Resenha - Add Discord-style Voice Rooms to Your Community 🎙

Plugin
1

Hey everyone! I’m excited to share Resenha, a new experimental plugin that brings voice chat directly into Discourse—no separate apps, no complicated infrastructure, just seamless voice rooms integrated right into your sidebar.

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What is Resenha?

Resenha adds Discord-style voice rooms that your community members can join with a single click. Think of it as lightweight, always-available voice chat that lives alongside your forum discussions—perfect for casual hangouts, study groups, book clubs, or real-time collaboration.

Why You’ll Love It

:green_circle: Zero server overhead - All voice traffic goes peer-to-peer using WebRTC. Your Discourse server only handles signaling — no media ever touches your infrastructure. This means voice chat that scales with your community without ballooning your hosting costs.

:unlock: Privacy-first by design - Built-in end-to-end encryption thanks to WebRTC’s DTLS-SRTP. Audio streams never pass through your server, giving participants true peer-to-peer privacy.

:zap: Instant join/leave - Rooms appear in your sidebar. Click to join, click again to leave. No page loads, no complex UI — just frictionless voice.

:busts_in_silhouette: Live presence - See who’s in each room with real-time avatars. Active speakers get a green outline so you always know who’s talking.

:wrench: Simple setup - Enable the plugin, and a “Watercooler” room appears automatically. Your community can start using voice chat immediately with zero configuration.

:shield: Trust level controls - Leverage Discourse’s existing trust system to control who can create and manage rooms.

Perfect For

  • Staff meetings - Moderators and admins can hold periodic check-ins without juggling Zoom, Discord, or other third-party tools
  • Study groups and learning communities having live discussions
  • Gaming guilds coordinating without third-party voice apps
  • Remote teams with casual watercooler conversations
  • Book clubs and hobby groups wanting spontaneous chats
  • Local communities organizing events and meetups in real-time

Try It Live

Want to see it in action before installing? Join our demo community and test the voice rooms yourself:

:point_right: https://discourse-on-a-pi5.falco.dev/

(Yes, it runs on a Raspberry Pi 5! That’s how lightweight this is.)

Technical Highlights

For those interested in the implementation:

  • Pure browser WebRTC (no SFU/MCU servers needed)
  • All signaling through Discourse + MessageBus
  • STUN/TURN server configuration for restrictive networks
  • Redis-backed presence with automatic heartbeats
  • Real-time speaking detection with visual indicators
  • REST API for programmatic room management

Current Status

:warning: Alpha release - This is early-stage software. We recommend testing with small groups before rolling out to your entire community. The plugin works great for small to medium-sized rooms (2-10 participants). Larger rooms may hit browser peer limits, though TURN/SFU support is planned for the future.

Installation

hooks:
  after_code:
    - exec:
        cd: $home/plugins
        cmd:
          - git clone https://github.com/xfalcox/resenha.git

Then enable it in Admin > Settings > Plugins > resenha enabled.

Get Involved

This is an experimental project and we’d love your feedback! Whether you’re testing it on your community, finding bugs, or have ideas for features, please share your experience here.

  • :bug: Found a bug? :speech_balloon: Have questions? Reply to this topic!
  • :bulb: Want to contribute? PRs are welcome

Who’s ready to give their community a voice? :microphone:

Note: This is not an official plugin.

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