Applications for calling and communicating on the Internet replace each other on the pedestal of people’s love. Not so long ago, everyone used Skype, but now if you call a friend to this program, he will, at best, look at you with bewilderment.
Telegram, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Zoom – in today’s abundance of social platforms, it is easy to get lost. But one application in recent years has firmly established its place among the most popular messengers. Discord is popular among gamers, students, and even heads of departments of large companies who need somewhere to organize the work of their subordinates. It is a versatile program for teen patti real cash and cybersport events. So today, let’s understand what Discord is, take all its essential functions, and tell you what most different social groups use Discord for.
What is Discord in simple terms?
First, let’s get this straight: what does Discord mean? Discord is a communication application, much like Telegram or Slack, but much more advanced. The free messenger program for computers and mobile devices can also work from any browser window. The application is highly undemanding to the system and does not take a lot of rams even when active. Discord’s critical features are text messaging, voice calls, video chatting, streaming, and sending and receiving files.
Via Discord, you can communicate with a single interlocutor and in a group of up to 100 participants. In addition, you can create your conversation rooms and the structure and personalize them for you.
What do you need Discord for?
Possible applications of Discord are many – not for nothing that it has a reputation as one of the most convenient social applications. The most trivial thing you can think of – to get together with a friend or in a company to talk about anything or play some computer game together. Not a fan of interactive entertainment? Then you can use messenger as a private online cinema and watch any movie or series together using the streaming function. Or even arrange an online disco where everyone can play their favorite tracks!
In addition, you can exchange files, photos, and documents in chat. So Discord is suitable not only for idle fun but also for the serious organization of the work process. For example, let’s say the work team works on a single project. In this case, we create our server and drive all the participants there, so they are constantly in touch. Separate groups of colleagues engaged in everyday tasks can be distributed in different text channels – chats within your server. Managers will be given a particular role, allowing them to notify the right employee at any time. All schedules and other documents can be posted on the same server, and meetings and briefings can be held via voice chat. Discord copes with all these tasks no worse than special applications developed for corporate purposes and remote work.
Advantages and disadvantages of the application
Pros
- The main advantage of Discord is its versatility, unambiguously. Text messages, calls, video calls, file sharing, streams, and groups are all gathered in one convenient application. According to William Occam’s testament, do not multiply your computer with unnecessary entities. The resulting advantage is that the unloaded system is much faster and does not waste hardware resources such as CPU and RAM. Moreover, Discord is an extremely “light” application that does not squeeze any extra juice out of your computer. Of course, no one can tell you the exact figures about the RAM occupied by the application because they will be different on each system and at each moment. But if you want, you can check it yourself in Task Manager and compare it with any other similar program. More advanced users can expand the application’s functionality with special scripts and bots.
- The second big plus can be attributed to taste, but: among the current and exceptionally high-quality applications for communication, Discord has probably the most stylish and modern design. Everything is always at your fingertips: contacts, servers, and sound control with the webcam. And all the features you need, like a quick microphone mute, can be easily pinned to hotkeys.
- The third important feature will especially please gamers who use Discord in games. Since this program was initially positioned as software for fans of online video games, it has specific functionality that simplifies the use of the utility during all kinds of games. First and foremost, this is a video game overlay. This semi-transparent panel appears in a corner on top of the game during a conversation. It displays all the essential information about the call. Of course, you can turn it off if you want.
- Finally, another nice feature of Discord is multiplatform. It allows you to keep your contacts, chats, and forwarded files wherever you are. You can start a voice or video call from your computer and continue from your phone or tablet when you leave home. And with the web version, you can log into your account from any public computer without downloading anything.
Cons
Some apparent disadvantages of Discord are pretty few. But still, it is impossible not to notice that compared to other applications for communication, Discord has a relatively high entry threshold. While ordinary messengers like Telegram and WhatsApp look and operate on a fundamental level almost identical, the interface of Discord will take some getting used to at first. It is not one of those applications that can be fully mastered in a couple of minutes: learning all the advanced functions of Discord will take more than one evening. You can say that this is the downside of multifunctionality: it is too much! However, at first, you can be helped by a reasonably handy official guide that covers the program’s basic features.
User Roles
Roles are one of the handiest features for managing your server in Discord. These sets of permissions and restrictions can be given to multiple server members simultaneously. These permissions can include the right to read, edit, or write in specific channels, create new tracks and delete existing ones, use the microphone and webcam on the server, send images and links to chat, mark other participants in chat, send notifications to them, and much more. Besides, suppose you assign a specific role to a group of participants. In that case, you can permanently mark them in the chat so that they immediately notice your message: to do this, write the name of this role in the text field with a “doggie.” Roles are created and edited in the server settings: click on the name of your community, select “Server Settings,” and the tab “Roles” on the right panel.
Video chat and streaming capabilities
Three sources can be used as an outgoing video signal during a discord call. The most trivial is the image from the webcam. Suitable for personal calls and conferences with people you know and works precisely the same as in the notorious Skype. But there are two more fun features: a demonstration screen and a demonstration of a separate open window. It is beneficial when you must visually show your interlocutor some of your actions on the computer, whether setting up a necessary application for work or some unique technique in an online game.
By the way, you can also stream games for a limited audience in Discord. And, of course, the screen-sharing feature is often used to watch movies and TV shows together. In this case, all it takes is for one person to download a movie or access any online movie theater, and he can broadcast it to all the other participants of the voice channel. The program and the image will pick up the sound of the played video. And in the available broadcast settings, you can always choose the appropriate picture resolution and frame rate per second. If your Internet speed fails, the streaming quality can be reduced, and vice versa.
