Discord has begun rolling out a redesigned desktop app that provides extra customization to the consumer. To begin, the brand new app will increase the variety of free themes to 4. The place beforehand you may select between two skins — gentle and darkish — when you weren't a Nitro subscriber, now your choices are gentle, ash, darkish and onyx. Briefly, everybody will get entry to extra darkish themes. Discord has additionally added three new UI density choices — default, spacious and compact. These are separate from the app's present message format choices, so it's one other method to tweak the feel and appear of the interface.
With this redesign, the corporate can be lastly giving customers the choice to resize the channel checklist. Discord has additionally redesigned the controls that seem once you're on a voice or video name. Now, extra of the buttons you might need to press throughout a name will seem within the middle bar alongside the underside of the display screen. On the identical time, the mic and digital camera buttons function extra shade, so you’ve a greater indicator when you're muted or your digital camera is lively.
"All of those updates are supposed to improve legibility, scale back the sensation of being overwhelmed by visible noise, and preserve consistency throughout desktop and cellular gadgets," Discord explains.
Individually, the redesigned app ships with a brand new overlay that Discord says is quicker and received't impression recreation efficiency. Taking a web page Valve's latest redesign of Steam, Discord has reworked the interface round widgets, which means you possibly can transfer round every particular person factor as you want. The corporate has additionally re-engineered the overlay in order that it doesn't "hook" itself into video games. Consequently, it's much less more likely to set off anti-cheat techniques like BattleEye. In flip, meaning the brand new overlay is appropriate with "a bigger portion of the most-played video games on Discord." It's even doable to look at a pal's stream instantly from the brand new overlay.
The redesigned app and overlay arrive after Discord CEO Jason Citron introduced final Might the corporate would refocus on constructing the absolute best communications device for avid gamers. In 2020, Discord briefly rebranded itself as a common function chat app after many younger folks turned to the platform to remain in contact with their buddies throughout lockdown.
"After taking inventory of the world now that the pandemic is basically behind us, and studying instantly from you about how Discord will be much more helpful, we've acknowledged the necessity to slender our focus from broadly being a community-centric chat app to being a spot that helps folks deepen their friendships round video games and shared pursuits," Citron wrote final yr.
The replace additionally arrives at what might be a pivotal second for Discord. Based on a latest New York Times report, the corporate may go public as early as later this yr. With 72 p.c of Discord customers recurrently gaming on PC, guaranteeing these individuals are taken care of forward of a possible IPO takes on a way of urgency.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/computer/discords-redesigned-pc-app-has-multiple-dark-modes-a-new-overlay-and-more-160019822.html?src=rss
