Discord bots were a source of trouble for YouTube. While Google never said so directly, it likely has something to do with copyright and monetization concerns. Those Discord bots effectively scraped YouTube for audio and video without going via the site or its ad network.
Well, Google has ended Groovy, the chatbot for Discord that allows you to play YouTube videos during your weekly D&D sessions. After a rocky decade and a half, Discord and YouTube have patched things up with the release of YouTube Watch Together, a tool that enables Discord users to watch YouTube videos in sync with the press of a button.
It’s an element of something called Activities, which has recently been added to Discord. A rocket icon next to the “share screen” button will provide access to such Activities. When you click it, you and your friends can participate in two Activities: Watch Together and the mini putt casual game Putt Party. If you have a friend already participating in any activity, you can follow them by selecting the join activity button.
Poker Night, Sketch Heads, Chess in the Park, Checkers in the Park, Land-io, Letter League, and Blazing 8s are just some of the other casual games that can be played with Discord Nitro. Some of these games, like Chess in the Park, will have player limits. This paves the way for enormous viewing parties on YouTube or in-house Chess championships.
Discord is also launching a cheaper Nitro package to get more players into the platform’s casual games. Discord Nitro Basic costs $2.99, and grants access to all these games in addition to customized emoji and submissions up to 50MB. Still, it does not include use to server boosts, HD video streaming, animation avatars, or customized accounts like the regular $9.99 Nitro subscription does. The 20th of October will see the release of Nitro Basic, and later this week, Discord Activities will be made available.
