13 ms·
Ripcord – A desktop chat client for Discord and Slack
- w-ll 8y agoI exclusively use the web interface for both, as its easier to shut off from work when its just a tab I can close, as well of not liking the bloat of chromium based apps. But if this is stable and lightweight I might use it. Gonna test it for a while. Thanks.
- robotron 8y agoAt first, I thought "what's the point?" Then I saw: "It's not built on top of web browser technology: it responds quickly to input, sips gently from computer resources, and gets out of your way."
- StreamBright 8y agoReminds me of my IRC client.
- prophesi 8y agoI wish I could use my IRC client: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16539857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16539857
- StreamBright 8y agoI mean I wish we just stopped there, IRC, done, call it a day, never ever think about many to many written communication ever again. It works, scales, supported on all platform, text based, small memory/cpu footprint. Just like we stopped developing hammers a while ago. CS is the only field where 1.0 is never good enough. We keep "innovating" adding features that nobody needs and complicating things until it becomes this unmanagable mess. </rant>
- NickBusey 8y agoAs a big fan of IRC, I would have to say that it doesn't "work" at all when compared to Slack or Discord. You have to be online to receive messages, making it pretty much useless for any serious communication needs. Yes, I am aware of, and run, an IRC bouncer, this is not a real solution for 99% of users.
- xfitm3 8y agoOnly receiving messages while online is a feature. Want to work async? Email.
- RHSeeger 8y agoExcept some people can be having a conversation while I'm offline. When I get back on, I can catch up or have someone link me to an important part of it. It's handy.
- zamalek 8y agoIn some teams, IM+history is the email killer that happened by the mistake.
- hombre_fatal 8y agoA feature to the small handful of people who still use IRC. Look around though. Everyone else expects basic features like being able to send someone a message even though that person went through a tunnel.
- jacobsenscott 8y agoI work with a bunch of people in oakland, where comcast flickers on and off like a light bulb during a wind storm in the 1920's. So the only way to have a quick chat is over email?
- jandrese 8y agoIt's also limited to straight text. People may say it's frivolous, but sending pictures and other media is expected now.
- tyrust 8y agoYou can. See my top-level comment on this post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618630
- jensvdh 8y agoWho cares that it's not built in Electron? Slack is plenty fast, your average user does NOT notice the difference.
- obrajesse 8y agoMy laptop battery sure does. Electron is legitimately wonderful, but apps built on it are often horrible CPU hogs.
- dethos 8y agoBut I do notice and on my machine I prefer lightweight apps, so I can make the most of my existing resources instead of wasting them on a chat application.
- gsich 8y agoThey will.
- myself248 8y agoI notice how long it takes to start up the app, I notice how hard my CPU fan runs when Slack inexplicably decides to max out a whole core for a few minutes, I notice the data hit if I have to download a new version while on the road. It's definitely bloatware.
- theclaw 8y agoIf you're in more than one workspace it can take literally 5-10 seconds to transition between them while showing some BS motivational message.
- equalunique 8y agoSlack lags seconds behind when I type anything.
- beatgammit 8y agoI actually ran into that today and restarting the app fixed it. That shows that there's a pretty serious limitation if such a high profile app has these sorts of problems.
- userbinator 8y agoI don't actually use any of these services so I had no need to, but just being curious, I downloaded the Windows client; and while it may be smaller than Electron apps and native, it's still quite large for a native app --- over 30MB, and also 64-bit only (why? Do you expect to need more than 4GB of RAM for this?) To contrast, MSN Messenger 4.7, an app with similar capabilities (IM, voice, and video calling), is only ~2MB --- with several third-party reimplementations being <1MB. Makes you wonder how small you can make an app for today's messaging services if you really tried... they don't need to be that big even if they don't include an entire web browser.
- Lowkeyloki 8y agoI'm surprised at the criticism about 64-bit only. Are people still using 32-bit operating systems?
