It was meant to be for the Twitchers and Steam streamers who wanted to share their gaming exploits online. As the world continues to adjust to remote group chats and Zoom meetings in their pyjamas, Discord has entered the general purpose, communication game.
Goodbye endless scrolling of the news feed.
This is really the chat room of yesteryear, with voice channels that are more akin to workplace Slack forums.
As Jason CEO Jason Citron wrote, “We designed Discord to enable the experience and feelings we wanted to recreate: being together with your community and friends. “
Don’t expect to see war-hammer graphics or RPGs when you first sign up (if you’re not on it already). The onboarding experience for new users has been “streamlined,” and new server templates have been installed by way of a survey that asks what you intend to use the platform for, as gaming clearly isn’t the sole focus anymore.
Voice and video have increased in bandwidth, so there are plenty of themed How to Host a Murder chats and Netflix Watch parties just waiting to happen. There’s a new “Safety Centre,” so that harmless sledging does not become unwelcome or extreme.
New voices have entered the channel, with some users connecting over movements such as Black Lives Matter.
Of course, money talks as well.
The Discord company has reportedly been valued at $3.5 billion, with a healthy boost of $100 million from investment firm Index Ventures. It’s an awareness of the market that has boasted users such as Drake, YouTube royalty by the likes of Phillip DeFranco and plays host to many sub-reddits such as The Bachelor or Big Brother chats.
As founder and CEO Jason Citron noted during the rebrand, “Many of you told us that the biggest misconception you hear about Discord is that it’s ‘only for gaming,’ but you feel Discord’s for ‘literally everyone’ and ‘for anyone who likes to talk.’”
Now we can, but those headphones better stay in if you’re up after 3am.
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