Discord has just rolled out an overhaul to the UI of its app on mobile devices aimed at simplifying user access. Technically this new UI was available for months before now. But the only way to access it was through an easter egg where you had to tap and hold the sparkle emoji. This could be done in any chat and once completed, you would have the new UI. This included a tab interface for a more convenient way to get to everything you’d want to use. All of that and more has now been added as a native feature for all users. Without the need to use an easter egg.
You may have to update your app to see these changes. But Discord confirms that the UI overhaul on mobile has started. Once you have the updated version of the app, you’ll see tabs at the bottom of the app for servers, messages, notifications, and you. These will be visible right after opening the app so you no longer have to slide the panel over to get to them.
The Discord mobile app overhaul includes a new voice and video UI and a midnight theme
Voice and video calls are a big part of Discord and what many use to stay connected. Sometimes it’s for gaming and other times it’s just for conversations. The UI has received a bit of a facelift to make interactions easier to access and more intuitive. Ultimately Discord says the UI is “more cozy” for when you’re on the go. So you should see larger avatar panels for each user in the call and bigger buttons at the bottom for interactions.
The Discord mobile app also now has a midnight theme. By enabling this you can drape your app in a pure black style to minimize the battery drain. It’s also much easier on the eyes if you’re using the app in a darker space.
Launching Discord is much faster than before
Not that the mobile app was ever particularly slow, but the app has received a big speed boost. Launching the app is now 55% faster on Android devices and 43% faster on iOS devices. It’s also now quicker to hop between channels and chats. The speed bonus doesn’t stop there though. The app will now cache your most recent chat messages. These will be stored in the background so that they load more quickly. Plus, navigating between channels and chats uses 4% less data. Discord notes that this is only for when the app loads up for the first time after being closed. Still, it’s a nice improvement.
Sharing media has been improved as well. Users can now share more pics and videos in a single share interaction with everything visible in a gallery-style view. This comes alongside an increase to the free file limit upload limit which has been bumped up from 8MB to 25MB. That’s 25MB per image if you’re sharing multiple images at once. All-in-all Discord on mobile is going to be a lot better and a lot more enjoyable to use.