- userbinator 8y agoYes. A 32-bit binary will work just fine on a 64-bit OS, but not the other way around, and there's no reason such an app needs 64-bit, so why unnecessarily restrict compatibility?
- self_awareness 8y agoI think you're in a minority. Are there any 32-bit CPUs being produced for the mass market these days? Making a 64-bit only software is not only about wanting more than 4gb of ram; it's about debugging support, tooling, installation size and installation packages, etc. It's easier to distribute 64-bit only software than both 32-bit and 64-bit, and you can't distribute 32-bit only software because: 1. macOS will deprecate 32-bit completely soon, 2. Linux needs 32-bit libs installed on the system, and many people don't have them, 3. Windows has really good backward compatibility and still supports 32-bit. But it's the only system. So, distributing a 64-bit-only software actually makes sense.
- beatgammit 8y ago
- cryptokernel 8y agoExactly. Just leaving this here: Do tasks, get paid. Check it out in the CoinCircle website https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3 https://coincircle.com/l/50VVxbObg3
- fxfan 8y agoFor future reference to OP: the term you're looking for is "modern web technology" or "modern technology"
- userbinator 8y agoEmphasis on "modern" --- I distinctly remember using some web chat clients with IE6 in the early 2000s, and they didn't need hundreds of megabytes of RAM (average PCs had a total of between 64 and 256MB of RAM) and the whole (single-core at the time) CPU to do what today's web apps do. For anyone who knows what I mean, it might be interesting to write such a "lightweight" web client for e.g. Slack, restricting yourself to whatever JS abilities were available in 2000 or so, yet imitate as much of the features and appearance of the web client today as possible. Chances are it will still work with "modern" browsers too, and use a tiny fraction of the resources of the current one. All the better if it gets noticed and DMCA'd.
- ryacko 8y agoJIT engines operate on a time-memory tradeoff.
- ketralnis 8y agoOh please. I'm not about to start referring to a specific toolkit as "modern technology” at the expense of everyone else, particularly a step backwards
- fxfan 8y agoThat was meant as a sarcasm and I was pretty sure anybody who hates electron would get it. Sadly, no.
- tjohns 8y agoI like that "Not made from a web browser" is a headlining feature. My laptop has 16 GB of RAM, and still doesn't have enough memory to run all the Electron apps I use without grinding to a halt.
- jimmy1 8y agoI think this meme needs to die. I run 3 massive electron apps on the regular, in addition to my multiple IntelliJ IDE instsances and RDBMS clients on a 16gb Macbook Pro, the latter category being the biggest resource hogs.
- bsagdiyev 8y agoJust because it doesn't affect you doesn't make it an untrue meme. Electron apps are notorious for bloat, that isn't a meme, it's a fact. The only apps that consistently send my laptop fans in to a flying rage are Electron based apps.
- xeromal 8y agoIt's not a meme if it's true. Here's my current system. https://i.imgur.com/Eqo3pcv.png https://i.imgur.com/Eqo3pcv.png 800Mb to VS Code 650Mb to Slack Is slack's web socket taking 600Mb?
- megous 8y agoIt's 3.7% of your total RAM, hardly a "grinding to halt" amount.
- mostlysimilar 8y agoI love the interface, but how does it connect with Discord and how long until they try to shut it down?
- terryschiavo22 8y agoDiscord itself won't be around long enough for that question to matter.
- t0mbstone 8y agoWhat makes you think this? Discord is extremely popular amongst many gamers.
- Algent 8y agoAnd if they made a professional version of it (as is not linked to current one), they would murder slack and pretty much anyone in the way.
- RHSeeger 8y agoI use both, for different things, and I far prefer Slack.
- automathematics 8y agoWhat do you prefer? I can think of a single thing I like more on Slack, maybe two if I'm splitting hairs (it's a dev only thing) but I moved my entire company's internal chats to Discord (where our external chat already was) because I strongly felt the opposite!
