Discord is a great messaging platform that’s free to use. Many people use it for games, online communities, and just general messaging. But it looks like it will soon get a lot less attractive to use. A report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that the company plans to start implementing ads on the platform.
To be fair, Discord has been free to use ever since its inception. The company has struggled to find ways to monetize itself. The company does offer a Nitro subscription that unlocks additional perks. This includes larger file uploads, using custom emojis, unlimited Super Reactions, and a special badge to indicate you’re a Nitro subscriber.
This is more for Discord power users who might find a use for these features, but if you’re just doing regular text, voice, or video chats, the free version is more than sufficient. Discord says that users will be able to turn off ads in the settings, but it is unclear how this works. It could be that it might be a Nitro-only perk.
This is similar to how other free platforms with subscriptions work, such as X and YouTube where the premium version will allow users to skip ads. In any case, it makes sense that Discord wants to monetize itself. Hopefully the implementation of ads won’t be too distracting or invasive, but we’ll have to wait and see.