Tired of Instagram? Try Discord

The popularity of the social networking messaging app increased during the pandemic. Fans say the lack of an algorithmic feed makes it a more natural place to “build” community than other forms of social media.

The Discord launched as a messaging platform in 2015. The app was designed as an audio chat platform for online video gamers, a good solution for those who were frustrated by the difficulty of the disjointed communication tools available at the time.

Groups of friends in the pandemic could organize their conversation into “channels” (like Slack), instantly start group voice calls (like Skype), and broadcast games via screen sharing (like Zoom) – and thus stay in contact.

Mindy Day, a senior manager at Discord, told The Wall Street Journal that the pandemic helped the app grow, allowing anyone to “connect with those they couldn’t see in person and even cultivate relationships with new people.” The app now has over 150 million monthly active users.

Some servers are invite only. However, many servers are open to the public with common interests such as those for League of Legends and Settlers of Catan, but also those for knitting or K-Pop fans.

Discord users say the design – and lack of an algorithm – make it an app ideal for building a community around shared interests, rather than obsessing over Facebook and Instagram likes. Of course Twitter is full of short conversations related to K-Pop or a new movie, but Discord works completely differently than other social media.

For example, one community is Houseplants, where almost 9,000 people show off their plants, exchange growing tips and inform about sales. Most people find the server while looking for tips to save a plant. But newcomers soon discover that the app is more like a happy cafe. Members chat about plants but also share photos of their pets.

Another example is the Philosophy Cafe, a group of over 3,000 people with regularly scheduled audio chats to discuss topics such as Kant and Buddhism. Just over 6,000 record collectors hang out at Vinyl Chat. Automated streams highlight sales and new releases, while members chat about music.

Day says there are about 19 million active servers on Discord covering almost any topic imaginable. Search all public groups. If you don’t find a topic that interests you, you can always start your own.

Unlike platforms like Facebook or TikTok, Discord does not use an algorithm to promote content to its users. It’s more like a large group chat, but even more streamlined, because if a conversation — say, a discussion about whether to call a souvlaki a sandwich or a straw — gets out of hand, you can easily suggest switching to voice chat for to resolve the dispute more easily.

Discord, like other online platforms, of course has its drawbacks, the first being the lack of parental controls – it’s not hard to find yourself on a public server full of hate speech and misinformation.

Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow us on Google News and be the first to learn all the news from Skai.gr.