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Chatting with your teammates while playing your favorite titles has become a whole lot easier thanks to a little application called Discord. Communication is hugely important for highly-competitive games like CS:GO and LoL, allowing you to clearly and accurately report on your enemy’s whereabouts.
Whilst Discord isn’t exactly “new” anymore – I mean, it’s one of the biggest VOIP services available right now – there are still a ton of people utilizing other services that may be less efficient and more costly. Discord is a free-to-use service that provides pretty much everything you need from a gaming standpoint. That being said, it isn’t just gamers utilizing Discord anymore. Small businesses, YouTubers, and Twitch streamers can all make excellent usage of this fantastic application.
In the following guide, we’ll be taking a look at exactly what Discord has to offer. We’ll be looking at how to use Discord, how much it costs, the main features, and what separates this great service from the alternatives out there.
So, with plenty to get through, let’s waste no further time and dive straight into it!
What Is Discord App?
In the simplest possible terms, Discord is TeamSpeak, Skype, and Slack all rolled into one. It’s one of the most popular VOIP services on the internet, hosting millions of people worldwide. In the early years, it was geared towards gamers who needed a place for community and communication when MIRC channels died. However, since its release back in 2015, Discord has captivated a global audience of well over 250 million users. Check out our full articles on When Was Discord Made? and also Who Owns Discord? for more information.
Leap forward to today, and Discord is mainly used amongst the gaming community, allowing gamers to freely chat with friends and teammates. The easy-to-use application makes chatting accessible and enjoyable, offering tools that allow for streaming, adding friends and family, and even creating your own private server with its very own functioning bot.
It isn’t just gamers that utilize this fantastic service though, influencers, streamers, YouTubers, and even businesses are starting to jump on board. Thanks to the wide array of features this software offers, users from all sectors are finding a use for their very own Discord server.
Discord offers you everything you’d need for a flourishing community. It is fun, easy to use, and easily manageable for admins with a lot of people to deal with. Ultimately, Discord has done what no other VOIP has done before; it’s taken the best features of its rivals and made something even better.
Creating your own server probably isn’t the first thing you’d do when joining Discord, however, it’s certainly something you could do if needed – and doesn’t require a bunch of technical know-how to build either.
Check out our guide on how to create a Discord server here.
However, if you’re just jumping into any one of the thousands of Discord servers already in existence, it couldn’t be easier to use.
A Discord server is a chat room in which users can interact with each other via text or voice communication. You can easily set up your own chat server and invite your friends and teammates to it. Inside the server, you can further organize communication via channels. Channels are small spaces that, once again, can be either text or voice communication. They allow you to organize your server and segregate individual topics into specific areas. For example, if you join a gaming server, but you only want to play Fall Guys – you would join the Fall Guys channel.
As with other voice utilities, Discord allows users to join multiple servers, saving them in a favorites column for easier access. You can create multiple servers for various scenarios, for example, you could have a private chat for you and your family, whilst having a more public forum type server for gaming and friends.
As we mentioned earlier, you don’t actually have to create your own server to use Discord. You can easily join an already populated Discord to find friends or gamers with similar interests. Most YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and influencers have a Discord channel now where you can enter and discuss the relevant subject matter.
Creating your own server is just a drop in the ocean of what Discord has to offer. There are thousands of servers out there, finding one that will almost certainly meet your needs and requirements couldn’t be easier.
Add Friends, Colleagues, And Family In Discord
Like most chat room services, Discord also allows you to create a friends’ list. Within this friends’ list, users can directly message each other in private, instead of chatting over a public channel.
The easiest way to add friends to your list is by searching for their username on a current Discord server. On the right-hand side of every Discord server, you’ll see a list of active users that are connected with that particular server. If you want to add someone from that server, simply right-click their name and select ‘Add Friend’ from the list of available options.
Like always, this will send a private message to that user requesting a friendship be made. They can either accept or refuse the invitation by clicking the relevant button next to your request.
