When was discord made?

What is discord?

Discord is a social platform that provides instant messaging and VoIP services, enabling users to communicate through voice calls, video calls, text messaging, and media sharing. Users can engage in private conversations or participate in virtual communities known as "servers," which consist of persistent chat rooms and voice channels accessible via invite links.

The platform is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and Linux, as well as web browsers. As of 2024, Discord boasts approximately 150 million monthly active users and 19 million weekly active servers. While it primarily caters to gamers, its user base is increasingly diversifying into various other interests. In March 2024, Discord ranked as the 30th most visited website globally, with about 22.98% of its traffic originating from the United States. Additionally, the company employed around 600 people worldwide as of March 2022.

Discord was co-founded by Stanislav Vishnevskiy and Jason Citron, who previously established the mobile gaming platform OpenFeint in 2008. OpenFeint was designed to integrate social networking features into online games and was sold for $104 million in 2011. Following this success, Vishnevskiy and Citron aimed to create a voice-chat application tailored for online gamers, leading to the development of Discord, which launched its beta version in 2015.

Features of Discord

Discord primarily facilitates real-time text and voice communication through dedicated social hubs known as servers. These servers can be customized by their administrators, allowing members to engage in various activities:

Text and Voice Channels: Users can collaborate, share news, host group video chats, or simply chat.

Subscription Options: While basic features are free, creators can charge subscriptions for unique roles or benefits, such as early access to merchandise.

Data Encryption: Discord ensures that all data shared via text, voice, or video channels is encrypted.

Initially popular among gamers, Discord's user base surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it provided a means for individuals to maintain community connections during lockdowns. Post-pandemic, its appeal broadened to include artists, content creators, educators, and businesses, solidifying its role as a versatile communication platform.

By January 2016, Discord had already garnered 3 million users, with an impressive growth rate of 1 million new users per month, reaching 11 million by July of that year. By December 2016, the total user count surged to 25 million worldwide. The growth continued, and by the end of 2017, Discord boasted nearly 90 million users, adding approximately 1.5 million new users weekly. Celebrating its third anniversary, the platform reported 130 million unique registered users. While most servers were primarily gaming-focused, a growing number had been created for non-gaming interests such as stock trading and fantasy football.

In May 2016, just a year after its launch, Tom Marks from PC Gamer hailed Discord as the best VoIP service available. Additionally, Lifehacker praised its user-friendly interface and compatibility across platforms.

Fast forward to May 2019, Discord reported having at least 250 million registered users across its web and mobile platforms, with 56 million active monthly users, who collectively sent around 25 billion messages each month. This remarkable growth illustrates Discord's evolution from a gaming-centric platform to a widely-used communication tool for various communities and interests.

Building Discord Communities

During its inaugural year, Discord was officially accessible via the URL discordapp.com, primarily targeting gamers. Many active Reddit forums transitioned from their IRC servers to Discord, fostering connections between the platform's co-founders, Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, and Reddit users. This engagement resonated well with the community, leading to a steady influx of registrations.

Discord differentiated itself from other gaming-focused social media platforms by introducing group chat features, enabling users to communicate with multiple friends simultaneously. Users can easily create voice channels and invite friends to join without needing links or passwords, enhancing the ease of interaction. This functionality allows users to seamlessly hop between voice channels within their servers, which Vishnevskiy likened to "a home where you can roam freely between rooms." Citron described it as "a space where you can bump into friends and hang out with them," emphasizing the casual and inviting nature of the platform.

What people think of discord?

The Discord app is available on both desktop and mobile devices, with a dedicated client for PCs and mobile apps for Android and iOS users. This platform fosters social interaction through channels and forums, enabling organized conversations across a wide array of topics, including health and fitness, anime, gaming, movies, and more. Users can join multiple Discord servers to participate in discussions on virtually any subject.

Discord integrates video calls within its voice chat functionality, allowing for live streams, voice chats, and video chats all in one place. Instead of continuously adding new features like breakout rooms or Q&A sessions, the platform focuses on enhancing communication quality. Significant improvements have been made to reduce latency—the time delay between speaking and hearing—by incorporating modern GPUs that support up to 100 users in a single audio channel. This results in an itch-free chat experience with sub-millisecond latency, ensuring smooth conversations among participants.

What Makes Discord Unique?

The Discord server is the backbone of communities on the platform. It supports private and public groups, sub-channel discussions, and event hosting. Let's look at the essential features of the Discord app.

Servers

Discord servers contain channels used by shared interest groups. The app provides free template servers, allowing users to build their communities quickly.

New servers contain voice and text channels. Although, server owners can add announcement and stage channels.

Channels

Channels enable people to send messages or start a voice call with group members. They also support video streaming and are a go-to resource for many streamers and gamers.

Discord steals the show when it comes to fun chat. Users can format texts. They can tap into the color wheel to write red, blue, and green text messages.

Plus, they can bold, underline, and italicize texts. Discord makes this possible by supporting Markdown commands.

Direct Messages (DMs)

Some people enjoy private conversations, and direct messages are the way for them. Send text, files, and images to DMs. Plus, Group Direct Messages (GDMs) let you talk to more friends privately.

Discord Profile

Discord provides a user profile containing your username, activity status, and display picture. This allows people to identify you across chat servers.

Plus, you can upload your progress in a particular game via Custom Status.

Discord Roles

Discord sees over 140 million monthly active users. Such a large number calls for specific roles in the communities.

Default role.

Members that join a server get the @everyone by default. You can read messages, chat, and do basic activities outside of admin roles.

Admin role

Banning users that break your server rules is a function of the admin role. It gives you the power to kick out malicious users.

Mod role

Moderators manage content distribution on servers. They're the Admins' right-hand man.

Discord Nitro

Nitro is Discord's premium service for a great community experience. It unlocks custom emojis, HD video streaming, large file uploads, and more.

Plus, Discord Nitro subscribers get two server boosts.

Developer Tools

Game developers can integrate games with Discord. GameBridge, a Discord API, powers this. Members can also add bots to their servers to prevent hostile behavior and coordinate user activities.

Discord Support

Discord has a stand-by trust and safety team to protect its service, ensuring a safe community for everyone. It addresses user harassment and servers/members that violate Discord's terms and guidelines.

Discord doesn't directly monitor messages, but the chat app can identify groups facilitating real-world harassment via user-generated reports.