How Discord (Somewhat Accidentally) Invented the Future of the Internet

But five years in, it's clear that Discord has done something remarkable. It's built a space that feels unlike any other on the internet. It's not quite group chat, it's not quite forums, it's not quite conference calling. It's all of those things and none of them. It turns out, in that messy middle, is a place that mirrors what it's like to be hum... See more

Now, Discord's trying simply to be clear and forceful about what's acceptable and what isn't, and to enforce those rules consistently. It's investing in bots and other automated mod tools, but the Trust and Safety team now makes up more than 15% of Discord's staff. While there's still plenty of bad stuff on the platform, progress seems to be strong... See more

Discord's moderation bot, named CarlBot, does a pretty good job of automatically deleting problematic messaging and alerting the mods.

While Zoom, Teams and others focused on building teleconferencing features — breakout rooms, Q&A, integration with work tools, transcripts, that sort of thing — Discord has continued drilling down on quality and latency.

There's not much that Discord does that users strictly can't do elsewhere. On one hand, it's a lot like Slack, blending public channels with easy side-chats and plenty of ways to rope in the right people. It's also a bit like Reddit, full of ever-evolving conversations that you can either try to keep up with or just jump into when you log in. (In f... See more

Voice chatting in Discord isn't like setting up a call, it doesn't involve dialing or sharing a link and password or anything at all formal. Every channel has a dedicated space for voice chat, and anyone who drops in is immediately connected and talking.

Fast-forward a few years, and Discord is at the center of the gaming universe. It has more than 100 million monthly active users, in millions of communities for every game and player imaginable.