Real-time screen sharing, group video, and voice chat.
Built on privacy-minded, federated infrastructure designed to scale.
Loqa is in open beta. Here's a transparent look at what's working today and what we're actively building.
Fully functional and available today
Actively being built or improved
Updated February 2026 · View full feature parity breakdown →
Text, voice, video, screen sharing, and bot support — the core stuff your community actually needs.
Share your screen in full HD inside any voice channel. Runs on LiveKit's WebRTC stack — same tech used by production video apps.
Video calls with noise suppression and automatic speaker focus. Grid layout handles 2 to 25+ people without falling apart.
Drop-in, drop-out voice rooms. Low-latency audio with echo cancellation and per-user volume controls.
Threads, reactions, @mentions, embeds, file uploads, and Markdown. Channels and categories keep conversations organized.
Loqa's API mirrors Discord's, so most discord.py and discord.js bots work with a one-line import change. Slash commands, buttons, modals, and cogs are all supported.
Import emoji and sticker packs from Telegram, Discord, or standard formats. Full Lottie animation support — animated emoji play back at 60fps.
Translate messages inline without leaving the app. Self-hosted TranslateGemma detects the source language and handles the rest.
Voice notes get transcribed to text automatically via Faster-Whisper. You can read, search, and translate them just like regular messages.
Bring your bots, emoji packs, and server structure over from Discord without starting from scratch.
Loqa's API mirrors discord.py and discord.js surface-for-surface. Change one import line and your bot connects to Loqa instead of Discord. Most bots work without any other changes.
Import emoji and sticker packs in one step. Loqa renders Lottie animations natively, so animated emoji look the same as they did on the original platform.
Upload an entire pack at once. Loqa detects the format, keeps the names, and organizes them into a browsable collection.
Animated emoji run at 60fps via the Lottie engine. Small file sizes and resolution-independent rendering.
Import from Telegram, Discord-style packs, or any standard format. Static PNG, APNG, GIF, WebP, and Lottie TGS all supported.
Copy your Discord server structure to Loqa: channels, categories, roles, permissions, emoji, and bans. The import service uses a Discord bot token for the request and does not intentionally persist it.
Text, voice, forum, and stage channels with categories. Roles with full permission bitmasks and permission overwrites are all preserved.
Custom emoji, server icon, and ban lists are downloaded from Discord's CDN and re-uploaded automatically. Animated GIFs stay animated.
After import, you get a shareable invite link and a draft announcement to post in your Discord server.
Discord holds the kill switch to your community.
Loqa is built so that's not possible.
Discord can delete your server without warning or appeal — years of conversations, gone. Loqa is designed so that doesn't happen to you.
We're building full server export — messages, media, roles, channels, and member list. If you want to leave, you take your data with you.
We enforce published community guidelines — consistently and transparently. No vague rules, no selective enforcement, no surprises.
Your messages and uploads belong to you. When we ship server export, you'll be able to take everything with you if you decide to leave.
We started building Loqa after watching communities lose everything overnight — no warning, no recourse. Your community shouldn't exist at someone else's mercy.
See how Loqa stacks up against Discord, Stoat/Revolt, and Telegram across the features that matter.
| Messaging | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group Chat / Channels | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Threaded Conversations | ✅ | ✅ | — | ◐ |
| Rich Embeds & Markdown | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Reactions | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Animated Reactions | ✅ | 💰 | — | 💰 |
| Polls | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Ephemeral Messages | ✅ | ✅ | — | ◐ |
| Forums | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| File Sharing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Categories | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | — |
| Channel Permissions | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ |
| Real-Time Translation | ✅ | — | — | ✅ |
| Mobile-Native App | planned | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Voice & Video | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
| Group Voice Channels | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ |
| Group Video Chat | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| HD Screen Sharing | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| Always-On Voice Rooms | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | — |
| Voice Notes | ✅ | — | — | ✅ |
| Voice Transcription | ✅ | — | — | — |
| Voice Note Translation | ✅ | — | — | — |
| Bot Ecosystem | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
| Custom Bots / API | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| discord.py Compatibility | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| discord.js Compatibility | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| Slash Commands | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Buttons & Interactive UI | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Customization & Media | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
| Animated Emoji (Lottie) | ✅ | 💰 | — | ✅ |
| Custom Emoji Packs | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Animated Stickers | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| GIF Picker | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Server Roles & Permissions | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ |
| Moderation & UX | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
| Bulk Moderation (Ban/Mute) | ✅ | ✅ | — | ◐ |
| Unread Counts & @mentions | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Message Search & Jump | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Pin Jump | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| Server Discovery / Browse | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Consecutive Message Collapse | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| Privacy & Hosting | ||||
| Feature | Loqa | Discord | Stoat/Revolt | Telegram |
| No Third-Party Ad Trackers | ✅ | — | ◐ | ◐ |
| E2E Encryption Status (Eligible Content) | ✅ | — | — | ✅ |
| Disappearing Messages (DMs) | ✅ | — | — | ✅ |
| Open Source Client | — | — | ✅ | ✅ |
| Self-Hostable | ✅ | — | ✅ | — |
| Federated Instances | ✅ | — | — | — |
| Managed Cloud Hosting | ✅ | — | — | — |
What we're building next — including managed self-hosting on major infrastructure providers.
