Say you have a group of friends you play fighting games with on weekends. You use Discord alongside whatever other activity you're doing. A server maxes out at 50 categories and 500 channels. That said, the owner must contact Discord support for more server space to avoid connection errors if more than 25,000 people are simultaneously online. You can also invite friends you added from one server into another, even though friends don't need to share a server to communicate.Ī single server can have up to 500,000 members (250,000 on a new server).

In addition, Discord lets you customize server notifications, and give yourself a different nickname for each joined server. A single, free user can join up to 100 servers, while a paid subscriber can join 200. At the top (or on the bottom on mobile) you can add and message friends, search servers, and see if you've been mentioned in a conversation. Servers (and channels within those servers) appear on the left rail the list of server members appears on the right. In fact, Discord's video chat feature makes it a fine alternative to Zoom Meetings. A server is made up of channels that members use for communication. From there, you join a server by searching for one, accepting an invite, or creating your own. Joining Discord is as easy as using the service on your desktop browser or downloading the free app available for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. Not being tethered to a game console also strengthens Discord's argument for non-gaming uses such as talking to family or classmates. However, Discord is not locked down to any one system, unlike Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You can integrate it with your PlayStation or Xbox account, for example. Discord succeeds because it's platform agnostic. There are many ways to communicate while gaming online, but many of them are tied to specific hardware.

However, any online community can take advantage of the features Discord offers. At one point, the service gave away free PC games to paid subscribers before realizing it couldn’t beat Steam. Discord lets friends chat via voice, video, or text, and join servers where larger communities gather. With over a quarter of a billion users, Discord is one of the most popular ways that gamers communicate online.

What is discord and how does it work