We already know that the makers of the voice and text chat app Discord are keen to work with Nintendo on a Switch client, but the console maker has - as far as we know - kept quiet on the topic.
Now Discord founder and CEO Jason Citron has added a little more pressure in an interview with Rolling Stone's Glixel sub-site. He reveals that he's a big fan of the console and is keen to work with Nintendo on bringing Discord to the system:
I have thought about the Switch. I have spent many hundreds of hours of my life in that little screen. If Nintendo wants us to power their voice chat, we’d be happy to talk.
Would you be keen to see this app on the Switch? Do you think Nintendo would support such a venture?
Comments 32
Been using Discord for a while now for my PC gaming with friends. Absolutely love it and would love to see it on the Switch. The only issue I have with it is that the person who makes the server has complete control over the names of others. Let's just say some of my friends change our names to really annoying stuff. I'm sure if Discord, or some equivalent, came to the Switch, that functionality wouldn't exist.
I never use voice chat, but i have heard of discord, and i know alot of people use it. So Nintendo should give people the choice
@Neon_Blues
Discord is actually one of the greatest chat applications there is.
Anything would be better than the mess they have right now for the switch
I replaced Skype a while ago because of Discord. It also has video chat which I like to use. There are some flaws but the base of Discord is amazing.
Still haven't used Discord, but then I only use my phone and tablet for this so...
My kids have been using Discord to communicate with their cousin 700 miles away and it seems to be working out for them, so that works for me, my kids are on one of those pre-pay 100 minutes and 100 txts plans.
Now that Switch users must soon pay a sub fee this makes sense.
I believe standard voice chat should be optional. If you dont want it dont use it and stop moaning. There are those that do. Having the choice is best for ALL consumers.
The current set up seems so backwards.
On the other hand how many huge multi-player games like Battlefield come to Nintendo consoles.
Eight online players in a game like Splatoon is not exactly a mass multi player experience that requires a PC, PS4, XB1 type voice chat standard. Maybe this is how Nintendo sees it.
@Neon_Blues You should probably go find out about it rather than jumping to conclusions based on a self-confessed complete lack of knowledge. Just good life advice in general, really.
My first instinct on this news is "cool", but I do wonder what difference Discord would actually be able to make beyond upping the audio quality. Switch doesn't have a built-in mic, so there's little getting around the ridiculous Y-cable audio piping solution offered for Splatoon 2. And even if Discord was offering a better bespoke solution for Switch; would it not still be inherently more convenient and easier to just... use regular discord on a laptop or smart device like we already do? Nintendo's voice chat software is awful but I'm not sure its something that can be fixed in a manner that would be better than just ditching it altogether.
A switch version of discord would probably be stripped down quite a bit, restricted heavily, and probably made to run so that it barely used any cpu resources. Even then I don't think Nintendo wants to be in a position where it doesn't have complete control over something like voice chat, especially when discord uses a separate server. Nintendo may work out a deal to have an official one only they could modify. I see a lot of barriers for discord...
@Neon_Blues It is though
@Neon_Blues You living under a rock doesn't make it any less popular.
I already use discord on my phone when playing with my friends on switch.
I use Discord everyday, It would be so cool to have a switch app.
Discord would be an excellent companion to the Switch. I'd love to see it there. Pls do it Nintendo... Talk to them.
@Saego Also, it's very light on resources compared to Skype. Could be handy for a console that prides itself on being fast. Might be able to make it even lighter on resources if you can just connect through some portal (that way you don't need the app itself on the console). Discord already supports chat through browser and the Switch does have a browser (even if we can't access it ourselves).
EDIT: You get some other functionality too in one app like streaming capabilities and friend/group sorting.
I don't think Discord is making money yet so I'm not surprised they're keen to work with one of the biggest console manufacturers!
