Discord started in 2012 as a voice chat app for gamers who communicated with each other through gaming terminologies. It was known to only a select range of people and for most of us normies, the app was unheard of. Cut to 2020, when the entire world was stuck in their houses, thanks to a deadly pandemic, Discord had a boom. Suddenly, everyone from a gamer to a non-gamer made their way to the app and found their distinct community. Whether it was about hosting a community gathering digitally, or organizing a study session, or simply, vibing with your kind of people over similar tastes in music, Discord came in handy. Within a matter of no time, Discord now proudly boasts of a user base of 140 million, and here is every reason why
What is the Discord App?
Discord is a voice/video chatting app that was created for the gaming community. It now caters to absolutely any and every community out there. Discord is primarily divided into servers which are run by its own set of rules, members, channels, and topics. Discord does not only limit itself to being a voice and video chatting app, but also helps in live streaming of games, movies, concerts, and other events. The app saw its highest-ever user base of about 140 billion people in 2020 and it has been growing ever since. In the context of a global pandemic, the app has become indispensable for people who need to constantly be in touch. With its ever-growing user base, the app assumed a simple tagline which helped in rebranding it in a completely new light- “Your place to talk”. This simple message helped shed its earlier identity as an app just for gamers and opened its doors to every person out there with a non-gaming interest. In 2020, about seventy percent of the users reported belonging to a non-gaming community, thus making the tagline worthwhile. A side note on Discord, if you are experiencing audio issues, refer to this guide by MusicCritic on how to quickly troubleshoot it. As great an app Discord is, it cannot find out which audio output or input you want to use and you have to manually set it in the settings.
How does Discord function?
The app might look slightly obtuse for people coming from apps like Skype and Zoom where the functions work as they spell. Discord has an array of hidden features that can make the user experience bigger and better, which most existing people are unaware of. If a user wants to create a community of their friends, family, work colleagues, or just people of shared interest, they have to first set up their discord account. Then they have to simply add a server channel and customize accordingly. Then they could invite the desired people and the channel is good to go. If someone is not interested in creating their channel, they have a host of other channels to join from. They could discover several public servers by simply clicking on the bottom left corner of the screen. One can join gaming servers like Fortnite and Minecraft or simply log into the channel created by your favorite Instagrammer or YouTuber. The channels become as varied as wall street conversations to beatboxing to fashion to dance groups discussing routines. People have known to teach the art of living through their servers too. Since discord allows one to share their screens, it’s perfect for hosting game nights or movie nights. One could also customize their servers by adding video or voice clips to their servers and employ a host of other tools to make their channel special. If the operations still feel a bit difficult, Discord’s Getting Started guide will be of immense help. Discord voice chat is among the most popular features of the app. The extremely good quality and low-frequency voice tool make the app very popular amongst game streamers like Twitch or people who have their podcasts. Once the user has everything set up according to their needs, they can chat, stream, send GIFs or simply listen to other people discuss their favorite topic on the app. Users mainly have live jamming sessions, have video gatherings through their video chat feature or grow their Twitch community. Discord has a place for every person with unique interests.
Is Discord available on all platforms?
Discord is an app that is available on both android and iOS platforms. The users can also avail themselves Discord browser without having to download an app. The Discord web browser can also function without having to create a personal account but that would allow just a few limited features.
Discord Nitro is the premium version of the app. While the free version is good enough, the premium comes with a whole other range of features and tools to customize your experience. The premium subscription sells at 99.9 dollars a year and 9.99 dollars per month. It allows high-definition streaming, custom-made emojis, larger upload limits, and animated avatars.
Discord Bots
Apart from the popular Discord voice chat feature, Discord also comes with a variety of bots that are worth giving a shot at. These bots are third-party tools that help personalize your experience even further. A few popular Discord bots and their functionalities are listed below:
MEE6 is one of the most known bots that helps keeps spam messages at bay and sends user-customized notifications from Reddit, YouTube, and other platforms.
Groovy provides a jukebox-like experience through Discord. It allows one to play their favorite tracks and register song requests on the server
Simple Poll is used to carry out exactly what it is called- simple polls. This tool comes in handy when the user wants to execute a decision according to public demands.
Sesh is one of the popular bots amongst people to carry out watch parties for movies and gaming sessions.
Conclusion:
Discord could be considered as the prime hub of socializing for Gen Z now. It has quickly turned into a virtual meeting space and probably the hottest one at that because its ever-growing popularity speaks volumes. From classroom sessions to meetings to jamming sessions to virtual parties, the platform has got it all. It has thus quickly turned into the Internet’s favorite tool to vibe together but digitally.
Further Reading
