Discord 2024 is a cross-platform voice and text chat app originally designed for gamers, but since finding mainstream popularity, all kind of communities have migrated to it. Even TechSpot staff have moved away from Slack to use Discord full-time for team collaboration and communication.

Is Discord better than Zoom?

Zoom and Discord serve two different purposes. Discord is great for small and big team communication and collaboration via text or voice. Zoom is better suited for real-time online meetings and presentations.

Is Discord only for gamers?

Discord is great for gaming and voice chat. That's how Discord got started but today all kinds of communities have migrated to it. Just like Microsoft Teams or Slack, Discord offers public and private servers that anyone can create and join for free, and today it's widely used for team communication and collaboration.

Is Discord encrypted?

Discord uses basic encryption methods like TLS to protect text and images in transit but does not offer end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp or Telegram. Other community oriented platforms offer similar safety features for written messages, but some like Microsoft Teams do offer end-to-end encryption for VoIP calls.

Is Discord free?

Discord is free for voice, text, and video chat options with no restrictions. There is an optional "Nitro" paid membership that offers extra benefits, but even setting up a private server for your business can be done with no additional cost.

Is Discord safe?

Although Discord is a great messaging app, the platform does not offer end-to-end encryption for text or audio/video communication. While your data is encrypted in transit to Discord servers, it is stored on said servers. Even when you use the app's privacy settings to disable their ability to "Use data to improve Discord," they still collect this data and store it in their database.

Discord Nitro Basic and Nitro: What's the Difference?

Our most-popular Nitro plan unlocks access to all the available Nitro perks, including custom emoji and stickers anywhere, HD video streaming, and an expanded selection of our newly-released Activities, just to name a few.

Nitro Basic includes a selection of some of the most-loved Nitro features that help you better express yourself on Discord, including custom emoji anywhere, bigger file uploads, and more.

Take a peek at the comparison chart below to see what each Nitro plan includes:

We're excited to continue growing Nitro and give users more ways to have fun and create lasting memories on Discord.

In the United States, Nitro Basic will be available for $2.99 per month. For those living outside the United States, pricing is viewable within your User Settings > Nitro page once it's rolled out.

Features

Discord was created to bring people together around games. You've taught us that it can be used for so much more. People use Discord for all kinds of hanging out: from live karaoke nights, to screenshare group painting, to virtual wedding parties. People create Discord servers for gaming, yoga classes, comedy fan clubs, and even run entire podcasting businesses. Discord is for anyone who could use a place to talk with their friends and communities.

Download Discord and experience modern chat:

  • Voice chat: Join voice channels and chat with your group
  • Real-time messaging: Share video, images, and text in rich chat
  • Push notifications: Never miss a thing with @mentions and direct messages
  • Instant Invite: Easily add friends to your voice server by sharing the Instant Invite link
  • Direct messages: Send one-to-one private messages
  • Multiple server support: Manage all your game chat groups in one client
  • Organizable channels: Keep discussions on topic through structured communication

What's New:

  • Windows version updated to 1.0.9030
  • macOS version updated to 1.0.0 Build 0.0.289
  • Android version updated to 211.15

Desktop Updates

It's the Discord Fall Release

We're full to the brim with TONS of new features. Cozy up with your favorite blanket and read the full scoop on everything that's new, and a little bit more, on our Fall Update page.

New Ways To Enjoy Games and Activities

Try your hand at three new Activities. Hop in voice and play Chef Showdown and Bobble Bash with your buddies. Plus, Jamspace Whiteboard gets snazzy new tools for brainstorming, creating and mapping things out. Check out all the Activities on our blog.

Capture your clutch plays with Clips. Releasing in Nitro Early Access, Clips lets you capture your best gameplay moments and share them with your friends.‍

Decorate for the Season

Shop for new ways to spruce up your profile: Try and buy Avatar Decorations and Profile Effects, including limited-time autumn looks. Buy 'em before they're gone, and keep 'em for good, just like your favorite worn-out jeans with a hole in the knee.

Nitro members! Switch up Discord's appearance with new app icons that let you swap out either the icon on your mobile device's home screen or the in-app Discord logo on the desktop client. Choose from a wide array of stylish Discord depictions!

A ghostly glow looms… Halloween is approaching! Devilish decorations, eerily-themed Activities, and Halloween profile effects are here

Keep the Conversation Lovely

Mods: Keep your server safe and welcoming for all with three new features: a redesigned Members page, Activity Alerts, and Security Actions. Admins and community leaders, this one is for you.

Follow the Heart of the (Tarot) Cards: Uncover what your day holds in your Discord – head to our Safety Center to read into your future with a Safety-themed Tarot reading.

