Discord turned off screen sharing in Brazil; Salinha, built by one person, hit 12k installs in two weeks

In 2026 August, Brazil's regulator ordered Discord to turn off live streaming and screen sharing, and as of November it still hasn't come back. A Brazilian sole proprietor's Salinha filled the gap, bundling "voice rooms for friend groups + free HD screen sharing + watching YouTube together + remotely playing a friend's PC" into one local alternative. Two weeks after listing, it got about 12k Google Play installs. The demand came from the ban, not from anything the app created itself. Below: how it caught these users, where the money comes from (almost nowhere), who it's competing with, and what this means for you.

A tabletop game host's Friday night

In 2026 October 18, Charles Corrêa, a programmer living in Porto Alegre, published a post on his RPG blog that opens with a Friday night: "You and your friends gather on Discord to play games… then, boom! Screen sharing cuts out, the voices turn into robots, and your friend's video looks like it's from 2003 years ago." He recommended moving to Salinha, calling it "100% Brazilian-made," able to run tabletop games, watch YouTube together, and remotely control a friend's PC. The post ended with a link carrying his personal invite code and the line "add me on Salinha to play together." The same day, he posted the same content on Instagram.

He wasn't the only one. Across Brazilian Portuguese X, Instagram, and TikTok, posts reading "Looking for a Discord alternative? Try Salinha" appeared in late October, many with invite links. Those links carry a reward system built into the product, covered below.

What happened to Discord in Brazil

In 2026 August 12, Brazil's National Data Protection Authority (ANPD), following a case in which a teenager was pushed toward self-harm in a closed Discord group, ordered Discord to shut off live streaming and video as a precaution. From August 17, Discord disabled Go Live, screen sharing, and video calls for Brazilian users (per Discord's official blog and help center). On September 25, the ANPD rejected Discord's request to restore them (Folha). As of November 3, O Globo was still reporting that the restoration request had been rejected by the enforcement department, with the board to decide in the end.

The result: a sudden flood of Brazilian users who suddenly couldn't use something they used every day. What they wanted was simple: watch shows or see each other play games with friends or partners, and run tabletop sessions. Posts in Brazil's Reddit community like "Is screen sharing coming back? I just want to draw while talking with everyone" were common. On TikTok in August 22, a video titled "Discord down? Here are some alternatives" got about 600k views. The demand was ready-made, and it was urgent.

What Salinha is

The developer, Fystec, is a sole proprietorship (MEI) registered by Brazilian Samuel Nogueira Gomes. It launched on Google Play in mid-October 2026, with a web version, a Windows version (Microsoft Store, listed around 10-19), and a Linux version; on iPhone, it works only through the web. The homepage's pitch is "get your crew into the room," with these features:

• Each group has an always-on voice room; tap in and you're already talking;
• Screen sharing at 720p to 4K, up to 144 fps, with computer audio. The site says "Free forever. Some apps charge you above 720p, right? 👀", a jab at Discord Nitro;
• Watching YouTube together: "Whoever added the video controls it… someone saw an ad? The video waits until everyone resumes together";
• Listening to music together, and a tabletop-game mode;
• "Play on a friend's PC": up to 4 people, one controller each, each playing from their own home. The host chooses whether to grant controller only, keyboard and mouse, or full access, essentially a built-in Parsec;
• "Runs on a 2015-year-old PC."

Technically it's all peer-to-peer over WebRTC. Servers only make the introduction and relay traffic when a direct connection fails (São Paulo, Florida, and Europe added from 11-05). That means the bandwidth for HD screen sharing is mostly paid by users themselves, so "free 4K" isn't a money-losing promise for them.

How many installs, and is it still growing?

Google Play 安装数(第三方估算):10-28 累计约 3,400;10-29 到 11-01 每天新增 1,100–1,800,是最快的四天;11-02、11-03 降到每天约 950;11-04、11-05 只剩每天约 340。11-05 累计 11,913,7 天新增约 6,200。商店页 11-06 显示「10 mil+」、4.7 星、84 个评分。

The charts are Brazil-only: in the free Communication chart 10-29, it climbed from #55,11-01 to #39,11-06 and then fell to #74; in the Communication top-grossing chart, starting 10-31 it sat between #56 and #59.

The peak has passed, and it's declining. Also, Play is only part of it: its main use is the web and the Windows app on PCs, and how many people use it there is invisible from outside.

Where users come from

A wave of X buzz. Brazilian news aggregator quenty put it in its "trending" section in late October 29, headlined "Salinha draws attention with free 1440p screen sharing, becoming a Discord alternative." It collected 28 X comments, about a third positive and about a fifth critical. Positive ones included "Let's move over, the old one only did 720p", "My computer is terrible and it still runs smoothly", and "Built-in Parsec is a big plus." Critical ones included people saying "Three accounts suddenly started pushing this website." The timing lines up with the fastest installs, 10-29 to 11-01. I couldn't find which post first set it off.

Small creators and partner codes. Besides the tabletop host above, PC hardware creator @letechpc posted on TikTok in November 2: "Looking for a Discord alternative? I'm trying Salinha.live" (under 11-06 1,000 views). On Instagram, @minutotechpro wrote "almost exactly Discord, but faster and simpler." The terms of service say some creators' "partner codes" give new users 60 days of trial. So these recommendations most likely come with incentives; whether anyone was paid directly to promote it, I don't know.

