matrix isn’t a fediverse thing, it’s its own thing. it does happen to be decentralized, like the fediverse.
matrix isn’t an alternative to discord. it’s an alternative to whatsapp/signal/telegram/etc.
matrix is nice (I use it with my friend group), but it’s not perfect. we’re looking for something better.
if you’re looking for a decentralized, self-hosted, open-source, secure alternative for discord, my friends and I use Mumble. It works great for VoIP (and its noise cancellation software actually seems to work noticeably better than Discord’s), but it doesn’t really have the advanced text chat features that Discord does. We make do with Matrix.