Your own Loqa instance on Hetzner or AWS, managed by us. We handle updates, backups, and scaling so you don't need DevOps.
Offshore infrastructure (e.g. Shinjiru) for maximum data sovereignty and jurisdictional separation.
Stay on the main platform while a managed instance mirrors your messages, files, and channels in real time as a backup you control.
Deploy your own Loqa node and connect to the main network via Ed25519-signed federation that preserves already-encrypted payloads.
iOS and Android apps with push notifications, background voice, and picture-in-picture video.
Windows, macOS, and Linux clients with system notifications and hardware-accelerated rendering.
Download your server — messages, media, roles, channels, and member list — in a portable format.
Deploy your own Loqa instance in minutes. Stay connected to the entire network through federation — your community, your rules, zero isolation.
Use the Loqa Platform Builder to customize your instance — branding, features, modules, and configuration. Point-and-click setup, no YAML wrangling.
The Platform Builder packages a production-ready Rust Docker image and pushes it directly to your VPS. One click from config to running instance.
Connect your instance to the Loqa network. Messages, channels, and presence will flow between your instance and the Loqa cloud via our federation protocol.
Loqa uses a custom federation protocol for low-latency server-to-server communication. It can preserve payloads already protected end to end while messages, channels, and presence move between authenticated nodes.
No advertising trackers or data sales. Limited first-party diagnostics are described in our Privacy Policy.
Eligible conversation content is protected with end-to-end encryption when the app displays that status. Coverage varies by surface and content type.
The primary account database encrypts email addresses with AES-256-GCM and uses keyed HMAC indexes for lookup. Passwords are Argon2id-hashed.
No third-party advertising or behavioral-analytics SDKs. Limited first-party crash and encryption-health diagnostics help keep the service reliable.
Set a timer on eligible conversations. Messages are removed after the timer unless a server retention lock applies.
Download your entire server — messages, media, roles, channels, member list — in a portable format. Your data, not ours.
The backend is written in Rust with memory safety guarantees. Smaller attack surface, no garbage collector, predictable performance.
Run Loqa on your own hardware. Full data sovereignty, with built-in federation to connect back to the main network if you want.
Common questions about Loqa and switching from Discord.
Loqa is a free chat platform with screen sharing, group video, voice channels, and a Discord-compatible API. The main differences include end-to-end encryption status for eligible conversation content, no third-party advertising trackers, and a self-hosting option. It's in open beta — not a finished product yet, but the core features work.
In most cases, yes. Loqa's API mirrors discord.py and discord.js, so changing one import line is usually enough. Slash commands, interactions, embeds, and webhooks work the same way. Some edge cases may need tweaks — check the API docs for specifics.
The main difference is API compatibility — Loqa mirrors Discord's API surface, so existing bots work without rewriting. Loqa also has screen sharing, group video, and voice channels via LiveKit, which most alternatives don't. The comparison table on the landing page has the full breakdown.
Yes. Screen sharing, voice channels, video chat, reactions, threads, and bot support are all free with no paywall. We plan to offer optional premium tiers for things like managed self-hosting, but core communication features will stay free.
Yes — both are live and working. Screen sharing and video run through LiveKit (WebRTC) and work in any voice channel.
Loqa supports self-hosting today. We're also building managed hosting options for people who don't want to run their own infrastructure. The federation protocol lets self-hosted instances talk to each other and to the main network.
The primary account database encrypts email addresses with AES-256-GCM and uses keyed blind indexes. Eligible conversation content uses end-to-end encryption when the app displays that status. Passwords use Argon2id. Loqa has no third-party advertising trackers, but it does collect limited first-party crash and encryption-health diagnostics. Call media is processed in real time and is not recorded by Loqa by default.
Not yet, but we're building it. Full server export — messages, members, channels, roles, and media — is on the roadmap. The goal is that you always own your data and can take it with you.
Create a free account, migrate your bots with one import change, and bring your emoji packs along.