Discord

Mobile-Friendly Desktop Friendly Free for UofT students

About

Discord is a free voice and text communication platform targeted primarily at the gaming market. It aims to match the ease of use of existing chat clients like Skype and mix it with the power of servers with multiple rooms and role permissions offered by voice clients like Teamspeak. Whether you’re part of a school club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or just a handful of friends that want to spend time together, Discord is a great way to get everyone together

The Takeaway: Discord is one of the best ways to start an engaged online community as it rolls all the familiar features of popular platforms into one: you can invite people to a dedicated "server", you can create topic-based channels for organized conversations, and spontaneously meet with whoever's online in the voice channel which essentially acts as a lounge area.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft. Unlimited amount of users. Invite links expire after a set amount of time, making it more secure Easily change user name, server nicknames. Users can add preferred pronoun to name or as a custom flair.	Video chat limited to 25 participants Accessibility issues such as no screen reader support, small buttons on mobile app, issues with keyboard navigation Not a generic "team chat" tool Mainly targeted towards gamers, some of the language/terms might be inaccessible to non-gamers Might not be suitable for a large viewing party (50+). Amount of viewers is reliant on the current load of the Netflix Party servers, although 50 is advertised as the limit.

Pros

Cons

Discord follows the same type of interface design popularised by Slack, which is extremely clean and attractive, and doesn't clutter the interface with unnecessary chrome and cruft.

Unlimited amount of users.

Invite links expire after a set amount of time, making it more secure

Easily change user name, server nicknames. Users can add preferred pronoun to name or as a custom flair.

Video chat limited to 25 participants

Accessibility issues such as no screen reader support, small buttons on mobile app, issues with keyboard navigation

Not a generic "team chat" tool

Mainly targeted towards gamers, some of the language/terms might be inaccessible to non-gamers

Might not be suitable for a large viewing party (50+). Amount of viewers is reliant on the current load of the Netflix Party servers, although 50 is advertised as the limit.

Pricing

Discord is completely free to set up and use.

Accessibility

Discord does not currently offer much in terms of accessibility support compared to other meeting platforms; for instance, it has limited support for screen readers and keyboard navigation. Users have had issues with button sizes being too small on the mobile and tablet app.

To access Discord from an unsupported country, consider using one of the UofT supported VPNs. Please consult your federal or regional law on the use of VPNs before using any of the following solutions.

Please note that Discord is classified as a VOIP service so it may not work if you are trying to access it from country that restricts VOIP platforms

Security

Discord Safety Center

Four steps to a super safe account

Four steps to a super safe server

Training Resources

Discord Interface

Beginner's Guide to Discord

How Do I Change My Username?