If you aren’t on an active server with the user you want to add, you can always search for a specific user if you know their unique username. Discord will, again, send a request to that person and they can accept as and when they see it.
Once you’ve created your list of friends, you’ll be able to direct message them on a more private level. Simply double click their name and it’ll automatically open up a private chat window. Furthermore, you’ll be able to have private video chats or even add that person to a group message.
Link Your Accounts Through Discord
As you’ll have probably noticed, most influencers are pushing their own Discord channels these days. These servers play host to communities in which people can come together and chat about relevant subject matter. Well, Discord now allows users to link all their social media channels together with little to no fuss. That’s right. Steam, Twitch, Spotify, Xbox, you name it, Discord allows you to link everything together for seamless usage.
Physically connecting your accounts to Discord couldn’t be easier. It works in the same way other chat or social media platforms do, allowing you to connect by simply logging into your account via the Discord application. This is a great feature for individuals looking to diversify their social media following, or just create a closer relationship with some of their online pals.
For those that are a little more privacy-conscious, you do have the ability to choose which social media platforms are connected to your Discord account. You can toggle the relevant accounts within your Discord profile. Furthermore, if you do decide to connect your Spotify or Xbox account to Discord, you can let your friends know which games you’re playing via Discord. It’ll pop up as a mini-status under your name.
Discord Go Live
Discord wasn’t happy just being a text/voice-based service, it wanted a piece of the streaming pie too. And, that’s exactly what Discord developers did – they added a Go Live feature where you can quickly and easily stream what your screen is seeing.
The feature is called ‘Go Live’ and enables users to stream live gameplay to other users who want to watch. To put your activity live, you simply need to click on the stream button which can be found just above the server name – or underneath the list of channels in the server.
Once you click this button, it’ll come up with a few options for streaming quality and frame rate. Choose your settings, make sure you’re streaming to the correct channel and you’re good to go.
You aren’t restricted to gaming either, you can also share your screen for tutorials in applications. Considering how easy it is to use, Discord’s Go Live feature really does offer a lot of functionality. A great tool for gamers or businesses.
How To Stream Using Discord’s Go Live Feature
Discord Nitro
For the most part, Discord is 100% free. That’s right, you can create servers, add friends, make entire communities without spending a penny. However, there are some additional features Discord offers that do require some cash to be spent.
Discord Nitro is their paid subscription. It will set you back around $10 per month (or $100 per year) and gives users access to a whole host of additi0nal features. Users that opt to use Discord Nitro will be able to use animated emotes across multiple servers – not just their own. Nitro also allows users to upload bigger files, stream in 4K, and even boosts their servers – helping your favorite server to unlock more functionality and features to its users. You can read about “How Discord makes money” here.
Like most social media/chat-based applications these days, Discord also works over multiple platforms. That’s right, using Discord shouldn’t be restricted to PC/laptop use, you’ll also be able to use Discord on your phone as well.
Discord has created a handy mobile app that can be downloaded and used with all the functionality of the PC version. Users opting for the mobile app will still be able to use voice and video calls, find chats, and located servers across the platform. For all intents and purposes, there is literally no difference between the mobile app and the full PC version. That means no matter where you are, you’ll be able to connect with your online friends.
Discord microphone not working?
Where To Download Discord?
So, there you have it guys, our comprehensive rundown of Discord, and exactly what you can use it for. It’s safe to say that, Discord is easily our favorite VOIP service, providing you with literally everything you need to build a bubbling community or working environment.
If you’re looking to download Discord, simply follow this link.
Please check out WePC’s other related articles covering all things Discord on the right hand side of this page.
If you’ve any further questions these articles don’t cover, feel free to drop us a comment in the section below. We’ll try our best to answer all your questions and solve any of the problems you may be having. Better still, you can now head on over to our Wepc Community where you can discuss everything Discord related with like-minded individuals.
