Forward-looking: When Discord launched in May 2015, it did so under the guise of a communications app for gamers. In recent years, however, many people started using the app to chat about things other than video games. Now, the company is moving to embrace a wider range of users.
In a blog published earlier today, co-founders Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy said they have streamlined the new user onboard experience and added additional server templates to help newcomers get going. They've also increased video and voice capacity by 200 percent and squashed hundreds of bugs as part of their continued investment in performance and reliability.
While Discord isn't rebranding in the traditional sense (by changing its name), the company is launching a new website and introducing a new tagline: Your place to talk.
Usage of Discord and competing chat / collaboration platforms has skyrocketed in recent months as shelter-in-place orders stemming from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic forced millions to work remotely over the Internet.
As a result, Discord currently enjoys more than 100 million monthly active users who collectively rack up around four billion minutes of conversations each day across 6.7 million active servers. On a weekly scale, it averages closer to 26 billion minutes of conversation on some 13.5 million active servers.
Do you have any personal experience with Discord? How does it compare to rival group chat apps like Slack or Teams? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Masthead credit: NYC Russ