(Credit: Matrix.org)
Discord’s upcoming age-verification policy appears to be causing a surge in new users to Matrix, an open-source alternative.
On Thursday, the messaging protocol’s co-founder, Matthew Hodgson, reported a “huge spike of signups” for Matrix.org’s homeserver over the last few days. “We’d like to give a warm welcome to the massive influx of users currently trying Matrix,” he wrote, later adding: “The biggest difference between Matrix and Discord is that Matrix is an open standard, like email or the Web.”
The exodus is similar to how people fled Twitter after it was acquired by Elon Musk for alternatives like Bluesky and Mastodon, a decentralized micro-blogging platform. Matrix is also decentralized, but it focuses on instant messaging. In 2023, it reached 115 million users.
The messaging protocol doesn’t operate through one dedicated app, though. Instead, you use a variety of different clients to chat on a Matrix server, similar to email clients. Users can also host their own Matrix server and customize it to their liking, rather than play by the rules of a single provider. The nonprofit Matrix Foundation operates as a “neutral custodian” for the messaging protocol, which also operates its own server.
Users have flocked to Matrix as Discord prepares to roll out an age-verification system next month that could require you to complete a facial scan or upload a government ID if the chat platform can’t confirm you’re an adult. The verification system is intended to ensure minors are seeing age-appropriate content on the platform, and it's supposed to only kick in for adult-only servers and experiences.
"For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have," Discord says.
Still, the age-verification push has sparked backlash over potential censorship, surveillance, and security concerns, especially since Discord suffered a hacker-led breach involving stolen personal information.
Although Matrix can provide an alternative to Discord, Hodgson points out that “server admins are still subject to the law in the jurisdiction where they operate." The UK, for example, recently implemented its own age-verification law for online platforms.
“Practically speaking, that means that people and organizations running a Matrix server with open registration must verify the ages of users in countries which require it,” Hodgson wrote, later noting, “Since then Australia, New Zealand and the EU have introduced similar legislation, with movement in the US and Canada too.” As a result, the Matrix Foundation itself might be forced to implement age-verification for its public servers in certain markets.
“Our Safety team and DPO [data protection officer] are evaluating options that preserve your privacy while satisfying the age verification requirements in the jurisdictions where we have users,” he added.
Hodgson also conceded that the current version of Matrix can’t provide “a full drop-in replacement for Discord yet," adding that "key features expected by Discord users have yet to be prioritized (game streaming, push-to-talk, voice channels, custom emoji, extensible presence, richer hierarchical moderation, etc).
“On the other hand, Matrix goes far beyond Discord in other areas: both messages, files and calls are end-to-end-encrypted,” he says. “We have read receipts; Matrix is an open protocol everyone can extend, and in the end, most Matrix clients are open source; there is nothing stopping developers from starting their own project based on existing ones and adding the missing features themselves.”