Discord APK

This is the mobile version of the Discord chat app, which makes chatting, audio calls, and even video easier.

It's a public-facing program that is a lot like Slack. While slack is more for private use and has a lot of private controls for business security, Discord is all about being a welcoming company while still having some privacy controls.

Discord has a much wider user community now, but one big purpose was for gaming groups. Whether its MMORPG guilds who need to communicate in complex raids, FPS players who need to coordinate their shots, or wider strategy war game groups who need entire platoons or divisions to communicate, Discord has it covered.

What Does Discord Do?

To understand Discord, let's talk about what it replaces.

Lots of gamers use specific programs to talk. Voice comms, voice chat, voice calls, whatever you want to call it.

Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Mumble, Raid Call, and Skype are all programs that many people know for a variety of games. They allow people to talk together in groups--usually around 2-15, but sometimes more--for coordinated gaming.

A few groups of friends having fun is nice, but you need to be able to coordinate. For that reason, a basic phone call app isn't enough. Almost every group has someone who can't stop talking or someone who talks over others, and they're not always in charge.

Most apps have some form of push to talk feature, but always ways to mute or lower the volume for certain users. That level of control is crucial for organized gaming.

Another part of communications is chat. It's not just about chatting while gaming is happening; what about the game community outside of the game?

Logging into most games gives you a way to chat. Sometimes its through a private message system, sometimes through guild chat, or sometimes the game even gives you a way to make chatrooms.

Still, you have to turn on the game. That's rough on some people's computers, and some people would rather handle quick chats while not at the computer or in the game.

Discord combines all of these features elegantly. You can have multiple voice channels for talking, multiple chat channels for different subjects, and there are fine-tuned user controls for every room you make no matter the type.

The chat is also a smooth way to share media. Youtube videos, gifs, and websites often come with a preview, and not safe for work (NSFW) content can be filtered with Discord's automated detection system if you want.

Which is great, because you can have most channels safe for work with heavy automatic moderation, and if people whine about not being to express themselves, they can post in NSFW-capable rooms. Anyone with a problem beyond that is usually not good for a group that cares.

And that's another great feature. You don't have to just kick out people with no filter. They can make their own Discord server, chat there, and get it all out of their system.

The server limit is 200 servers now, up from the previous 100. That's a lot of servers to join, whether you're there to be a part of the community, check information as it updates rather than using slowly-updating websites, or just to use someone's emoji.

Some people even make servers just to upload and use emoji in other servers.

Discord is great, essentially. Few other apps do the same job as efficiently, and no others are household names yet to make others likely to download them.