Reasons You Need to Start Using Discord Today

Discord was initially designed for the gaming community in 2015. However, over the years, this platform has grown into something much bigger than that. Nowadays, there are hundreds of millions of users worldwide who communicate through this software. So, what is Discord, and why should you start using it today?

What is Discord?

Discord is a freeware communication app that works entirely over the internet. Within each chat channel, you can communicate through text messages, voice chat, video calls, images, and GIFs, often all within the same server.

The intention behind Discord was to create a platform for gamers so they could communicate in real time without lag getting in the way. Unlike Skype, which is also used within the gaming community, Discord isn’t primarily built around video calling — it’s first and foremost a messaging and community platform, with voice and video layered on top.

Why you should use Discord

Discord has plenty of perks for gamers and non-gamers alike. Here are some solid reasons to start using it in your daily life.

It’s customizable

When you start using Discord, you don’t have to worry about hunting down a username that isn’t already taken by someone else. Since the system pairs your username with a unique identifier behind the scenes, you’re free to pick pretty much any display name you like without the usual “username123847” frustration.

On your account, and within individual servers, you can customize the layout to suit your own interests and needs. You can create or download specific themes, set a custom profile banner, and adjust notification settings on a per-server basis so the servers that matter most stay loud and the rest stay quiet.

You can join multiple servers

On Discord, a server is essentially a group chat, but a much more structured one. Each server usually revolves around a specific theme or shared interest among its members. If you’re really into World of Warcraft, you can join a server built specifically around that game. If you’re also into Star Wars, there’s nothing stopping you from joining that community too, right alongside it.

You can even create your own server and invite your friends to join. Maybe your friend group ends up with a server dedicated purely to your group’s inside jokes and shared activities. In that case, it functions a bit like a WhatsApp group chat, just with a lot more customization built in — separate channels for different topics, voice rooms you can drop into whenever, and roles you can assign to different members.

It’s secure

There are always a few people online with bad intentions, but Discord gives you real tools to deal with that. You get to decide who can and can’t contact you directly. If someone is harassing you, you can report and block them in just a couple of taps.

If you own a server, you get to decide who’s allowed to join in the first place, often through invite links you control. If manually moderating feels like too much work, you can add a moderation bot to automatically flag or remove anyone who breaks the server’s rules, without you needing to watch every channel constantly.

Since Discord is used by such a wide range of people, there’s also a chance of running into NSFW (not safe for work) content or profiles here and there. If that applies to you, you can mark your own profile or channels with an NSFW label. If you’d rather avoid that kind of content entirely, Discord’s filters help keep NSFW-labeled content out of your view by default.

Discord is versatile

Rather than being locked to one specific website or app, Discord works across multiple platforms at once. You can download the app on your phone or laptop, or just use it directly through a web browser without installing anything at all — your servers and messages stay in sync no matter which one you use.

Both the website and the native apps offer a dark and a light theme, so you can pick whichever one suits your eyes better, especially during a late-night gaming session.

If you want to set up a server with thousands of members, that’s not a problem either — Discord’s infrastructure was built to handle a genuinely massive number of people in a single space. Since it was originally designed for gamers, it also puts a real emphasis on minimizing lag and delay, which matters a lot more than people realize once a voice channel gets busy.

It has genuinely useful voice channels

Beyond text, Discord’s voice channels are a big part of why it took off with gamers in the first place. Unlike a scheduled call, a voice channel just sits there, open, and people can drop in and out whenever they’re free, the same way you might wander over to a friend’s desk to say hi. This “always-on” feel makes it a genuinely low-pressure way to stay connected with a group, without needing to coordinate a specific time for everyone to be available.

Bots extend what it can do

Much like Telegram or Kik, Discord has an enormous ecosystem of bots that extend what a server can do well beyond basic chatting. There are music bots for playing songs together in a voice channel, moderation bots for keeping things civil, and game bots for trivia, leveling systems, and mini-games right inside a text channel. For more on the built-in gaming side of chat apps, see our guide on gaming with your contacts. Most servers you join will already have a few installed, and adding your own to a server you run is usually as simple as a few clicks.

It’s free

While Skype is also mostly free to use, plenty of other communication apps aren’t nearly as generous. Discord is one of the few that offers this many features without charging for the core experience. Some cosmetic extras, like special profile decorations or a paid subscription tier with perks such as bigger upload limits, are available for a few dollars, but the core functionality the platform was built around remains completely free for everyone.

Downsides to Discord

Of course, a free platform can’t be all sunshine and rainbows. Even Discord has a handful of downsides worth knowing about. That said, these are mostly minor and easy to work around once you know they exist.

Trolls

No, not the mythical kind — just people who enjoy annoying others for the sake of it. Sometimes they’ll spam a server with nonsense, or worse, racist or sexist comments meant to provoke a reaction. The most effective way to deal with them is simply to block and report, rather than engaging directly, which usually just encourages more of the same behavior.

Your data lives on their servers

While you can absolutely create and run your own personal server, your data still ultimately lives on Discord’s central infrastructure rather than anywhere you control directly. Most people won’t mind this in practice, but some genuinely do. That said, this is essentially the same tradeoff you make with most other messaging platforms too, so it’s not really unique to Discord specifically.

It can get overwhelming

With how easy it is to join new servers, it’s also easy to end up in far more of them than you can realistically keep up with. A cluttered server list with dozens of unread notification badges can quickly turn something meant to be fun into a source of low-grade stress. The fix is simple, if a little tedious: mute or leave servers you’re not actually engaging with anymore, and lean on notification settings to keep only the communities that genuinely matter to you actively pinging your phone.

It’s great for staying close to a scattered friend group

If your friends are spread across different cities or time zones, Discord’s always-on voice channels make it easy to keep a group feeling close without needing to schedule a formal call every time. People can drop into a voice channel while doing other things — gaming, working, just hanging out — and others can join whenever they’re free, the same way you might casually wander into a room where friends are already talking. That low-pressure, drop-in format tends to keep scattered friend groups feeling connected in a way that occasional scheduled calls alone don’t. Our roundup of the best apps to stay in touch with online friends covers a few more options worth considering alongside Discord.

Threads and forums keep conversations organized

Larger Discord servers often use threads or dedicated forum channels to keep specific conversations from getting buried in a fast-moving main chat. Instead of one long, constantly scrolling feed, a thread lets a particular topic or question live in its own contained space, so people can jump in days later without needing to scroll back through hundreds of unrelated messages. It’s a small structural feature, but it makes a real difference once a server grows beyond a handful of active members.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve read all about Discord, are you ready to make an account and start chatting? You’ve seen the pros and the cons, so now it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth adding to your daily routine. We can only tell you so much about the platform from the outside — the rest, you’ll have to figure out for yourself once you’re actually in a server talking to people. Happy chatting.