In Nepal, Discord became a ground for Gen Z political resistance; in India, it has evolved from a gamers’ hub into a refuge for friendship, streaming and late-night conversation
Sheikh Sakib Javaid, a 25-year-old from Jammu, remembers when Discord turned into more than background chatter during multiplayer gaming contests.
“I’ve been using Discord on and off since 2018, mainly for in-game communication,” he says. “But I became consistent during the Covid lockdown when it became my primary way to stay in touch with friends.”
A mix of function and privacy explains much of the appeal of Discord, created in San Francisco in 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, two entrepreneurs frustrated with the clunky tools gamers were then stuck with.
Discord began as a way to make voice chat smoother during multiplayer matches, but its seamless blend of text, video and community “servers” quickly pushed it beyond gaming and gave it an edge over traditional chat apps.
“Before most other platforms, Discord introduced screen sharing with impressively low latency. It meant we could watch movies or listen to music together in real time, and it felt like hanging out without leaving the room,” says Sakib.
Discord now has servers for students, coders, musicians and sports fans. A server is like a private club with multiple rooms — live voice channels, quick-fire text threads and integrations for streaming.
Bots can be added to play music or manage events, while features such as “Go Live” allow users to broadcast games or host watch parties.
For young audiences, that structure has turned Discord into a kind of digital common room.
“It’s not essential but very convenient when talking to a big group,” explains Tryakshar Chakravarty, 16, who sees it as an easy way to connect with large groups.
Voice chat and streaming, he says, are the features that stand out most, especially when he and his friends settle in to watch Formula One races over the weekend.
Discord has become a natural extension of social viewing for a generation raised on YouTube and live-streaming online. For many, the appeal also lies in the unexpected friendships.
“I met lovely people on Discord and made a few online friends with whom I’m still in contact,” says Aditya Alexander, a 24-year-old master’s student who joined the platform in 2020.
During lockdowns, it became his window to the world:
“It wasn’t essential before, but when we weren’t allowed outside it became an essential part of my life.”
Now he continues to use servers to swap opinions and play the in-built mini games.
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Another 16-year-old from Kolkata, who requested anonymity, said: “I find it very easy to find friends with common interests, like gamer music in my case, on Discord. In fact, it’s easier to find friends on Discord than real life.”
Discord’s structure makes these connections work. Servers can be customised with bots that play music or manage events, while conversations remain divided into text, voice, and stage channels.
For Sakib, this is part of the charm: “It keeps everything structured and easy to navigate.”
The result is a platform that feels more like a community hall than a crowded feed.
In Nepal, the app became a digital meeting ground where political debates unfolded in voice channels, votes were simulated in chat rooms, and memes powered momentum.
The catalyst for the Gen Z protests in Nepal was a social media ban. Their tool of choice to organise the protests was Discord.
Pranaab Dangol, one of the participants in the Discord poll in Nepal that chose Sushila Karki as prime minister of the interim government, recalls how the platform became essential.
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“The stream was initially created because there was a social media ban and a curfew imposed,” he explains. According to him, Discord offered a rare digital safe space: “This was a way for Gen Z to connect without infiltration because we knew that only Gen Z knows how to use Discord.”
The app turned into a virtual campaign headquarters. The discussions evolved into a movement that overthrew the government.
“Initially it was for positive debates and discussions,” Dangol says, “but then the idea of a poll emerged. Not as anything official, just a feeler to see whom people would support to bring Nepal back to stability.”
Unlike social networks built around followers and feeds, Discord thrives on privacy—shared servers where communities shape their own rules.
In Nepal, that privacy helped mobilise a generation to engage in politics in unexpected ways. Globally, it continues to evolve as a platform for everything from classroom study groups to professional networking.