Previous Release Notes:

‍Lightened up Light bugs. Let's shine some light on how we lightened up Light Theme. In light of some discoveries, like a dark spot here or the wrong icon color there, we decided to fix those and bring some more light to Light Theme. This ought to enlighten the great debate of which theme is better. ‍

Less messed up text chat. Wumpus and the gang solved the mystery of the missing words. Sometimes words just disappeared when you sent them, which is of course less than ideal. So we fixed that and 20 other text-related errors like GIFs autoplaying correctly in forums, and now you can actually search text in a voice chat.

‍Streamlined Streamer Mode: Turning on Streamer Mode now hides both User Profiles and Server Profiles so you can give full attention to your adoring fans. We love that you love your face and going on camera is great, especially now that we fixed some bugs with the camera preview permissions.

‍Discord go brrrr. We've got a need, a need for speed so we made the app open faster and now you can get to more of the stuff you like in record time.

Previous release notes

We first launched the Nitro subscription over five years ago to give our users more ways to have fun and express themselves on Discord. Since then, we've been working hard to grow and improve Nitro by adding new perks like HD streaming, stickers, per-server profiles, and tons more.

As people across the world continue to make their homes on Discord, the way people use the platform to spend time with their friends and communities has evolved too. We want to expand our Nitro offerings to better serve the needs of our growing user base.

That's why today, we're excited to announce our latest addition to the Nitro family: Nitro Basic. Our newest plan includes some of Nitro's most-loved features, at a fraction of the cost.

Nitro: Now More Accessible Than Ever Before

We'll be rolling out Nitro Basic over the coming weeks --- keep an eye out in User Settings > Nitro to see when it becomes available for you!

With the launch of Nitro Basic, the Nitro Classic plan will no longer be available for new subscribers. But don't fret: if you already have Nitro Classic, you can keep your existing plan as long as your subscription is active.

We love to see all the crazy and creative ways you and your communities use the perks that come with Nitro --- share your Nitro-fueled memories with us by finding us on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

Windows version updated to 1.0.9013

  • Features
    • Voice Overlay is now available on all Android devices. It was available previously and still is now. Checkmate grammarists.
    • Videos can now play **inline** in chat with and has a full screen mode. Jokes about full screens are difficult. I'm a screen half full guy myself.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Even more keyboard bugs fixed!
    • Reconnecting to a voice call should maintain muted state.
    • Some rotation crash fixes. You can safely do a barrel roll now.
  • Added multi-stream desktop support. Watch multiple streams in servers, switch between input and output without leaving the call, and close dormant video screens of non-streamers.
  • In a 2-for-1-video-improvement special, you can now also screen share while video chatting in DMs.
  • Added tiled emoji. This means you can make seamless emoji monstrosities using dozens of emoji like a horrendous, frightening puzzle.
  • Please, send your best tiled emoji creations to our Twitter. @Discord
  • Improved image embeds by removing the link where appropriate, like when sending GIFs via the GIF picker because nothing ruins a beautiful GIF like seeing a link for haha-funny-gif/84329480%34920348204 slapped above it.
  • Added a 1-hour option for Custom Status for when you're feeling a certain way but know you'll be over it in the next 59 minutes.
  • M4A files are now playable inline. Keep sharing your beats with your friends; maybe you'll make it into our next Very Cool Discord Community Playlist.
  • You're now required to enter your password before enabling 2FA so your little cousins Timmy and Tommy don't accidentally lock you out of your account after you let them on your pc to play games.
  • New Hypesquad Quiz. We're evolving HypeSquad Houses with a new quiz; it's sleek, modern, contemporary, original, updated, insert thesaurus word here. The quiz now asks questions that really reflect what we think it means to be brave, brilliant, and balanced. Retake it or take it for the first time and join the HypeSquad in your User Settings.
  • You can now prune users with roles.
  • Removed the Call action when right clicking a bot. My nights just got a little bit lonelier...
  • Integration settings got an overhaul. Manage bots, webhooks, channel following, Twitch and YouTube integrations with our new settings page.
  • You can now add your GitHub account to your profile.
  • You can now use text-to-speech on individual messages. Hover the message you want read outloud and click the triple-dot drop down menu and let our eager-to-please robot aid you.
  • What?! Mentions tab is evolving. Congratulations, your Mentions Tab has evolved into an Inbox. Catch all your unreads, mentions and pings in one box, and release the ones you don't need into the wild.

Fixes and Updates

  • Fixed the voice disconnected nag bar. The X button wasn't working, nor was the reconnect button working, which we uhh broke last week. You couldn't escape our Big Red Banner of Shame.
  • For Twitch Integrations, your Twitch Tier 2 and Tier 3 emotes are now only usable by users subscribed to those higher tiers.
  • The Windows System Tray > Discord icon > the Mute and Deafen options didn't do anything. But now they do.
  • We now tell you when you reach the 100 server limit. No, we're not going to raise the limit...yet.