Out With The Old, In With The New

For me, communication is key. To keep in touch with my group of friends, we’ve gotten into a habit of communicating through the internet instead of texting. Therefor, instant messaging has been very important to me. We started off using skype, a common program that most everyone has heard of.  It was great, it allowed us to message each other in a group room, and also voice chat with each other. As years passed by, Microsoft updated skype. These updates added few features, and was mostly just cosmetic changes, that also came with poor performance.  Eventually, we started searching for an alternative. We tried Google hangouts, a decent alternative, but we couldn’t get everyone to agree. It had a nice web client and app, but it didn’t have a solid program.  Teamspeak was nice, and included some features that the previous programs didn’t have, but required a monthly payment if we wanted a private server.  Then came Discord.

A few months ago, a group of games undergoing the same search as my group of friends and I, decided to stop looking and create their own solution instead. They created a premium looking product, that doesn’t require a purchase to use, or unlock any features.  It runs smoothly, and doesn’t burden your computer. The mobile app is also up to date, and doesn’t slow down your device.  It’s been something that I’ve come to rely on as a replacement to Skype.

Similar to Teamspeak, you are able to create servers, where you can invite people to. You have access to permissions where you can choose who has the ability to do what. You have the ability to create multiple text and voice channels.  A cool new feature though is the ability to sync your youtube and twitch accounts. You can give special permissions to subscribers automatically when they join your server with their discord account synced to their twitch or youtube account. This allows subscribers to have a direct form of communication with the streamer. I’ve seen a lot more twitch streamers recently using this feature to their benefit.  

One of the coolest features is an overlay. Discord being designed for gamers, understands that most of the time, users will be playing a game. Instead of tabbing out to, Discord is developing an overlay that will allow you to continue to chat while ingame. It’s currently being tested, and Discord itself is more in a beta position, but it’s functional, looks nice, and is one of the best instant messaging programs out there right now.