[Editor’s Note: This article was amended on May 5, 2023 and May 10, 2023 to further clarify information on the rollout process for username changes and the use of the "@" symbol.]
TL;DR: Discord usernames are changing to remove four-digit discriminators. Display Names are being added so how you appear to other users stays the same. We will be assigning priority to choose your new username based on when you registered for Discord, Nitro status, and ownership of partner and verified servers. For more information see our Help Center article here.
Way back when Jason and I first built Discord in 2015, there were only a handful of us working on the product and I was personally responsible for designing and programming our username and identity systems. We were building Discord as a place to hang out with our friends while playing games. Back then I was playing Final Fantasy XIV and it was important to me that I show up in the Discord server as my in-game character. Years later, I spend most nights still hanging out in voice while playing FFXIV (maybe a little too much lol). Being able to be myself in these spaces and seeing others do the same is something I care about.
Starting this month, however, we’re making some big changes to how usernames and identities work on our platform.
The whole point of these changes is that we want to make it a lot easier for you and all the new users coming to Discord to connect and hang out with friends. And as Discord’s Co-Founder, I wanted to talk about these changes personally. We know that your username and identity are important, and we understand that some of you may not like this change and disagree with it. We know that this is an issue you feel strongly about.
We also recognize that our current username format has been one of the things that makes Discord unique, and that this change makes our usernames look a lot like those on other platforms. To be blunt, that’s kind of the point. These weren’t easy decisions, and we didn’t come to them lightly. We’ve put a lot of thought into this (like… a lot), so I’d like to walk through how we got here and what’s going to happen next.