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Discord comes to Xbox for integrated chats
Discord added an SDK to make it easier for friends to jump into each other's games and even added Spotify integration, but the service has stood on its own as a scrappy alternative to much bigger fish like Xbox Live. Which is what makes the company's new collaboration with Microsoft so interesting: Now you can link your Discord profile to your Xbox account, allowing players on Xbox One and PC to share their activity with friends and join games.
Discord bans a number of alt-right servers
The gaming chat service Discord has reportedly banned several alt-right groups. The move comes six months after the platform shut down racist accounts in the wake of the Charlottesville protests in order to 'take action against white supremacy, nazi ideology and all forms of hate.' But Discord backed away from calling out particular groups that it kicked off its service; Instead, it has removed a number of unnamed groups due to violations of the platform's terms and services, a spokesperson told Engadget in a statement.
Discord signs eSports pros to use its chat app
Discord has become something of a gaming chat-app phenomenon lately, partnering with Spotify for in-chat soundtracks, adding video chat and screensharing and bringing verified official game channels to its service. Now the company plans to expand into the eSports realm by partnering with more than 20 teams, including Team Liquid, DreamHack, and almost every Overwatch League team out there. The program launches February 22nd on the company's verified servers and will let team members and fans chat, share news and discuss upcoming matches.
Spotify teams with Discord to soundtrack your gaming chats
Spotify and gaming chat app Discord are joining forces so your entire channel can bump to the same music during a raid. Starting today, you can link your Spotify Premium account to your Discord account and keep the beats rocking for your entire community. "All users are now able to instantly highlight and share their favorite tunes with their friends across Discord," Spotify writes.
Discord makes it easier to jump into your friends' games
Gaming chat app Discord is quickly becoming a full-fledged social network. The latest move toward this is the ability to set a status for yourself and let folks know what game you're playing. More than that, Discord is launching an entire SDK (called "Rich Presence") so developers can directly integrate the app within their games, which should make joining your friends for a round of Call of Duty: WWII (one of the first supported titles) a little easier. "It gives players a clear at-a-glance understanding of what their friends are playing, how they are playing it, where they are at in the game and a one-click way to jump in and join," CEO Jason Citron said in a statement.
Chat app Discord opens official game channels
Gaming-focused chat app Discord is partnering with developers on official chat channels. Verified Servers are places where a game's community can hang out, talk and get news straight from the teams that made the games. Think of them like official forums, but with real-time communication versus asynchronous. Just look for the checkmark badge next to a server profile and you should be good to go. Developers can even add Discord badges to their website's social links and directly to their game's main menu. As Polygon notes, so far Minecraft, Offworld, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Supercell have set up shop.
Discord makes video chat and screen sharing available to all
As promised, Discord is rolling out video chat and screen share to its entire user base. Some of you may recall that the Slack-style gaming chat app began testing the highly-requested features in August. During the trial run, they were available to around 5 percent of members. Now, anyone can take advantage of video chat in one-to-one calls, or with up to ten people in a direct messaging group. You also have the option to switch between your webcam video and screen share. And, the update includes picture-in-picture support, allowing you to video chat while checking out other stuff (like servers or DMs). With 45 million users and counting, the latest changes should see Discord swipe more gamers from Skype and TeamSpeak.
Discord chats may be crucial to lawsuits over neo-Nazi violence
Discord was quick to shut down neo-Nazi servers and accounts in the wake of racist violence in Charlottesville, but that doesn't mean those conversations are gone forever. In fact, they may be instrumental to making criminal cases and lawsuits stick. The media collective Unicorn Riot has obtained leaked Discord chat screenshots (about 1,000 of them) and audio suggesting that many of the white supremacists were gearing up for a fight even as their organizers were supposedly calling for non-violence. In the days after the Charlottesville march, they also made light of the car attack that murdered Heather Heyer and injured many others.
Spotify removes ‘hate bands’ from its streaming library
You can add Spotify to the growing list of companies taking a stand against hateful, racist content. In the last few days we've seen Google and GoDaddy cancel a white supremacist website domain, Facebook and Reddit ban hate groups, Discord shut down racist accounts and GoFundMe remove a campaign in support of the man accused of driving a car into protesters this weekend in Charlottesville. Now Billboard reports that Spotify is removing "hate bands" from its streaming service.
Gaming chat app Discord starts shutting down racist accounts
Google and GoDaddy aren't the only internet companies dumping racists in light of the violence in Charlottesville. The team behind the gaming chat app Discord has shut down both accounts "associated with the events in Charlottesville" and the altright.com chat server. As the company explains, it plans to take action against "all forms of hate," and that its mission is "positivity and inclusivity" -- it doesn't believe gamers will feel welcome if racists have a home in the app.
Gaming chat app Discord tests video calls and screen sharing
Discord, the Slack-like gaming chat app, has been steadily improving since its initial launch a couple of years ago. Last January, it added a $5 paid tier for fans to essentially thank the company — the bonuses simply include GIF avatars, custom emoji and a bigger file upload limit. It secretly raised $50 million last month, as well. That extra cash may be why the Discord team is able to start rolling out two of its most-requested features, video chat and screen sharing.
Gaming chat app Discord adds a paid tier with cosmetic upgrades
Herding your friends into voice chat before a gaming session has always been a bit of a chore, especially going through the rigmarole of hosting servers and exchanging passwords. The scrappy chat service Discord aimed to simplify all that, cribbing some of Slack's better features alongside its pièce de résistance: Click-and-join servers that don't require software installation or logins. Two years after launching and 25 million players later, they've activated a new $5-per-month paid tier -- Nitro -- for fans to support the service.
Reader UI of the Week: AareDub
Have you missed us? We're sorry for the extended break, but as you now know, we've been slammed under helping to get Massively off the ground. (Speaking of which, if you haven't been over there, you do know we're giving away a Murloc suit, right?) But we're back now with lots of Reader UIs to show you -- so on we go with this week's featured UI, courtesy of AareDub from the guild <Sonic Death Monkey> on Eitrigg.I have to give credit to Taeo for giving me the inspiration. I saw a very crisp UI and thought, "I can do that." I've always tried to re-arrange my UI to allow for the most viewing space possible, but Taeo's UI just made something click for me. It only took me a few days to complete, but it took a month or so for my server transfer cooldown to get me back in a raid for some screenshots.Curious? Join me after the break for more from AareDub!
