Simply put, Discord is one of the leading voice-chat services around the world for PC users, and has been for quite some time. While their storefront idea didn’t exactly pan out as they were hoping, they continue to be a consistent staple in the PC gamer’s diet, even more so for those that prefer to play with family and friends over the internet.
With a wide variety of communities that will appeal to almost every desire, near-latency free voice chat, and the always welcome price of absolutely free, it’s difficult to fall more in love with the service.
Discord has apparently taken that statement as a challenge, and it’s one that they’re ready to face head-on. In light of COVID19 threatening old people around the world, with many nations finding themselves quarantined on an international scale, Discord is offering something fantastic to keep everyone in touch over this difficult time. Worth noting, this is coming at no cost to anyone.
Go Live can be used for far more than simply streaming games, as well; it can also be used to stream your desktop to a captive audience. With a quick move, Discord has opened itself up to allow schooling to continue for children in quarantine around the world, presuming that the teacher is tech-savvy enough to navigate the feature. The same teachers that don’t know how to play YouTube, or search for a link quickly.
Think of Twitch, or Mixer; now shrink that down infinitely, to where only 10 users can typically watch your stream. Discord has increased that feature to 50 users now being able to watch any one person stream.
Discord is quick to note that they’re expecting this to be a heavily used feature as they quintuple the usage cap, and are warning users that they may experience a bit of a hiccup in terms of latency, connections, and other caveats as they work on spinning up the additional server strength to meet the needs of the user base taking advantage of the offer. Discord also states that they’ll continue to allow this service as long as it is necessary for the world to continue to interact with each other across new mediums of technology; once COVID19 dies down, they’ll go back to a 10 viewer cap for streams.
It’s a brilliant move that may only offer help to a few users, but those users are ensured to now have a much better experience as they’re stuck beyond locked doors.
