Discord vs Steam "Group Chat" - Who wins?

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

Do you think Steam Group Chat COULD be more like Discord? Could be better than Discord? Could REPLACE discord someday?

• Steam "group chat" requires no special account, is cleaner and more simplified. It is easy to join groups directly, and allows people to see what others are or have been playing, making it easy to find people to play with.
• Discord gives the group owner more control, and has tons more functionality. (some needed, some not).

►Agree or Disagree? Reply and say what YOU think!

Below is a running summary of EVERYONE's input. Comment to add yours

Right now Steam "group chat" is way too light on controls, so everyone uses discord. Some ideas to make it a "potential replacement for discord" in some situations (such as the VR Steam Group seen when you click my name) include:

Set 1 - Top Priority

► "New Message" indicator in chat (where friend messages go), whenever an admin posts an @all message in the group chat, or another member mentions them @USERNAME
► Ability to mark any friend chat, or group chat, as "not read" for myself (so I can come back to it later) and set a remind me X hours later too.
► Admin of group needs to be able to set channels to read-only. And ideally be ably to add channels that are actually just hyperlinks to existing group discussion threads (or better yet to "guide" style format controlled pages that are contained in the group discussion, vs tied to a game... would LOVE "guide" style formatting control in group discussions too)
► Admin needs to be able to pin comments (like rules) persistently in a top banner in each group chat channel (maybe with @pin, a message floats at the top of the chat window and other chats scroll below it? or that @pin message just auto appears for that one user, as the most recent message in the history while they where gone, each new day they re-visit the channel?
► Ability to add notes to each person (seen only by the person creating it), and search all contacts for things in the notes (lick nickname, but multiple rows, and not shown all the time)
► Admin control of the name of the default "HOME / LOBBY" one people land in. And be able to control the order channels display in the left pane, and read longer channel names on mouse hover.
► Admin needs to be able to allow users to type and use the @online but BLOCK @all.
► Audio performance & quality needs to be improved (some people cut in/out, audio becomes tone warped in latency spikes, and does not auto-reconnect)

Set 2 - Medium Priority

► Admin needs to be able to control viability of notifications such as people leaving, or at least be able to 100% delete previous notifications from the discussion thread w/o leaving breadcrumbs that clutter the active conversation. Also to set the default frequency of notifications made to users when other users post in the group. (such as "limit notification sounds to once per X hours, unless the user actively clicks to view the group" and "limit notification popups to once per X hours unless the user actively clicks the group)
► Admin needs to be able to present a welcome message that is visible only to people the first time they enter a group chat (or maybe if it's been more than 10 days since last displayed?).
► Admin created auto shrink/expand sets of voice and text channels (so we can create mini folders for each game we play, that each contain a few sub-channels we can use for each "team" playing that game)
► Allow for mapping of VR motion controller buttons (and chords with those) to control Push-To-Talk and Push-To-Mute functions.
► Offer to enable a in-VR-game overlay that indicates who is talking
► An icon needs to be visible to indicate who is a group member and who is a visiting non-member guest.
► Keyboard navigation (top tabs, and side channels) and multi-level top tabs when it exceeds screen width
► Place a link to the CHAT voice redundantly within the normal Steam settings (so easy to discover)
► Ability to add custom (private) notes on each person (like nickname, but a paragraph)
► Sync of all contact info (tab open,favorite, nickname, category) across multiple open browsers+desktop+mobile steam friend interfaces (currently highly un-syncd)

Set 3 - Additional Requests

► Each Voice chat channel should default to a dedicated text chat windows
► Admin/user option to keep full or auto-purge old chat history
► Display total Group count next to "in chat" count in the steam Group Chat top
► Fully analog/adjustable "voice activation threshold" in addition to low/medium/high
► Don't allow user to join a voice chat room more than once (I can do in VR big picture, and desktop, and then others her me talk in echo)
► Add other bot capabilities like discord has
► Functioning mic toggle on/off keyboard shortcut (not just mute while "hold key to mute")
►Resolve BigPicture chat quality/performance issues (is worse then desktop quality sometimes)
► Ability to filter friend lists by user set categories

►Reply and say what YOU think!

• I'll keep updating this list with every reply!
• Tell me what you like or don't and I'll adjust it to be in priority order

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

DG | Tom Da Bomb S D původně napsal:

although personally i always liked Teamspeaks system where there is no account and your id'd by your hardware IP, so you just put in whatever nickname you want to show up as, although discord is a lot easier in terms of service and servers since anyone can go in and turn one on and start chatting with friends, they just have to get the friends account / id and you can even do the direct chat even tho it cuts out a little with lag sometimes

Honestly, this is one reason I prefer IRC -- the fact that it's not tied to a single account. This means that I can open up different instances of my IRC client to connect to the same server, each of which has a different username -- and thus can be notified separately (useful if I'm using different IRC clients for different purposes).

[luckz]

You can also run multiple Telegram/Discord/Steam instances in one way or another.
Some phone-focused services like WhatsApp make it a bit harder.

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

DG | Tom Da Bomb S D původně napsal:

more so its about which runs better and constantly smoother with as little resources or internet bandwidth used so it affects your games as little as possible, cuz thats the one ppl will use more regularly

Good point. I suspect Steam Group chat might use less resources. Let's face it, Steam is gonna be running either way, and so is the Steam Chat. (even if you are using discord) As well, the audio quality in discord is a bit better, so I suspect it is using more bandwidth. But that's just a guess.

