When comparing Linphone vs Element (formerly Riot), the Slant community recommends Element (formerly Riot) for most people. In the question“What are the best Skype alternatives?” Element (formerly Riot) is ranked 1st while Linphone is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Element (formerly Riot) is:
You're not confined within Element's or even Matrix garden, and you don't have to make users of other networks switch to Matrix.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro FOSS
Free and Open Source.
Pro Work well with FritzBox router
Pro Great SIP support
Basically every SIP provider supported.
Pro Simplistic and clean UI
Over the years, its UI has changed and improved by a lot.
Pro Bridges to other networks
You're not confined within Element's or even Matrix garden, and you don't have to make users of other networks switch to Matrix.
Pro Markdown support
Code snippets in chats can be highlighted with Markdown.
Pro Simple interface
Element has a very simple interface, adding the ability for more inexperienced users to use it.
Pro VOIP and Videoconferencing
Pro Supports encryption
Element allows for fully encrypted text, voice, and video chatting.
Pro Widgets support
Want to watch that flick at YouTube and discuss it at the same time? Have Grafana graphs stacked above your DevOps team chat? Collaboratively edit Google Docs and chat over without switching applications? This is possible with Element.
Pro Decentralized
An open network for secure, decentralized communication.
Pro Self-hosting and federated network
Pro Libre/open source
Pro Search
Search messages in your current room, or all the rooms you're in. Not subject to a message history limit like Slack.
Pro Cross platform
Web browser
Linux
OS X
Windows
Android
iOS
Pro Large existing community
With public rooms for many people, and you can create your own and let people from the community join.
Pro Etherpad real-time document collaboration
An easy to activate integration that allows multiple authors to edit a document simultaneously.
Pro File Sharing
Pro Supports text, voice, video
Cons
Con UI not very intuitive
Implementation of Contacts and missing calls are not very intuitive.
Splitted View (left Contacts, right Call-History) would be much better as current look&feel.
UI don't mind the "less clicks are better" philosophy. It looks a bit thrown together. Some Icons here, some there.. no navigation strategy are used (like known from webpages)
Con Limited to flatpack installs
Yet another container service to keep up with.
Con Doesn't ring on incoming calls
Even if the Audio-File exists and can be played in the Settings-Dialog, it doesn't ring for an incoming call. Worked some time ago, currently not.
Con No Plugins available to add external Address-Books for contacts
would be nice to be able to add NextCloud, GoogleContacts or other Cloud-Services, or just an local Address-Book (like Thunderbird)
Con Up-to-date version in 2020 can only be compiled from source
There is either an outdated version in Ubuntu repos, official flatpak install has been broken for over 6 months, so you're left with compiling from source.