Discord might not be the first social platform that comes to mind when one talks about texting, voice calls, or video calls, but it has its own loyal user base, one which has expanded over the last couple of years. If you haven’t heard of it yet, that’s not surprising because it is slightly niche. Essentially, Discord is a one-stop platform for texting, video, and voice calls and you can engage with friends and family, or even strangers you share common interests with.
As Wired explained it, Discord is like Zoom, “but more flexible and fun”; it’s like Slack, but “without that feeling that your boss is always checking your online status”; like Facebook, but “without an algorithm that prioritises the types of posts that turned your aunt into a racist”.
Discord can be used on mobile and on desktop, and conversations there vary depending on which community you are in but overall, the users on the platform are a little more laid back and focused only on what interests them, for example, gaming.
Discord was originally built for gamers and the platform is full of communities dedicated to gaming. I’m on two gaming channels, one for ‘Pokemon Go’ and the other dedicated to ‘Sky: Children of the Light’. One of the things the first channel helps is that it coordinates remote raids across the globe which gives players opportunities to capture Pokemon that would not otherwise turn up in the wild or in raids in their home country. The second channel for Sky is a place to discuss in-game issues and ask for advice if you are stuck in the game.
But it is a platform that is no longer just meant for gamers. Conversations have moved on to music, politics, cryptocurrency, and more. You can also use Discord to stream videos, listed to music, play board games, and more.
How do you start off on Discord?
Discord is a free app, but it does have some premium perks you can pay for. To start off, download the app from your Android or iOS app stores. You can also run it on your web browser. But for more advanced features on the desktop, you will need a desktop client. The downloads for Windows, macOS, and Linux are available for free.
Like most other social platforms, you start off with choosing a username. You will then have to link your username with an email ID and a password.
After this, you will be prompted to start or join a server. Servers are the main forums on Discord and are basically micro-communities dedicated to certain areas of interest based on games, memes, politics, etc. Whatever you might be interested in, it’s highly likely that there is a server for that.
How do you navigate Discord?
There are four main sections on the Discord interface. On the left of your screen you can see the servers you are a part of and each group has a separate icon. These are not laid out on the mobile app so there you will have to tap on the hamburger menu on the top left corner to see your servers.
Once you tap on a certain server, the list of channels that are a part of that server show up. These are essentially chat rooms dedicated to separate topics. The channels are further separated into multiple dropdown menus called categories. So, for example, if you are a part of a server for movies, it might contain channels like fantasy films and superhero movies, which might further be split into LOTR-movies, or Chronicles of Narnia-movies.
Once you select a channel, the main chat window opens up and you can see the conversation taking place there in real-time. You can easily switch channels whenever you want to talk about something else.
The right side of the main chat panel shows you all the users who are a part of that server. You can see who is online and what their activity status is. On mobile, you will need to swipe side-to-side to see all the panels.
The blue Discord logo on the top left that’s labelled ‘Home’ takes you to your list of friends and see any DMs you might have received.
How do you start chatting on Discord?
You can either use text or voice to chat on Discord. Text channels have a hashtag (#) symbol in front of them. These text channels are meant only for typing. If you have unread messages on a chat, the name of the channel turns up in bold.
When you open a channel, the latest messages are going to obviously appear at the bottom. If you see messages in smaller font followed by a normal message, the latter is a reply to the former.
You can reply or react to a message with an emoji or a comment by selecting the message and picking from the buttons on the right of the text. You can also start a thread that will put in all the comments below the one you have selected. This way you can keep talking about something without cluttering up other users’ feeds.
The voice channels are usually listed towards the end of the channel panel and te marked with a speaker icon. If you click on any of these, you immediately get connected to the voice chat. There is a mic button that you can use to mute yourself in the sessions.
If a server allows it, you can also use your front camera for video chat and all the active video screens will be visible on the main panel.
Discord and data collection
Discord enables a lot of data collection but you change this from your privacy settings. You can also get the platform to filter NSFW messages and servers and also control what activity data is sent back to Discord.
The platform displays some user activity by default like if you are playing a game, you can also control this by tapping on your profile picture. You can also choose a status form here like Online, Idle, Do Not Disturb, or Invisible. If you want to appear offline and hide your activity, you can select to be Invisible. You can go to the User Settings, then go to Activity Settings and uncheck “Display current activity as a status message”. This will keep your activity out of your status even if you are online.
How do you find servers?
You can explore public servers from the compass icon at the bottom of the servers panel. These servers can be joined without any invite. For other servers, you will need an invite from one of the admins.
What can you pay for?
Discord’s main experience is free. But there is the Nitro option on the platform that can allow you to upload larger files, set up multiple profiles, add profile banners, and have animated profile pics. Nitro also gives users access to custom stickers, which are a cross between a GIF and an emoji. Nitro costs $10 per month or $100 a year.
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