Fixing Mattermosts Group Calls - Yeeting the Paywall

[AlphaObeisance]

First and foremost my children and I greatly appreciate the contributors to mattermost; it directly supports the education and growth of my family. That said, shame on whoever is in charge for forcing private/personal not for profit users to purchase basic functionalities that were once provided for FREE with this FOSS project. I'm not above supporting a project, but this very much taints my taste and desire to do so.

This resolves the issue for me being just a dude hosting MM on my home lab so I can collaborate with my children; being forced to pay for a pre-existing service is quite mind blowing to me. I must admit that I'm new to Mattermost. But to my surprise, trying to do a group call yielded "Only available in DM Channel" or whatever had me scratching my noggin thinkin to myself "What? This is like, basic functionality..."

FIX IT (Difficulty: Easy)
For those who compile manually (useful to users new to self hosting/home-labbing); this replicates the docker fix. Works on the following build.

Mattermost
Version: 10.6.1
Build Number: 13860096928
Build Date: Fri Mar 14 15:43:33 UTC 2025
Build Hash: 0572f0e376faaa63702aba05e6579a69f32e0f90
Build Enterprise Ready: true

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mattermost.service

then append

Environment="MM_CALLS_GROUP_CALLS_ALLOWED=true"

Should look like

[Unit]
Description=mattermost
After=network.target
After=postgresql.service
BindsTo=postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/opt/mattermost/bin/mattermost
TimeoutStartSec=3600
KillMode=mixed
Restart=always
WorkingDirectory=/opt/mattermost
User=mattermost
Group=mattermost
LimitNOFILE=49152
Environment="MM_CALLS_GROUP_CALLS_ALLOWED=true"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart mattermost

Verify

sudo systemctl show mattermost | grep Environment
sudo journalctl -u mattermost --no-pager | grep MM_CALLS_GROUP_CALLS_ALLOWED

Google lead me here, where I read a rightly disgruntled conversation and I wanted to stand in agreement for what little this may matter. I also wanted to provide intricate details for those who are either new to self hosting mattermost and aren't yet quite acquainted/familiar with
the service. I appreciate those who shared the Docker env variables.

This will enable you to execute

/call start` in group channels

Hope this helps.

 

[KGIII]

Hmm... Another mod/admin may decide this is a form of software piracy and remove this thread.

I'm not actually sure what to do with it. On one hand, you're just hacking at some config files. On the other hand, you're avoiding paying for a paid feature.

 

[AlphaObeisance]

Hmm... Another mod/admin may decide this is a form of software piracy and remove this thread.

I'm not actually sure what to do with it. On one hand, you're just hacking at some config files. On the other hand, you're avoiding paying for a paid feature.

They can do with it what they will; it's no skin off my back. Just trying to help the home-labbers and personal/private users.

This was a feature previously default with the free package and for whatever reason a decision was made to implement a cost for a function already used regularly by the community.

The "hack" is nothing more than deploying a function that is already accepted by the application. I've done nothing intrusive but merely activated an env variable that is a part of the server application.

I can't personally stand behind a project that creates something for free by way of FOSS contributions both paid and unpaid only to turn around and charge for a feature previously provided for free for private use strikes me as incredibly shady and unethical.

I FULLY support paid subscriptions being mandated for business use (really of any size, though unfair to small teams). If you're making money off of something, you should pay for it. Just my 2 cents.

On one hand. This method permits enterprise to skirt the subscription for this particular feature. On the other hand, it gives the power back to home users utilizing it for personal/private not for profit use.

It is what it is.

Additionally, it's kind of hard to pirate FOSS. Feature though? eh, maybe a slightly gray area. I'll be forking the project for good measure.

EDIT: I've updated the OP to better clarify as to ommit any impression that I feel enterprise/business/for profit use should not be charged for the service.

"That said, shame on whoever is in charge for forcing private/personal not for profit users to purchase basic functionalities that were once provided for FREE with this FOSS project. I'm not above supporting a project, but this very much taints my taste and desire to do so."

 

[f33dm3bits]

Hmm... Another mod/admin may decide this is a form of software piracy and remove this thread.

I'm not actually sure what to do with it. On one hand, you're just hacking at some config files. On the other hand, you're avoiding paying for a paid feature.

I kind of think this doesn't fit the word pirating as it's opensource software? You can't compare it to when someone is posting links to cracked software or some torrent link where you can download x,y or z.

 

[f33dm3bits]

@AlphaObeisance you may also want to have a look at RocketChat, which is also opensource.

GitHub - RocketChat/Rocket.Chat: The communications platform that puts data protection first.

The communications platform that puts data protection first. - RocketChat/Rocket.Chat

github.com

 

[AlphaObeisance]

I kind of think this doesn't fit the word pirating as it's opensource software? You can't compare it to when someone is posting links to cracked software or some torrent link where you can download x,y or z.

Literally everything I shared was directly linked to the OP on the mattermost Github where I discovered this in the first place; sooooooooo.

Google lead me here,

Yeah, you're right. It's not like this was some big huge secret. Though Mattermost did move the discussion from their main repo to mattermost-plugin repo, they didn't delete it. (Suggests to me, they know this ain't right).

This information is readily available to anyone willing to research why group calls isn't working.

For those curious of the comparison. I'll be checking our Rocketchat for funzies.

Feature	Mattermost	Rocket.Chat
Messaging	Channels, private messages, threads	Channels, DMs, threads
Video/Audio Calls	Native (via Calls Plugin) & Zoom integration	Jitsi integration, native calls in Enterprise
File Sharing	Yes, with search & preview	Yes, with search & preview
Integrations	Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Zapier, etc.	WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack, etc.
Notifications	Desktop, mobile, email	Desktop, mobile, email
Mobile Apps	Yes (iOS, Android)	Yes (iOS, Android)
Customization	Custom plugins, API support	Extensive API & Webhooks
Security & Compliance	E2E encryption (enterprise), MFA, GDPR, HIPAA compliance	E2E encryption, MFA, GDPR, HIPAA compliance

At face value it lookse to be a near 1-1. So it's really going to boil down to aesthetics an ease of deployment for me personally; as I already have the MM server lol

 

[KGIII]

I kind of think this doesn't fit the word pirating as it's opensource software? You can't compare it to when someone is posting links to cracked software or some torrent link where you can download x,y or z.

That's why I've not removed the post or locked the thread. It's FOSS. Hacking a config is more acceptable than when it is a closed source application. After all, they gave you the code and told you that you could edit it. (Depending on the license, of course.)

But, I leave it open for others to judge it differently. That's the reason behind my post. I've made my assessment.

 

[AlphaObeisance]

Did me some toiletry reading on the AGPLv3 license. Thankfully, since I"m using the mattermost free edition for personal/private use. I am free to do with it what I choose. My only obligation is that in the event my users (my children) wish access to the source code then I must provide it to them.

But honestly, I think they've got bigger concerns than how they're getting their homework done and socializing with family members .

It's a copy left license. So it's my understanding that following the approach I've shared here would only be considered unethical if using in production.

I share this only for any additional moderators that might raise an eyebrow. I feel KGIII handled this sensibly, not that my opinion matters much in this regard lol.