If you’ve spent any significant amount of time online in the last few years, you’ve probably started hearing about Discord, the free online community that’s taken gamers and other online communities to the next level.
One of the biggest issues that we faced during the pandemic was connection. Gamers and other people used to play games in groups of friends (think IRL games like Dungeons and Dragons or Magic the Gathering) suddenly found themselves faced with the issue of organizing their communities online. Even those who had always been online were searching for a way to be better organized, so they could communicate more efficiently. Discord found the answer. There’s a reason that the app boasts over 140 million monthly users and 300 million active accounts.
If the question is “what is Discord,” the answer isn’t so straightforward. That’s because Discord is many, many things — which is why it’s so popular. It’s a messaging board, a video call hub, a place to organize events, and more. All in all, it’s an online social hangout where you can do anything from chat with your friends, join giveaways, or watch other people stream games. Think of Reddit, Twitch, Whatsapp, and Zoom all rolled into one, user-friendly app. You can use it on your phone, laptop, tablet, web browser, and even your PlayStation 5.
Discord is also broken up into servers — think of these like chat rooms — that each serves a different purpose. You can have a chat server that’s just for hanging out and voice chatting (you don’t even have to call in, simply join the server and connect with whoever else is on). You can have a server for organizing game nights, sharing specific information, or whatever you like. If you want to create a Discord server specifically for you and your friends to discuss your favorite anime show or when you want to order a pizza, you can do it! There are currently 6.7 million different servers on Discord, so the possibilities really are endless.
Hopefully, this has answered some of your pressing questions about what Discord is, and why it’s so popular! Since its launch in 2015, it has only been growing, and thanks to the popularity of e-sports and our continual need to connect with each other, it’s likely Discord is here to stay. It’ll be interesting to see where this relatively new app goes in the future — but so far, we’d say it’s doing pretty well!
Do you use Discord? Let us know in the comments, we always love hearing from you! And if you want to learn more about techy current events, check out our blog post on the James Webb Space Telescope, which released its first official images on July 12, 2022!
Comments
Discord looks very complex to understand initially but since the crypto boom began, I have been able to learn a lot because of its popularity in the crypto world
Hi Cleo,
Interesting. I had heard of Discord but had no idea what it was about. Looks like a powerful solution to me.
Ryan