What is Discord and what is it used for?

What is Discord?

Discord is a free communication app that allows you to voice, video, and text chat with your friends, gaming communities, and game developers. It has hundreds of millions of users, making it one of the most popular ways to connect with friends online. Discord is available on almost all popular platforms and devices, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, and can also be run through a web browser.

Discord Voice Chat

You can chat with your friends directly from the Discord homepage using the private messaging feature. You can also start a voice chat by right clicking on your friend's name and selecting "Call". They will receive a notification and you can chat freely once connected. You need headphones and a microphone to make a voice call. Servers have voice channels. These are places where multiple users can join and talk to each other at the same time. This makes it easy to collaborate in games, just like in a room. This makes multiplayer games much easier. These channels are usually open to all users of the server, but generally the server will define the purpose of each channel. For example, they may be set up for a specific game, or even a specific game mode, after all, sometimes players play the same game but not necessarily a specific mode. Joining a voice channel will automatically turn on voice communication, so you can hear the voice of the person talking in the same channel. Voice chat can also be configured. You can configure it to be "push to talk", which means that your microphone will only turn on when you press a button, or you can set it up so that the microphone only turns on when the volume exceeds a certain level. You can also set your microphone to be "always on", which means it will be on continuously.

Discord Text Chat

A Discord server can have multiple text channels. These channels are generally used for Q&A within the community, sharing jokes and memes, and communicating without a microphone. A new Discord server will have one general channel, but administrators can create multiple channels with specific purposes. For example, a channel for server announcements and rules, or a channel for a specific game like Fortnite. It all depends on the administrator and the users of the server. Text channels can also be set to "read-only", which is useful for announcement rules channels. Most text channels are open to users, and there are no chat filters that block swearing, but we do have a filter that will try to prevent users from sending adult images.

Discord Video Chat

If you have a webcam on your computer, Discord also supports video chat. Just like voice chat, you can start a video chat from a friend in your friends list or from the private message interface on the home screen. Click the video chat button that looks like a webcam to start a direct call with the friend you selected in your friends list. Group video chats of up to 25 people can also be held within the server. This chat can be started in any voice channel. Once joined, you can turn on your webcam and start or join a video chat. It works similarly to Zoom meetings and can also be used for large meetings

Live streaming in Discord

You can live stream your screen for your Discord friends and community. This isn't like a public live stream like on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook. It's more like an advanced version of video chat. You can live stream your screen via private message from the home screen, or in a server's public voice chat channel. The live stream will be completely local to that server and the channel you started the live stream from. You can use this feature to share your game progress, show off your loot, or ask for support. You can even live stream other screen applications, like a painting program. While you can add a screen stream to your video stream, you can't combine the two screens for a picture-in-picture effect. Unless you buy Nitro, the live stream resolution is limited to 720p and the frame rate is limited to 30fps. Nitro users can live up to its native resolution and the frame rate is up to 60fps.

Frequently Asked Questions about Discord

1. How to Improve the Security of Using Discord

Due to the freedom of Discord, there are many scammers who will pretend to be community administrators, verification robots, or even your friends to send you private messages. To protect yourself, you can take the following measures to turn off private messages: