If you’re a fan of Discord, this is going to come in handy.
Discord has announced that it has enabled end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default for every voice and video call across its platforms, including desktop, mobile, web, and game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox.
Per MacRumors, the rollout covers DMs, group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams. There’s no opt-in required, or any setting to change. Stage channels are the only exception, given that they’re built for broadcasting to larger audiences rather than personal chats.
The feature is based on DAVE, an open-source protocol that Discord first rolled out in September 2024. Discord’s Mark Smith, the company’s Vice President of Core Technology, blogged that building it was slow and complicated, partly because a single Discord call can mix people on phones, notebooks, browsers, and game consoles in the same conversation.
Smith offered the following comments:
“Building an E2EE protocol that works seamlessly across all of those surfaces simultaneously is, to my knowledge, unlike anything else that’s been shipped. DAVE is likely one of the internet’s most platform-diverse E2EE voice and video implementations.”
Discord has also announced that it is stripping out the remaining client code, which allowed for unencrypted fallback, thereby making encrypted calls the only option as opposed to a default.
The completed rollout stands in stark contrast to policy changes by Meta, which recently removed its encryption feature for Instagram DMs.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors and discord.com
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