Anyone able to measure it and check?

[marja-e]

I haven't tried Steam Group Chat, but Discord gives me awful migraines. Even the login page is full of animation and gives me migraines.

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

marja-e původně napsal:

I haven't tried Steam Group Chat, but Discord gives me awful migraines. Even the login page is full of animation and gives me migraines.

LOL I think discord if very powerful, but just a mess. So I know what you mean.

Where as steam group chat is simple and clean, but lacking many functions that would really help it's popularity with bigger groups like us.

As a discord disliker, I'd love to see what you think of it. Click my name and go to our JoinUsInVR steam group page. Then click the "enter chat" to see and try it.

If you do, please reply back here with your thoughts of what Steam could do to make it better. It would really help encourage rework of it if more people reply here with comments and ideas. Thanks!

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Honestly, if Discord has a bunch of animations, then so does Steam Group Chat, I think. Maybe somewhat less but only because Steam Group Chat doesn't have as many features.

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

Quint the Alligator Snapper původně napsal:

Honestly, if Discord has a bunch of animations, then so does Steam Group Chat, I think. Maybe somewhat less but only because Steam Group Chat doesn't have as many features.

"bunch of animations"? Auto-correct-typo? What do you mean exactly?

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

FishTail JoinUsInVR_Group původně napsal:

DG | Tom Da Bomb S D původně napsal:

more so its about which runs better and constantly smoother with as little resources or internet bandwidth used so it affects your games as little as possible, cuz thats the one ppl will use more regularly

Good point. I suspect Steam Group chat might use less resources. Let's face it, Steam is gonna be running either way, and so is the Steam Chat. (even if you are using discord) As well, the audio quality in discord is a bit better, so I suspect it is using more bandwidth. But that's just a guess.

Anyone able to measure it and check?

yeah im not sure what the bandwidth on the Steam Chat is but im guessing its between TS3 and Discords bandwidths, TeamSpeak 3 is the lowest i know of only taking 5.0kb/s or less from each user, while Discord uses 128kb/s on average, which is still so low its not really noticable unless your having internet issues and lag already then run a VOIP program, Discord needs the extra connection tho for the features like uploading a screenshot to other users etc.

[DG | Tom Da Bomb [S] [D]]

Quint the Alligator Snapper původně napsal:

DG | Tom Da Bomb S D původně napsal:

although personally i always liked Teamspeaks system where there is no account and your id'd by your hardware IP, so you just put in whatever nickname you want to show up as, although discord is a lot easier in terms of service and servers since anyone can go in and turn one on and start chatting with friends, they just have to get the friends account / id and you can even do the direct chat even tho it cuts out a little with lag sometimes

Honestly, this is one reason I prefer IRC -- the fact that it's not tied to a single account. This means that I can open up different instances of my IRC client to connect to the same server, each of which has a different username -- and thus can be notified separately (useful if I'm using different IRC clients for different purposes).

i knoooow right? lol you can go into the TeamSpeak icon properties and add -no single instance to the command line so you can launch multiple windows, which i think works with Discord as well but since it has a login system nothing shows up on the multiple windows

[<--Kazad0r-->]

Steam wins

[AzKat 🐔]

Discord wins hands down. You just can't do on steam what you can do with discord.

[wejde wyjde]

JD

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

crowN původně napsal:

Steam wins

What specifically do you like about Steam, and hate about Discord? I see pros and cons in both, tbh.

AzKat původně napsal:

Discord wins hands down. You just can't do on steam what you can do with discord.

I 100% agree there's a ton more you can do in Discord. But there are some advantages of using Steam, such noobs who are playing something in Steam, can join the voice chat without installing a new app, logging in, and learning it. Discord's DM and server notifications are also tedious and overwhelming and lack the auto-organization that Steam has.

Can you glance over the list at the top of this thread, and point out a really good discord feature the list overlooks?

Both of your polar opposite opinions and input would be great to have represented in the master list above!

[@R+5]

its almost impossible steam chat can replace something like discord for two reasons:

- discord is its own thing, and focuses in the chat as a service:
anyone can easily create an account and use it only to chat, without limitations. it has additional options, but they are meant as complimentary services.

- steam chat doesnt work great as a standalone tool:
it depends of a steam account, and has less options than discord.

to compete with discord, not only valve should invest a lot of resources and time in improving and adding more options than discord, but also make it something independent from the steam client, which is unlikely to happen, and it could be foolish because the business of valve is currently focused in selling games, rather than creating them or hardware to use with them.

Maybe a "steam chat client" for desktop could happen at some point, but unless other things improve is hard to imagine it as a better option to discord. theres already a "steam chat" app for android, so that could mean they could later decide to create a desktop app (but again, wouldnt work great if theres also a chat within the steam client).

imo it would be great if valve figured out how to be bigger as devs, and be able to focus also more resources in game development and hardware, because they have very good ideas and steam helped to improve the compatibility and access of windows software in linux systems, which can evolve more to finally be more attractive to common people.

[FishTail [JoinUsInVR]💬GROUP]

@R+5 původně napsal:

its almost impossible steam chat can replace something like discord for two reasons...

you make some good points.

In my mind, for people who already have a steam account, I view discord as extra steps. You need to get the app, need to create an account, need to learn the GUI, etc.

If you ALREADY have a steam account (which many do, but certainly not all) then you already have those things solved. I didn't mean to imply anyone would want a dedicated steam chat client. But rather, that making it good enough in Steam, might make discord get used less and less.