Discord has begun rolling out a redesigned desktop app that adds more customization to the client. To start, the new app increases the number of free themes to four. Where previously you could choose between two skins — light and dark — if you weren't a Nitro subscriber, now your options are light, ash, dark and onyx. In short, everyone gets access to more dark themes. Discord has also added three new UI density options — default, spacious and compact. These are separate from the app's existing message layout options, so it's another way to tweak the look and feel of the interface.
With this redesign, the company is also finally giving users the option to resize the channel list. Discord has also redesigned the controls that appear when you're on a voice or video call. Now, more of the buttons you may want to press during a call will appear in the center bar along the bottom of the screen. At the same time, the mic and camera buttons feature more color, so you have a better indicator if you're muted or your camera is active.
"All of these updates are meant to enhance legibility, reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by visual noise, and maintain consistency across desktop and mobile devices," Discord explains.
Separately, the redesigned app ships with a new overlay that Discord says is faster and won't impact game performance. Taking a page Valve's recent redesign of Steam, Discord has reworked the interface around widgets, meaning you can move around each individual element as you wish. The company has also re-engineered the overlay so that it doesn't "hook" itself into games. As a result, it's less likely to trigger anti-cheat systems like BattleEye. In turn, that means the new overlay is compatible with "a larger portion of the most-played games on Discord." It's even possible to watch a friend's stream directly from the new overlay.
The redesigned app and overlay arrive after Discord CEO Jason Citron announced last May the company would refocus on building the best possible communications tool for gamers. In 2020, Discord briefly rebranded itself as a general purpose chat app after many young people turned to the platform to stay in touch with their friends during lockdown.
"After taking stock of the world now that the pandemic is largely behind us, and learning directly from you about how Discord can be even more useful, we've recognized the need to narrow our focus from broadly being a community-centric chat app to being a place that helps people deepen their friendships around games and shared interests," Citron wrote last year.
The update also arrives at what could be a pivotal moment for Discord. According to a recent New York Times report, the company could go public as early as later this year. With 72 percent of Discord users regularly gaming on PC, ensuring those people are taken care of ahead of a potential IPO takes on a sense of urgency.
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