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Discord vs WhatsApp: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between Discord and WhatsApp

Discord and WhatsApp are two popular messaging platforms, but they have several key differences that set them apart.

  1. Purpose: Discord is primarily designed for gamers and offers features such as voice chats, text chats, and screen sharing, making it an ideal platform for gaming communities. On the other hand, WhatsApp is a more general messaging app that caters to a wider audience, allowing users to communicate through text, voice, and video calls.

  2. Group Sizes: Discord allows larger group sizes compared to WhatsApp. While WhatsApp supports group chats of up to 256 participants, Discord can accommodate thousands of users in a single server.

  3. Server Structure: Discord is organized into servers and channels, providing a hierarchical structure for communication within communities. This allows users to join multiple servers and access different channels within each server. In contrast, WhatsApp uses a simpler group chat system, where users can create groups and invite others to join them, without the concept of servers and channels.

  4. Integration with other Apps: Discord offers integrations with various gaming platforms and apps, allowing users to connect their gaming accounts, stream gameplay, and access game-related information directly within Discord. WhatsApp, on the other hand, focuses more on direct communication and does not have extensive integrations with other apps.

  5. Privacy and Security: While both Discord and WhatsApp prioritize user privacy and security, their approaches differ. WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption for all messages, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access the content. Discord, on the other hand, does not provide end-to-end encryption by default, although it offers optional encryption for direct messages.

  6. Monetization: Discord and WhatsApp have different approaches to monetization. WhatsApp is free for personal use, with businesses having access to a separate paid platform for customer communication. Discord, on the other hand, offers a subscription service called Discord Nitro, which provides additional features and perks to users who subscribe.

In summary, Discord is primarily focused on the gaming community with advanced features like voice chats and screen sharing, while WhatsApp is a more general messaging app with a wider user base and simpler group chat functionality.

Advice on Discord and WhatsApp
Needs advice
on
DiscordDiscord
and
ZoomZoom

I want to host an online Jeopardy game with less than 30 participants. During each round of the game, I'll stream some videos. The point is to gather friends together to play the Jeopardy game and watch random stuff. Please let me know if there's a more suitable platform other than Discord and Zoom. Thanks, everyone!

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Replies (1)
RuralAnemone
Head Devoloper/coder at Super Smash Eternal · | 2 upvotes · 181.5K views

Personally, I think that Discord works much better than anything else, even if you don't have Nitro (which is what they call their premium plan). You could seriously do this Jeopardy thing with just Discord (and maybe a bot to make it easier)

Zoom would only let you have a crappy meeting that hackers could easily join. Discord actually has DDoS protection, Zoom just has things that can easily be bypassed.

And if you do want Nitro, it's only $9/mo or $99/yr

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Decisions about Discord and WhatsApp
Chose
DiscordDiscord
over
ZoomZoom

as many people say that you can only hold 30 to 10 people in one discord call if you were to make a server and add a chat or a VC you can hold up to 99 which is more than zoom and you can also use the text chat, general chat or anything else that you add and the best part you can hold pretty much infinite people I have personally seen servers with up to 100k people in it. One of the better parts is that you don't necessarily have to download it you can search it up on google and make an account it's as easy as that. Another thing is due to the original purpose of the website/app is that it's very customizable meaning that your students can customize heir profile pictures and names, but not to worry in a discord server you can have it where only you can change their nicknames so let's say things get too confusing or you want to be able to see who they really are you can just change it to their name. One last thing I will say is that you can have customizable ranks and so on so if you desire to split people into teams you can do so and with that, you can customize what they can do like give people ranks or de-rank them. Like I mentioned earlier about VC's you can also screen share and do videos so you can see their screen or their face.

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Pros of Discord
Pros of WhatsApp
  • 65
    Unlimited Users
  • 59
    Unlimited Channels
  • 55
    Easy to use
  • 51
    Voice Chat
  • 49
    Fast and easy set-ups and connections
  • 46
    Clean UI
  • 43
    Mobile Friendly
  • 43
    Free
  • 33
    Android App
  • 29
    Mention system
  • 27
    Customizable notifications on per channel basis
  • 26
    Customizable ranks/permissions
  • 22
    IOS app
  • 21
    Good code embedding
  • 19
    Vast Webhook Support
  • 16
    Dark mode
  • 14
    Easy context switching between work and home
  • 14
    Roles
  • 13
    Great Communities
  • 12
    Very Resource Friendly
  • 12
    Robust
  • 12
    Easy to develop for
  • 12
    Great Customer Support
  • 12
    Bot control
  • 11
    Video Call Conference
  • 11
    Video call meeting
  • 10
    Able to hold 99 people in one call
  • 10
    Sharing screen layer
  • 9
    Great browser experience
  • 9
    Shares screen with other member
  • 9
    Easy Server Setup and joining system
  • 8
    Easy
  • 7
    Lower bandwidth requirements than competitors
  • 7
    Easy to code bots for
  • 6
    Noice
  • 3
    Easily set up custom emoji
  • 14
    Free
  • 3
    Easy to carry on with contact

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Cons of Discord
Cons of WhatsApp
  • 9
    For gamers
  • 9
    Not as many integrations as Slack
  • 4
    Limited file size
  • 4
    For everyone
  • 3
    Sends data to US Gov
  • 1
    Unsupportive Support
  • 1
    Suspected Pedophiles in few servers
  • 1
    Undescriptive in global ban reasons
  • 1
    No privacy
  • 1
    Centralized
  • 1
    Maximum to 8 person video call

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What is Discord?

Discord is a modern free voice & text chat app for groups of gamers. Our resilient Erlang backend running on the cloud has built in DDoS protection with automatic server failover.

What is WhatsApp?

It is a cross-platform mobile messaging app for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media.

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What companies use Discord?
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What are some alternatives to Discord and WhatsApp?
Slack
Imagine all your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That’s Slack. All your messages. All your files. And everything from Twitter, Dropbox, Google Docs, Asana, Trello, GitHub and dozens of other services. All together.
Skype
Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are.
Zoom
Zoom unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and cross platform group chat into one easy-to-use platform. Our solution offers the best video, audio, and screen-sharing experience across Zoom Rooms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and H.323/SIP room systems.
Gitter
Free chat rooms for your public repositories. A bit like IRC only smarter. Chats for private repositories as well as organisations.
Google Hangouts
Message contacts, start free video or voice calls, and hop on a conversation with one person or a group.
See all alternatives