- lwansbrough 8y agoThey already have more users than Slack, so I think their response to that right now might be shrug
- carlhjerpe 8y ago
- tyrust 8y agoLooks like a good project, I may give it a try on Windows. On Linux, I use weechat to connect to a local bitlbee for Discord and Hangouts. When I was using Slack I used wee-slack [0] with success, but it looks like bitlbee has a plugin for Slack, too [1]. This lacks a few of the features of Ripcord (e.g. voip, graphical emoji, emoji completion), but it works. [0] - https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack [1] - https://wiki.bitlbee.org/ https://wiki.bitlbee.org/
- saagarjha 8y agoHow does this work? Discord has been notorious in shutting down third-party clients; what makes this different than the others?
- simlevesque 8y agoThis one is different in that is says that they will one day charge for it so instead of just shutting it down the author will have a lawsuit on his lap.
- jjeaff 8y agoAre there examples where an alternative client was successfully sued? Seems like it would be like suing Firefox because you want your users to use the browser you provided. I would think that worst case, slack could kick users off for breaking their terms of service (assuming there is a clause for that). But a random software maker is not subject to slack's terms.
- simlevesque 8y agoWell I don't know any paid alternative clients. All of the ones I know are free.
- jonathanlydall 8y agoNot exactly an alternative client scenario, but Blizzard successfully shutdown a US company that developed and sold World of Warcraft botting software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDY_Industries,_LLC_v._Blizzard_Entertainment,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDY_Industries,_LLC_v._Blizzar.... The gist of Blizzard’s argument was that the software was designed for the sole purpose of facilitating customer violations of their EULA causing monetary harm to Blizzard. Disclaimer: I used to be a customer service representative of Blizzard Europe, but not since 2012.
- jjeaff 8y agoYa, I'd say that case is quite a bit different due to the actively harmful effect it would have on other users. Slack would also need to prove monetary harm. I can't imagine a more efficient client would hurt their service. Maybe just their pride.
- mrbad101 8y agoFeels like IRC with Trillian mixed in. Pretty funny the iterations chatting over the internet has went through over the years. Feels like bell-bottoms just came back into fashion.
- RHSeeger 8y agoI miss Trillian. That was a fine program. I actually wrote an extension for it that allowed me to automate things with Tcl/Tk.
- fooey 8y agoI still use Trillian I hate what Google did to GTalk and Hangouts
- hackily 8y agoTrillian isn't dead though. I still use it, despite the internet becoming more and more of a walled garden. Trillian still works just fine with Google hangouts, and facebook messenger too, as long as it's not a group chat.
- Semaphor 8y ago> and facebook messenger too Mostly. It doesn't show messages with the facebook link-preview.
- Semaphor 8y agoAnother Trillian user chiming in. They are working mainly on their own server and Trillian for web, but the desktop version is still alive https://trillian.im/news/ https://trillian.im/news/
- mikroskeem 8y agoBeen using it for a while. Fits perfectly for every day use, except it lacks searching feature present on official client
- chocolatkey 8y agoSame, works very nicely, especially for memory-hogging slack, a shame the search isn't integrated
- FridgeSeal 8y agoFantastic! I’ve been running some memory-heavy jobs on my computer recently and literally had to close Slack so I could get a chunk of memory back and it have my job killed.
- solarkraft 8y agoLooks great! What technology is it built on? Did you reverse engineer Discord's API or is there a documentation or library?
- penagwin 8y agoThe discord api is pretty well documented. The bot api and the user api are actually the same thing, but you're only allowed to use the bot api. You can still use the user api but if they catch you they'll ban you, so we'll see how this client pans out.
- tenryuu 8y agoThere's only been one known case of someone being banned from Ripcord usage, due to too many requests being sent, triggering spam protection. Their account was unlocked after contacting support. The software now doesn't sync users to a sqlite local database if there's over 10k members in a guild, as a precaution
- penagwin 8y agoOh that's cool, are you affiliated with Ripcord? Discord is a pretty decent company so far IMO, I figure if they're okay with 3rd party clients then they'll be extra lenient on the rules. So far their success has been how much the community loves love (not to mention how well it works).
