Discord mobile app update adds dedicated tabs, improves functionalities; Know how to use them

Discord mobile app has received a major redesign which has already begun being rolled out to users starting yesterday, December 5. The popular messaging and social media app focused on the gaming community is getting major improvements for certain functionalities while others are getting an entire redesign. For the longest time, users had highlighted that the mobile app has a cluttered experience, with many features spread randomly, with no easy way to locate them or reach them quickly. Discord has now addressed the issue with this update. Let us take a closer look.

“When we launched the Discord mobile app in 2015, our focus was on building great products for people who play games on PC, with mobile serving as a companion app for when you were away from your keyboard. Now, with more users spending time using Discord on the go, we’re excited to roll out a faster, more reliable app than before, designed specifically for mobile,” said Francesco Polizzi, Group Product Manager at Discord.

Discord mobile app gets a redesign

1. Navigation

A big focus is on the in-app navigation with this redesign. Discord mobile app has redesigned how chats are organized, to make the app easier to use. Today’s design update separates Servers and Messages into different tabs while retaining the vertical server navigation that Discord users are used to.

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When launching the updated mobile experience, users will notice a set of new Navigation Tabs on the bottom. What was once hidden behind a sliding motion is now front and center to the app - the moment the app is opened, Servers, Messages, Notifications, and the You tab are accessible.

2. Messages

All Direct Messages (DMs) and Group Direct Messages (GDMs) now live in the Messages tab. Mobile users can see what all their friends are doing in the moment, whether they are in a voice channel together, playing a game or Activity, or just listening to something on Spotify. Users can also favorite specific DMs or GDMs in the app, so they will always appear at the top of the Messages tab.

The update also improves the GDM experience, with a faster, easier way to create a Group Direct Message, and in addition to long-pressing on a message to reply to it, users can now quickly Swipe to Reply to any message posted in chat.

The Discord app update also includes a supercharged search function, so users can scour through all of their messages, pins, files, and attachments, and pinned messages, straight from the Search bar. Mobile users no longer have to search for a particular pinned message in each DM individually — one search bar looks through it all.

3. Notifications

Any time something new happens, users can jump into the Notifications tab to stay up to date on all the times they have been @mentioned, just like before. In addition to @mentions, any Server Events, updates on Friend Requests, and replies to messages will show up in this tab.

Every notification is now actionable: tap a @mention, and go straight to where it was posted. New friend request accepted? Users can simply tap that notification to go directly to a DM with them. Server event started? Tap the notification to jump to the server the event is taking place in. Additionally, notifications will now auto-clear as soon as they are read to save time on tapping to clear the tab.

4. You tab

Represented by a user’s profile icon, the You tab gives users direct access to see what their profile looks like at any time. By visiting the You tab, users can change their profile and status, upload a new profile icon, access account settings, and find their friends list right here. To get to settings quickly, users can also double-tap the You tab icon at the bottom of the screen.

The User Settings page also has a search bar, to help users navigate to a particular setting at any time.

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5. Night mode

Upon user request, Discord has introduced a new Midnight theme, which is pure black to save battery. Everyone can freely utilize the new Midnight theme, where chat spaces will be on fully-black backgrounds — great for saving a little bit of battery on smartphones with OLED screens.

6. Media-sharing

With improvements implemented earlier this year to media sharing, mobile users can select even more pictures and videos at once, even the high-quality ones (up to 25 MB), and upload them away. Media can be viewed in a neatly organized grid, and when adding multiple images to a message, they will be organized in a gallery-style view instead of embedding in their full size.

7. Faster loading times

Discord announced earlier this year that they had reduced app open time by 55% on Android and 43% on iOS. Now, when navigating between channels and chats, the mobile app uses four times less data when loading up for the first time, and keeps the most recent messages cached in the background. When moving between conversations in servers and DMs, the mobile app will store the recent messages of up to 700 text channels and DMs, letting them load quicker as users navigate their communities.