Discord would be a better version than the Nintendo Voice Chat system we have. I'm just hoping though that Nintendo's model gets improvements. I like that the phone's screen can now be turned off and we can multi-task in other apps and still have the chat connection working. But still, it's a clumsy wired setup for people who aren't keen on getting a Bluetooth headset. I mean I got myself some Apple AirPods because my iPhone doesn't have a headphone jack but it's still an expensive setup. Nintendo should have included Bluetooth connection on the Switch (or at least opened the accessibility for audio devices) and avoid needing the phone entirely.
I only use Discord for voice chat when gaming. such a great app and so many game specific communities to join.
I'll admit I already use phone Discord for voice chat on Switch
Yes please!
Discord is easily the best (voice-)chat service out there.
Teamspeak, Steam Chat etc. are no match for it.
And you can use it any way you want: in the browser, as a smartphone app, as a Windows app or as a Franz plugin.
The only thing that's missing from that list is the Switch!
It'd be great to have on switch! If they do it I just hope that they don't make it work for only certain games like switch voice chat does now. And please let me connect a headset or headphones to the console instead of my phone. That drains my battery like nothing I've ever seen before.
Discord would add choice, and that's always a good thing.
But no built in microphone on the switch means that the console would need to work with a headset with inline mic and I'm not sure it does at the moment? I could be wrong.
Personally , I'd like Nintendo to release a wireless headset similar to the official PS4 one , and since I'm making a wish list, rainbow six siege would be welcomed lol.
Well... yeah it'd be great. But there's no microphone on the Switch... or slot in the Joy-Con/Pro Controller to plug one in. So basically, it's not going to happen.
If he's just going to be passive-aggressive about wanting to work with Nintendo, that's as far as he and his company are ever going to get.
IMO, Discord is the best chat service, and to get it baked in to the Switch OS would be great.
Discord is actually the best chatting app for PC and phones, no one can compete, Skype is old and slow.
I swear, if you still have Skype installed on your PC or phone right now, uninstall it and install Discord, it is better than Skype in every way. EVERY. WAY.
Havin it on Switch would be really cool (and it would be way better than what we have now, never used the phone application actually except for Splatnet)
i'd have liked to see them partner with Steam for their online store and if needed voice. whatever mess voice is now is just silly; BUT, being a portable/home docked machine means that there's some trickery to be done. how do you voice chat on the road portable? would it just fail? i guess that's what they're dealing with. a home console has everything based so it all works but the hybrid model is still a work in progress.
not saying N will ever get it right since they're pretty awful about anything network related but i understand the challenges. unless folks wanted a cell enabled switch for 500$ or whatever.
If it's not running on the system itself in the background while you're playing your online game, if it's not made part of the OS itself and just a standalone app on the Switch that runs like a game on top of the OS, then it's pretty pointless. It has to be part of the system itself, or there's just no point whatsoever getting Discord on the Switch. And games would have to be programmed to take advantage of it.
As for where you'd plug a headset, well the Pro Controller being USB Type-C, you should theoretically be able to plug an adapter in it to connect any standard headest to it like you could on the Wii U Gamepad... so long as that port on the controller is OTG compliant. And the controller being so damn expensive kinda makes me think that it has to be, and the system should be made able to send audio to the controller, and then receive audio back from it. Maybe that's exactly what they have planned though, cause I can't imagine 3rd parties who have to remove voice chat from their games on the Switch (see Minecraft and Resident Evil Revelations as two games where voice chat is a must and yet the feature is absent on the Switch versions thereof) are being happy and content to have to do that on the system, so they have to be working on some kind of way to do it on the console, without having to use their app.
Maybe that's why the Better Together update to Minecraft hasn't come to Switch yet, maybe it'll come when Nintendo rolls out the proper audio chat support on the system since that update on other systems allows users from different platforms to chat amongst themselves when playing on the same server.
I'm just hoping for a solution that doesn't involve using a phone.
@Neon_Blues You're in the minority
How long till Nintendo bring out a mic add-on for the Switch?
If you have never heard of Discord, they currently provides the best chat platform on PC. You want them to release an app for the Switch even if Nintendo does restrict it as usual.
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