- guessmyname 8y agoRipcord was written in C++ with the Qt framework — https://pastebin.com/raw/RLZ4A9fa https://pastebin.com/raw/RLZ4A9fa
- VectorLock 8y agoI have to reload Discord every hour or so when the audio goes down the tubes and starts constantly breaking up so if this client doesn't do that I will consider it a winner.
- mitjak 8y agoI was skeptical but this looks p feature rich already! I love it :)
- merlincorey 8y agoWill this support Mattermost as well?
- gcledingham 8y agoThe client feels fantastic! Is there any way to have unread channels bubble-up to the top of the cmd-k quick switcher? This seems like the only functionality that would keep me from using Ripcord full-time.
- goodroot 8y agoYES! This is awesome. Have it up and running with Slack. I checked for: * Thread support (yes) * Drag n drop images (yes) * SSO support (yes) * Quick Switcher (yes) * Default dark mode (yes (!!)) There are some things missing, like search, fine grained notification controls for muting, profile editing, code snippets, moving emojis, etc. But for daily communication, I'll give it a try. Feels fast and light. Edit: After some time, I think I will keep it around for when I am on the go and want to preserve battery. I do not think I'll use it full time because I miss some of the colourful whimsy of the Slack client.
- lysp 8y ago> There are some things missing, like .... moving emojis, etc. Isn't that a feature?
- JensRex 8y agoToo bad it's closed source.
- LeoPanthera 8y agoIf this had Telegram support I wouldn't need anything else.
- Perceptes 8y agoIt makes me sad that people continue to put their time and effort into supporting these closed communication systems. If anyone else is considering making something like this, please base your efforts on Matrix. It's so much better for us and so much more deserving of our attention.
- helge5 8y agoChicken and Egg. People don't use Matrix.
- rtpg 8y agoTo be fair, for an internal communications usecase you just need to convince your company, not half the world I’d open source comms tools leaned more into business use cases (mattermost does this well) then there could be more usage
- CharlesW 8y ago> To be fair, for an internal communications usecase you just need to convince your company, not half the world I imagine that's true for companies whose users stick to internal workspaces, but often the most active/vocal users (1) participate in multiple (often professional) non-company workspaces, and (2) don't want to run Yet Another Chat client.
- yoavm 8y agoThat's less of a problem with Matrix. I set up a WhatsApp bridge because all my friends are on WhatsApp, and now I can use any matrix client, even a very lightweight CLI one, to talk with them.
- storrgie 8y agoxmpp as well (matrix is getting a lot of love right now, but it's also got some warts deep in areas that are not the plushy UX)
- amatecha 8y agoAh, so cool to see this on HN! I've kinda snooped on the development of this software over quite some time and always been impressed by the author's persistent attention to performance/optimization. The "minimalistic" approach has been refreshing to see when nearly every popular new online software seems to require gigabytes of RAM for its embedded web-rendering engine. ;)
- formalsystem 8y agoWhy not just make a new client? As others have mentioned, I don't see this landing well with Discord. Just because there are a bunch of group chat apps already, doesn't mean people won't switch to a better one.
- samdixon 8y agoThoughts after around 5 minutes. It's fast, really fast. Cmd + P Fuzzy Find for switching chats between Discord/Slack and person/channel is amazing. Will continue to use as it doesn't appear to be near as buggy as Volt. However I do wish this was an open source project. Seems odd to close something like this off in this day and age. Seems like another one of these chat clones destined to die off unfortunately.
- ahartmetz 8y agoIt's a better client for a proprietary service. If you / your org cared about freedom, you'd be using Matrix or Rocket.chat.
- samdixon 8y agoUnfortunately it's not so much me, but my friends in this case. If I want to stay in touch with a large group of past co-workers who are all in the same slack, it isn't feasible to convince them all to switch to a self hosted service. Even in the case of those programs you mentioned though, aren't they still plagued by a slow/electron based client? *edit: I just looked into Matrix. Looks awesome. Wish my friends used chat programs like this. I will try to implement this with some of my closer friends.
