How an App for Gamers Went Mainstream

Because Discord is a chat, not a feed, it’s also free of the algorithms that creators so often bemoan. If influencers want to announce that they have a new video out, or promote a merch sale, they can post a message to everyone in the #announcements channel of their Discord server instead of posting about it on Instagram and hoping the post gets se... See more

Discord feels like the best parts of group chat, amplified. It’s also, consequentially, where teenagers feel comfortable just being themselves.

Once a community is established with enough moderators in place, influencers also don’t have to do tons of work to keep it going. Fans can bond with one another, which ultimately solidifies their bond with the influencer as the creator of that community. Many of the top YouTuber Discord servers include dozens of channels that have nothing to do wit... See more

Roberto Blake, an Atlanta-based YouTuber, compared Discord not to Slack but to “chat rooms from the 1990s.” But, he told me, “they made that experience mobile and way more robust and sophisticated.” In a social-media landscape organized around reverse-chronological feeds, profile pages, default public content, and follower counts, Discord is palpab... See more

“Discord is the only place where I can hang out with friends and really feel like I’m hanging out with them,” said Carson King, a YouTuber who first set up his Discord server two years ago. Many other influencers also say that before Discord, there was no way to effectively communicate with their community.