The best Discord alternatives – The best online messaging apps like Discord

Discord has become ubiquitous as the go-to VoIP program for users wanting a means of chatting, coordinating, or otherwise keeping upward with their many social circles. While originally oriented toward the gaming community, Discord has spiked to 140 one thousand thousand monthly users since the pandemic, with friend groups and project teams alike flocking to the free-to-employ app'southward consummate bundle of voice communication, text channels, screen-sharing, bot integration, and ease of invitation for new members.

While Discord's service capabilities and broad appeal are commendable, its reliability — specially that of its API — has its moments. With the occasional outage, it pays to continue fill-in alternatives in the case of Discord going down.

Slack: The professional's choice

With a more sophisticated appearance than that of Discord'south "Wumpus" branding, Slack orients itself heavily toward the working world. This option takes afterward Discord heavily in both functions and appearance. Text channels are aligned along a left sidebar, flanking the text and image-based conversations that take front and center. Features like in-text threads, emoji-based reactions, and built-in typography features make a return from the trendsetter besides.

Where Slack differs from Discord is in its file management organisation. Based on the payment plan that the host opts into for their server, workspaces can shop anywhere from 5GB to 20GB of important files for communal admission, making the app perfect for group projects if Discord were to stammer.

Related: How to fix Discord connection bug

Zoom: The instructor'southward pet

Earlier disillusioned college students click off of this article, permit united states first present Zoom'south biggest force as a VoIP — instant access.

Zoom meetings can exist quickly organized and accessed by anyone provided with the connectedness link. In a compression, a temporary Zoom room can reconnect friends and colleagues for the length of Discord's occasional outages.

Related: Is Discord stuck loading? What to practise when Discord is stuck connecting

Mumble: The archaic predecessor

Mumble comes from an era of VoIP-integrated gaming that predates the commonalities of webcams and screen-sharing. As such, it lacks many of the civilities frequently associated with Discord, such as in-text media embedding. In fact, Mumble won't allow users to read or answer to text-based messages in a server if those users aren't start connected through voice.

Just for what Mumble lacks in quality of life, it more than makes up for in audio. A more simplistic and low-latency program, Mumble's audio quality narrowly outmatches that of the more multifaceted Discord.

Factoring in features like linking and unlinking the audio of different phonation channels, besides every bit the more than circuitous third-party proximity chat mods, make for a superior programme when strictly looking for better in-game communication. One caveat though — most quality Mumble servers require a monthly service fee. Is Discord back upward and running?