There are a lot of options for online video and/or audio apps to keep in touch during this time of distancing from our friends and family. FaceTime and Zoom seem to be the most popular, but they definitely have their problems.
A little over a year ago, it was revealed that FaceTime had a glitch allowing people to listen in on calls and hear audio from another person outside of a call. Zoom has been subject to “Zoombombing,” where someone forces their way into a meeting and posts inappropriate and/or upsetting content within the call or chat.
Discord, a free chat and video communication application owned by Twitch, has so far proven to be much more secure and not prone to disruptions such as “Zoombombing,” maybe partly due to it being much less used than either Zoom or FaceTime.
Discord can be a great backup if not used for a main method of communication. One of my writing classes meets on Zoom, but we have a server (basically a private section for chat and calls, that only people with the link to the server can access) on Discord for outside class discussions, and each person has a separate chat room for their own work.
Discord is casual, easy to use, and the ability to create multiple chat rooms makes things really organized no matter the group you’re keeping in touch with. If having made a server for family, it’s easy to create different chat rooms based on the relationships: one for siblings, one for cousins, ones for nieces and nephews, ect. Servers allow up to fifty people now, with Discord having upped their capacity in light of the current conditions and their awareness of their application’s increased use.
With increased usage, multiple platforms should be considered as backups or first option. With platforms clogging up with users, they can fail at times, and there may be a need to regroup on other applications. With Discord’s easy and intuitive options and uses, I highly recommend it as an option.