Discord (opens in new tab) is making adjustments to its usernames that may lastly remove the four-digit “discriminators” that make them so unwieldy. It is also including a brand new Show Names possibility, so the best way you seem to different Discord customers can keep the identical—or be modified to (nearly) no matter you need.
To be sincere, Discord has at all times been a little bit of a ache within the ass with regards to usernames. Every so often I’ve to supply my Discord person information to a sport writer in an effort to participate in a presentation on the platform, and actually each single time I’ve to look it up within the app. I can keep in mind the identify, positive, however the quantity? No likelihood. Complicating the state of affairs even additional, usernames are case-sensitive, so phibi#8936, as an example, is completely different from PhIBI#8936.
Discord has come to acknowledge that this technique is not ultimate. Co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy defined in a weblog submit (opens in new tab) that Discord adopted the present system in an effort to make sure that no one ended up locked out of a reputation they needed to make use of, and that the discriminator numbers had been made publicly seen so customers may make certain they had been chatting with the right particular person after they’re related throughout completely different servers. It labored, however the kludgy strategy created a “technical debt” that began to get critically out of hand as Discord’s userbase grew.
Vishnevskiy detailed a number of eventualities by which the Discord username system causes complications, however what all of it in the end comes right down to is just that “our present usernames can usually be too difficult or obscure for individuals to recollect and share simply.”
And the numbers are stark: Greater than 40% of Discord customers both do not know their discriminator quantity or do not even know what a discriminator is, and worse, practically half of all good friend requests on the platform fail to attach with the right person. That is clearly not nice for a social media platform, however a repair wasn’t simple to return by.
“We determined at one level that a very powerful concern to resolve was case-sensitivity and particular characters, so there might be just one phibi#8936, as an alternative of permitting permutations like PhIBI#8936, and PHibi#8936,” Vishnevskiy wrote. “Sadly, we discovered that just about one-third of our energetic customers can be compelled to alter their identify simply to accommodate this. In the meantime, individuals from areas the place non-alphanumeric characters are widespread in names, comparable to Asia, would have issue totally representing themselves.”
Including a separate show identify choice to that change was additionally rejected as unworkable, as a result of “we might have an much more complicated system with each a Show Title and a username that also included the four-digit discriminator.” So as an alternative, Discord has opted for a less complicated strategy: Everybody will probably be given a novel username made up of lowercase characters, numbers, plus interval and underscore—and no discriminator quantity— and a separate, non-unique show identify that may have just about any type of character together with emojis, non-Latin characters, and no matter else matches inside Discord’s neighborhood tips. Present usernames with the discriminator may even proceed to work, so you do not have to fret about dropping outdated connections.
That is what it is going to appear like:
The brand new system will probably be rolled out over the stability of the 12 months, throughout which era all customers will probably be requested to decide on a brand new username. This may occur “slowly over the course of a number of months,” with precedence primarily based on once you registered for Discord: Those that have been with it the longest will probably be given the primary possibilities to choose a brand new identify.
“We acknowledge that this can be a large change,” Vishnevskiy wrote. “There could also be hiccups with this course of, and it could be robust to half methods with that “#0001” that’s meant rather a lot to you over time. We’ll be doing all the things we will to handle issues as easily as attainable.”
A selected begin time for the name-change course of hasn’t been introduced, however Discord mentioned in an in depth help article (opens in new tab) that it’s going to start in “the approaching weeks.” Customers will probably be notified when they’re eligible to alter their username within the Discord app: You will not be compelled to alter it immediately however Discord recommending selecting a brand new identify as quickly as you grow to be eligible to take action, “as that’s when you should have the perfect likelihood of getting the username you need.”
