Slack and Teams, while free for smaller groups of people, aren't great for talking to people outside your organization. They like the consolidated communication, the flexibility and the friendly vibes. They tend to have Discord accounts already and are familiar with the interface. Most of the people Protocol spoke to for this story work in the video game industry and fit the classic Discord demographic: young, tech-savvy, into gaming. From the way Discord talks about itself - 'your place to talk and hang out' or 'where just you and a handful of friends can spend time together' - it seems to have no interest in becoming a part of your workplace.

It's unclear if becoming a work productivity tool is something Discord even wants (the company declined to speak to Protocol for this story).

But Discord is also full of distractions, and lacks the integrations necessary to become a full-fledged work tool. A lot of people already have it, making it easy to talk to both your co-workers and client base. Its voice chat is easy and highly functional. People have strong feelings, both good and bad, about Discord as a work tool. With everyone on Discord, it was only natural that it would creep into people's professional lives. The uses of Discord grew to include study groups, language learning and bonding over hobbies. Aided by a boost in users from the pandemic, Discord became a place anyone could chat and hang out with their friends. When people grew more concerned about Zoombombing, Discord became the prime spot.ĭiscord underwent a major branding and mission transformation in 2020, moving beyond a platform solely for gamers. They used a patchwork of tools at first, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and a little bit of Discord. When the pandemic brought everything online, Hayes' research communities, like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, needed a way to meet. Hayes, a technology professor at University of North Texas, has been using her personal Discord to connect with other video gamers for a while. 'I just don't understand whose great idea it was to merge my gaming life with my professional life,' Hayes said. At some point in the pandemic, Aleshia Hayes realized that most of her work related to virtual-reality research had moved onto Discord.

What is discord and how does it work