Talking on Discord just got a lot simpler
Voice messages pull Discord closer to other chat apps
Discord has introduced voice messages, letting you record snippets of audio to send to your friends through direct messages.
Right now, you can only record and send voice messages through the Discord mobile app, although you can listen to sent messages on any device. They’re limited to 20 minutes, although that’s a pretty hefty length.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Discord voice messages
🗣 Discord now supports voice messages
📨 You can record and send voice notes to friends and servers directly
😮 Voice messages can be up to 20 minutes long
🕹 The feature follows Discord’s added Xbox Series X and PS5 support
Voice messages work much like they do in any other messaging app. To send one, press and hold the mic button to the right of the chat box to record, and release the button to send the message. While recording, you can also swipe upward to lock the recording button in place, saving you from having to hold it down.
At the very least, voice messages give you a way of audibly chatting with your friends without having to sit in a voice channel, and are especially useful if you’re talking while out and about.
This is just the latest feature introduced to Discord to bring it further in line with other messaging apps. What started as a gaming-specific platform designed to let players chat during multiplayer sessions without impinging performance has gradually transitioned into a more general-purpose chat app. Threads, friends and even stickers have been introduced over the years.
Not that it’s lost its gaming credentials entirely. Last year, Microsoft rolled out Discord compatibility for Xbox Series X|S to let you join voice channels directly through the consoles, making it easier to chat with teammates playing on other systems and smoothing out the multiplayer experiences of some of the best Xbox Series X games.
Sony similarly added Discord support for PS5 earlier this year. It’s a little cumbersome at the moment, requiring you to join a voice channel through the Discord phone app, before transferring the call to your console. Hopefully it will be improved through future updates, though – Xbox’s Discord integration was originally rolled out using the same system before Microsoft introduced a native Discord app that lets you join channels directly through the console.
A Discord update earlier in the year played havoc with some peoples’ GPUs. Fortunately, it wasn’t long until Nvidia responded with a quick workaround.