument points for why you, your friends and the communities your part of should switch to, not just visit, the [matrix].

The age verification policy of Discord that will be rolled out in 2026 relies on Age Inference models that will guess your age based upon multiple factors like activity patterns, payment methods and device data. This is instead of just blatantly ask for an ID of you – which they will still do if they "doubt" you.

This is behavioral profiling – not "safety". This won't protect minors from harm on Discord's platform but opens up that this data about you is collected and sold to both bad actors and government agencies which can't collect that data themselves. Discord is moving from being a chat app for gamers and communities to a profiling engine for bad actors, companies and governments.

Many people will find it hard to leave Discord because of the Network Effect – an idea that a tool or a platform is only useful if you are there too. That economic phenomenon is specifically targeted to trap you in Walled Gardens. But leaving Discord for an open protocol doesn't have to mean to leave your friends and communities behind. It is more about moving houses, not people.

A – if not the biggest – misconception about the move from Discord to [matrix] is that you could lose the feel that Discord has. There are of course some changes but the ecosystem around [matrix] has matured to a point where it isn't a and no longer feels like an compromise.

Older Matrix clients felt like a terminal where Discord had a "digital living room" vibe. But with Matrix 2.0 this changed and clients like Element, Element X and Cinny support Spaces (similar to Discord's servers), nested rooms and with MatrixRTC a native voice and video call feature that rivals the voice channels of Discord – without the lag of a crowded Jitsi server.

Where in this post I explained how you can start with [matrix], should the focus here be how you can reach your friends and communities from [matrix]. We can do that with co called "Bridges".

In the Matrix protocol ecosystem bridges connect external services with Matrix. There are bridges for platforms like Signal, Meta's WhatsApp, Slack and Discord. The full list of services that can be bridged can you see here. But know that bridges won't work in end-to-end encrypted rooms

For Discord we can use either the mautrix-discord bridge – if you want to self-host the bridge – or the bot from t2bot.io. You can also the other bridges to Discord or even bridge other services and messengers to Matrix and make our [matrix] Account a sort of "Super-App".

When you use Discord your messages, shared files are stored non encrypted on their servers. Video and voice calls on Discord are since March 2026 via their "DAVE" protocol end to end encrypted (E2EE). While the addition of this is an win for privacy does it show an fundamental difference in philosophy.

Discord's encryption of voice and video calls as well as the encryption on messengers like WhatsApp and Signal are centralised E2EE solutions. Even if their encryption protocols are open source do the companies behind the platforms and messengers own the infrastructure on which they run aka (the literal "keys to the kingdom").

On Matrix is encryption not an feature to be added to a product but an essential part of the protocol. That is also the reason why governments (for example the governments of France and the UK), militaries (for example the German Bundeswehr and the US Navy), international organisations (like NATO and the UN) and companies (like Hexagon and Mozilla) use the Matrix protocol. And because of the open source and federated nature of the protocol is it also a solution if legislation similar to the existing Chat Control 1.0 and proposed Chat Control 2.0 in the European Union is more widely enacted.

The move away from an engine of behavioral profiling and walled garden to an open source and federated space is not just an technical choice but the reclaiming of your digital sovereignty and independence. And it isn't one large step but a series of smaller steps and only so far as you want.

If you also follow the "BuyFromEU" movement (or regional variants) then is also a big reason to do this switch the fact that Discord is a company based in the Californian city of San Fransisco. [matrix] itself is developed by an Foundation based in the UK.

So if you want to start switching to [matrix] you can look at the tutorial in this post on how to do that.

Are you and your friends switching? Either reach out to me on Matrix, join the Matrix space for paid members or comment. 💬

If you want to hear more from me you can find me in the Fediverse at @gelbphoenix@social.gelbphoenix.de (Mastodon) or @gelbphoenix@gram.social (Pixelfed). For more posts like this subscribe to my new newsletter or support me by becoming a member.