Skip to main content

Discord is making it easier to find interesting social audio rooms

To celebrate Discord's sixth birthday the company is announcing some new features — including one coming in June to help people discover its new Clubhouse-like social audio rooms called Stage Channels.


The new “Stage Discovery” feature will let you see a feed of public Stage Channels you might be interested in that’s curated using machine learning. You can listen to a Stage Channel’s audio right from the feed, and if you want, you can then hop into the room so that you can be part of the audience. While in a public room, you might also see a link to join the Discord server where the Stage Channel is being hosted if you want to join the community that’s hosting the conversation.

Once Stage Discovery has rolled out, which Discord tells The Verge will happen on June 1st, you’ll be able to access the feed via a new Stage Channels icon found on the main toolbar in the mobile app and in the Home menu on desktop.

Discord says that Stage Channels can’t use profane language in their titles or descriptions, and explicit, graphic, or sexual content is prohibited. Users can report Stage Channels that violate the rules. And to help prevent bad stuff from bubbling up the feed, the company will also enforce its policies through technology, Discord’s own trust and safety team, and community moderation.

The new discovery feed isn’t the only new Stage Channels feature on the way. Discord is also working on ticketed Stage Channels, meaning hosts will be able to charge for access to a Stage Channel. They’ll be rolling out this month, first in a pilot with fewer than 50 US-based creators. A Discord spokesperson wouldn’t say if it will take a cut of ticket sales, though they noted that the company is evaluating options during the experiment. Discord follows Twitter in announcing ticketed social audio rooms.

And for those of you who sometimes find following Discord conversations to be overwhelming (like me), you’ll be pleased to hear that the company plans to add the ability to make threads, which should make it easier to corral conversations. Discord says threads will start rolling out this summer and will be available to all servers before the end of this year.

Alongside the new features announced today, Discord is unveiling a new brand identity with a slightly tweaked logo (which, if you didn’t know, is named Clyde). You can see the new logo at the top of this post or in this GIF.

Discord, which was originally built as a place for gamers to hang out and talk, has grown significantly during the pandemic, particularly as many non-gaming communities have started to use the service. The company revealed that it now has more than 150 million monthly active users, up from 140 million in December.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Your Guide to Different Types of Coding Languages

With hundreds of coding languages in existence, it can feel overwhelming to break into the world of computer programming or introduce these concepts to students.  With help from our Vice President of Engineering, Brian Kellner, Sphero is here to break down why various coding languages are developed, the most popular types of languages and their applications, and where beginners should start on their coding journey.  But first, let’s start by learning what exactly a coding language is and why different types exist. What is a coding language? A coding or programming language is a tool used to deliver a set of instructions for a computer to follow. Because computers “speak” in binary —  strings of 1s and 0s  — coding languages were developed  to translate these 1s and 0s into a language that humans can more easily read and write.  Brian explains this definition further, stating, “I think of a programming language as a way for a human to tell a computer to do s...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading

What Is the “Privacy Sandbox” in Google Chrome?

Google is trying to shake up how the advertising industry (and others) track people online. At the heart of the changes is a feature in Google Chrome called “Privacy Sandbox,” which Google started rolling out in early 2021.  Privacy Sandbox Is FLoC Google is an advertising company first and foremost. By tracking a user with a third-party tracking cookie, Google builds up a profile of the things that the user is interested in, from their favorite sports teams to who they vote for every four years. This identifier is then used to target the user with specific adverts that they’re likely to be interested in, and thus, more likely to click on. The problem with tracking cookies is that they identify each user as a unique token. While the identity of the user isn’t necessarily disclosed, each user is treated as a unique entity by the search giant, albeit exclusively for advertising purposes. FLoC aims to change this fundamental aspect of online advertising. Instead of tracking users...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading

Google updates search algorithms to combat online slander

Google  stated that it's changing the algorithms that power its iconic  search  engine, in an attempt to crack down on websites that publish unverified and slanderous posts about people. It's a rare move for a company that's historically taken a hands-off approach to managing its search results. The changes take aim at an industry of online extortion, in which websites post unproven claims calling people cheaters, predators and pedophiles. The posts rank high in Google's search results when people query the victim's name. Then the websites charge thousands of dollars to remove the damning claims. Google has also created a list of "known victims" that includes the names of people who've reported to the company that they were the target of such schemes. For those people, Google said it'll apply protections when it comes to the ranking of search results, an effort to prevent similar content from other websites appearing when someone searches for their...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading