After a few weeks of roll-out, Server Video chat is finally available to everyone on desktop, web, and iOS, with Android coming soon. With Server Video, you can see all of your friends’ lovely faces on a video call without having to juggle between personal or Group DMs. Just join a voice channel, hit the video button, and smile :)

At this time when everyone’s stuck inside their homes, Server Video’s user limit has been temporarily increased from 10 to 25 participants.

Video chat itself has been part of Discord since late 2017, so you might be asking yourself…

What’s different about Server Video?

Servers are more suited for drop-in, drop-out conversation. There’s no need to hassle with asking who’s going to start the call in your DM first or shuffling between your giant list of messages to find that *one* DM from months ago that had the perfect combo of friends. Either hang out in a video call with a few friends or just chill by yourself so others can see when you’re open to talk.

In addition to just video chatting, server video offers the ability for you to both Video Chat and Go Live at the same time, allowing you to show your own camera while you’re streaming a game, or sharing your screen.

This can be super useful for situations such as holding a small art stream on your server. Stream your digital art application using Go Live while explaining your creative process to your friends using Server Video, liiiike this!:

Pro tip: If you’re watching a Go Live stream and see someone else is streaming in the same channel, try shift-clicking on the second person’s window. You’ll be able to watch multiple streams at once! This secret feature isn’t fully fleshed out, so it might be a bit temperamental.

Why’d we bring video chat to Servers?

A few years ago, we brought video chat to DMs. Even to this day, long-time users and even some Discord staff still remember when the question “screenshare when?” was almost a meme in itself.

Since then, bringing video chat into servers has been a long-awaited feature. A few dedicated folks have even used *ahem* certain workarounds to get an early version of video chat working on their server.

When we found out we’d all be stuck inside, we decided to prioritize helping everyone spend more face to face time together when they’re on a server, and remove the need for insider knowledge of funky workarounds in order to see their friends.

Features and changes are brought into production because we’re not just making Discord for others — we use Discord ourselves (crazy). From big features like Server Video to small quality-of-life improvements like being able to crop your avatar while uploading, updates to Discord are driven by community feedback.

Browser buffs for better broadcasting

Speaking of quality-of-life improvements, along with Server Video, the Discord team pushed out some video chat improvements to the Chrome version of Discord’s web app, meaning you’ll no longer need to install a browser extension for video chat to work on Chrome.

For Mac users, Safari is now officially supported! Go Live also fully works in all supported browsers, so you can both video chat and screen share without having to install the desktop app.

Sprinkled on top of everything are some small but much-needed fixes, including a fix for a *very* specific issue where joining a voice channel while muted on browser would permanently show that we can’t hear any input from you.

Got Ideas? Share ’em with us!

Whether your idea is big or small, we’d love to know what you think. Let us know what you think about Server Video on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or on the Discord subreddit. We may not be able to reply to everyone, but we read everything that’s shared.

Now go spend some time with your friends in video chat! We hope it’ll help bring you closer to the ones you care about the most.