Invite referrals, written into the terms. New users get 30 days of Salinha+. After that, "watch YouTube together, listen to music together, play on your own PC from a phone, lend your PC to a friend" requires Salinha Pass or Salinha+. To get Pass, you recruit people: each new account you invite that actually talks in voice for 10 minutes earns the inviter 30 extra days, with no cap. This ties "bring real friends in" to "keep using the good features yourself." On TikTok, ordinary users were posting their personal invite-code links straight in videos.

Search landing pages. Around early October 26, it built pages like "Discord can't share screen? Use Salinha," "Share your screen with sound," and "Play on a friend's PC," targeting searches like "alternativa ao Discord."

Existing users moving over. Before the Play listing, it already had a web version and downloadable installers from its site. The /android page tells old users to uninstall the old package and reinstall the Play version. Some of the first few days' 3,000 installs on Play were people moving over from those.

No evidence of ad spending found.

Where the money comes from: almost none

Salinha+ R$3 a year. Per-group boost packs on web and desktop are R$3 a month, and R$3.45 on Play. Payments go through Pix or bank cards (InfinitePay), bypassing the Google Play cut.

So don't take the No. 56 top-grossing rank at face value: Brazil's Communication top-grossing chart has a very low bar, and at this price, paying feels more like "supporting it." Revenue scale is inferred to be very small; the developer hasn't disclosed it. What it's chasing now is spread through friend groups, not monetization.

Who it's competing with

Bottom line: plenty of others jumped on the same wave, and in Brazil there's an earlier, bigger one called Go Live. The demand came from the ban hitting everyone at once. Salinha won on a fuller feature bundle, group relationships, and invites that grant membership days. It caught up to Go Live's month-plus numbers within two weeks of launch and is more likely to retain users.

Where the risk is

• The window can close any time. Discord keeps appealing and is negotiating a settlement with the Brazilian government. If ANPD lifts the restriction, the "Discord alternative" demand will shrink sharply. Daily installs have fallen from 1,800 to 340, so the heat is already fading.
• It could get hit by the same blade. On Nov 3, O Globo reported that after Discord was restricted, some extreme groups moved to smaller, less-watched platforms. An app called Root was used to livestream a violent attack on a 14-year-old girl, and prosecutors are now going after the operators of such platforms. A one-person operation, open to 14-year-olds, pitched as "the server stores no content" voice and video rooms, is a regulatory target in Brazil today, not a safe harbor.
• Can one person handle it? Commenters already question whether the code was AI-written and whether support can keep up. Others criticize peer-to-peer for exposing IP addresses.

If it were you

C: worth learning from, not worth copying. The window was opened by a platform event: demand came from Discord being shut off, Brazil already had two local players splitting it, rivals' paywalls didn't make them money, and it shrinks as soon as Discord returns. Jumping into Brazil now as a fourth "Discord alternative" is too late.

The playbook is what's worth taking. The week a big platform has a feature switched off by regulators in one country, users go looking for replacements in bulk. Whoever can ship a local-language, zero-config, free alternative within one or two weeks, backed by "X is down? Use Y" search pages and short videos, catches the first wave.

Who it suits: small teams that already have mature WebRTC or real-time audio/video code and can ship a localized version within a week; people who follow regulatory news from different countries.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone wanting to enter Brazil now (too late, Go Live and Salinha are ahead); anyone hoping to make money from it (users of this kind of substitute are forced to switch and will go back once the original returns, so willingness to pay is low); anyone who can't carry content moderation and minor-protection liability.

How to do it: watch for events where a big platform has a feature restricted in a given country (minor protection, data protection, blocking orders), and launch within a week of the event. Use peer-to-peer to push bandwidth costs close to zero, and turn rivals' paid features into your free selling point. Build age limits, reporting, and cooperation with law enforcement from day one, since the wind here is regulation itself.

How to acquire users: copy Salinha's approach: tie invite rewards to real usage (the invitee must talk for 10 minutes to count), grant membership days with no cap; give local small creators partner codes so they can post "I'm trying it" with the invite link; put "X is down?" straight in the landing page title.

Deadline: there's no fixed one, it depends on the event. After the next event, you have one to two weeks to ship. A month late, and like Salinha after Go Live, you'll be chasing with a better product.

Signs you've read it wrong: (1) after Discord restores screen sharing in Brazil, Salinha's Play daily installs still hold at several hundred a day and its chart rank doesn't drop, which would mean it has become a product users choose on their own, and the category itself (the living room for a friend group) is worth building, not just riding the event; (2) Salinha discloses revenue or launches a clearly pricier paid tier that sells, showing real willingness to pay behind the low price; (3) conversely, if Salinha itself is named by Brazilian regulators, it means this kind of product carries more risk than reward in Brazil.

Data and sources

• Installs and charts: Google Play Brazil, third-party estimated daily installs and Communication free and top grossing charts, 10-27 to 11-06; store page pt_BR, 11-06. The Go Live and Discord comparison numbers come from the same source.
• Product and pricing: salinha.live homepage (11-06), terms of service (10-27), privacy policy (11-05), /android page. Not verified by placing an order.
• Discord ban: G1 2026-08-12, ANPD announcement, Discord blog 2026-08-17 and help center, Folha 2026-09-25, O Globo 2026-11-03.
• Spread: quenty.com.br 2026-10-29 "went viral" piece; rpg.charlescorrea.com.br 2026-10-18 blog post and matching Instagram post; TikTok @letechpc (11-02), @cassianofrance (11-03), @ismalakoi (08-22).
• Where it says "inferred" or "unknown", it's an inference or I didn't find it.