If you’ve ever played a multiplayer game, you know that the most important thing is communication between players. Also, if you play with friends, you know what a big headache it is to get everyone online and ready to play.

Over the years, owing to the increase in the number of gamers online, many chat apps and web-based services have emerged and Discord is one such app. It brings together text, file sharing and channel-based communication interface that feels similar to Slack alongwith the audio and video calling.

It is also explicitly targetted towards gamers and hence, has excellent integration with games. Read on to find out more about Discord and why should you use it.

In the News: Nintendo Switch Lite launched: A comparison with the flagship

So what is Discord?

Aforementioned, Discord is a chat/communications app targetted towards the gaming community. However, that’s not all. Over the years, Discord has built some serious social features that make it an amazing overall communication platform.

Discord offers a ton of social features. These features can show your friends’ statuses, what game they’re playing, or even what song they’re listening on Spotify.

You can find friends by quickly searching for their codes. This also eliminates the problem of redundant usernames — something ubiquitous in the gaming community. Due to the fantastic functionalities discord provides, most people have accepted it as a full-blown communications portal. You can find discord servers on pretty much anything nowadays including, but not limited to, gaming, movies, youtube channels and even cryptocurrencies.

A lot of content creators on YouTube and Twitch also use discord as a means to interact with their audience. Discord offers a lot of customisability as well. If you’re the server admin, you can do a lot of cool stuff.

First up, there are a bunch of really cool and functional bots available. From bots that show memes to bots that play music in a voice channel, Discord makes it easy to manage and run a great server. Also, you can always create your bots if you feel the need.

Then come the additional features. Discord offers a Nitro subscription that gives you access to more features and a bunch of games on the Discord marketplace – and the fact that it is free to use.

Why should you use Discord?

Because it’s just way too convenient. Using discord can take your team communications to the next level. You also get a tremendous organisational chat tool at hand that doubles up as a game store.

Even if you aren’t going to use Discord for gaming, there are still a lot of ways you could use it as. You can, in theory, use it as a slack alternative. Or you could use it as a social tool to connect and socialise with like-minded people.

Also read: How to use your PS4 controller with PC