- ahartmetz 8y agoI have this problem myself, I like very little about Slack but I have to use it for work. And since it's all proprietary anyway, I don't particularly care about the client being Free.
- samdixon 8y agoI just wish the client was free in this case because it would be a shame to see it turn into abandonware. I've only used it since yesterday now, but it's quite performant.
- EvangelicalPig 8y agoI'd rather someone would spend time on a better Matrix or XMPP client but assuming the Discord staff have a hissy fit over ToS it looks quite nice.
- DC-3 8y agoThis is nice. Not perfect - I wish it was FLOSS for one, and the icons are a bit clunky. But much better than the alternative.
- indigodaddy 8y agoDoes this support Azure login on Slack? This seems to be a common hurdle on non-Electron Slack clients (well at least on the one or two others I tried within the last few years that I can't remember the names of now).
- tenryuu 8y agoThere's support for importing your login from your browser. This has to be used if your slack domain doesn't use the generic slack login page. If you're familiar with HAR files, this is what's used
- fady 8y agoThis is awesome!! really. like really. Great job! As a power user myself, I tend to go for the CLI style of view, in most cases that txt heavy. I do have one question. <!here> is how you notify everyone in a channel about your msg. Can you customize this in the settings? otherwise, its a small adjustment I can make as you already have an app that I like more than the native slack app on macOS.
- charliebrownau 8y agoWhy cant you just use discords user name and password instead of stuffing around to get a token?
- pndy 8y agoI'd try and even use it because Electron-based Discord client acts like resource hungry pig on my machine, especially when I'm already running multiprocess browser and GW2 who happens to use CoherentUI to render some of its UI (which happens to be also based on Chromium fork), but: I'm afraid being banned and creating new account every now and then, getting onto servers, asking for invitations isn't something I'd like to do. So, what are chances that Discord may feel "offended" by user login with and using Ripcord?
- longnguyen 8y agoI tried Ripcord but my main problem is that it just looks ugly on macOS. That's why I decided to build a new Slack client instead (Ben [1]). It started out as a dogfood for my other side-project (ReactQML [2]) but then I believe we can build high performance yet good looking native applications, using front-end technologies (no, not Electron/webview). Currently here is Ben's tech stacks: - Back-end: Qt5, breakpad, QtKeychain - Front-end: TypeScript, webpack, babel, react, redux, redux-observable, redux-persist, QML. The best part is that we can truly "code one, deploy everywhere". I was able to compile Ben to both desktop (MacOS, Windows) and mobile (iOS, Android) from same one codebase. Though it's still far from feature-complete but I hope I can finally uninstall the official Slack app for good. You can try latest build here [3] [1]: https://github.com/longseespace/ben https://github.com/longseespace/ben [2]: https://github.com/longseespace/react-qml https://github.com/longseespace/react-qml [3]: https://github.com/longseespace/ben/releases/download/v0.2/Ben.dmg https://github.com/longseespace/ben/releases/download/v0.2/B....
- Zanneth 8y agoYour app looks great, and props to completing a project for something you wanted. However, I'd reconsider using the word "native" in your marketing since TypeScript and QML on a macOS desktop is not by any means native. TypeScript compiles into JavaScript which must run in a virtual machine like any other JavaScript program.
- pknopf 8y agoThe business logic may be in JavaScript, but the rendering is all native opengl/c++. I think it's fair to refer to it as native.
- cknoxrun 8y agoI just wanted to check in -- I've been using this for a few days now and love it. I would pay for this.
- computerquip 7y agoUnfortunately, there isn't a chance this survives, especially if it's closed-source and for money. Discord doesn't allow third-party clients (which I swear should be a legal issue since it's a PUBLIC API but whatever), and Discord is known to aggressively block and prevent third-party clients. If you want something that doesn't suck, look somewhere other than Discord. It sucks that it's so embedded into so many groups but Discord isn't a very friendly entity.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]