What is Discord? Discord is a free messenger for voice and text chats. The app was developed for communication in online games, but is also generally popular as an online meeting point. Here you can find out more about what Discord is all about.

This is Discord

The free Discord app is a universal messenger for various systems. It combines a clear, Slack-like user interface with video and voice chat in the Skype style. With over 250 million users worldwide, Discord is very popular. The app was originally developed as a free Teamspeak alternative for online games, but there are also Discord groups for exchanging ideas on completely different topics such as hobbies and politics.

Not only is Discord used for game chatting, it's also used for study groups and all sorts of other purposes. Image: © Discord 2021

This is how Discord works

Discord users can open so-called " servers ". This is your Discord home, where you can exchange ideas with friends or with larger groups. Only those who receive an invitation from you can enter your server. You can also join other users' Discord servers upon invitation and have a say there. In the technical sense, it is actually not a server, but rather Discord uses the in-house online server to host the app.

You can create text channels within your "server" in order to chat about games or other topics such as cooking. In addition, you can open voice channels for voice and video chats, for example to watch the angry reactions of other players if you have defeated their team again. Or for comedy clubs through to karaoke nights. Discord uses "Voice over IP" for voice transmission. This ensures a high voice quality.

Discord also allows video chats. Image: © Discord 2021

You assign certain roles to members of your server, such as administrator or moderator. For example, you determine whether a member can view and manage channels and roles, whether they can manage emojis, whether they can create invitations or remove members, and so on. In this way, member hierarchies can be built up and very structured groups can be organized. This and the possibility of limiting it to small groups with the invitation links has made some right-wing extremist groups discover Discord as their preferred organization platform. Discord blocks such accounts again and again.

Usually you start by sending friends an invite link to your Discord server or vice versa. You can also search for publicly listed Discord servers, for example on Disboard , and join them.

Download Discord for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, etc.

This is what the desktop version of Discord looks like. Image: © Discord 2021

Discord is available for all possible systems such as Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhones, Android and the web browser. You can find the links to the different versions here:

Discord and data protection

Discord is not recommended for use in the home office and generally for data-sensitive purposes. Personal data must be protected according to the GDPR, but Discord grants itself very extensive rights to use data . The Discord privacy policy states: "The information we collect includes, but is not limited to, username, email address and all messages, images, temporary VoIP data (to enable communication) and other content that you have send the chat function. "

Discord claims practically all user content on the platform for itself. Image: © Discord 2021

That also explains how Discord can finance such a large free app with huge servers in the US: through data trading, among other things. "We can share this collected data with our subsidiaries, agencies and business partners," said the company in its own data protection declaration.

Summary

• Discord is a free messenger app for text, voice and video chats.
• So-called "servers" serve as online rooms for chats.
• Access to servers takes place via invitation links.
• You can assign certain "roles" (permissions) to server members.
• Discord's privacy policy is very limited.