If you’re unfamiliar with Discord, you might find it difficult to find some of the basic things on the application, like joining a voice channel, for instance. No worries, we’ve got you covered. Follow our quick and easy guide to join a Discord voice channel, whether you’re on your computer, laptop, tablet iPhone, or Android smartphone.
Discord is one of the most popular messaging apps of today, and it’s one of the best ways to keep in touch with your friends over voice chat, text, or even video chat. Discord is also incredibly often used as a type of community builder, you can find dozens of Discord servers about certain topics, genres, or games, for example. The messaging application actually started out as a gaming application and was really laser-focused on gamers, but the app has broadened its audience ever since it became so popular. In fact, it’s estimated that there are now over 140 million monthly active users on the platform.
How do you recognize Discord voice channels and voice chats?
A Discord server usually consists of a couple of chatrooms. These chatrooms are usually chat-only, but server moderators and administrators can also choose to create a voice channel chatroom – there’s no text over here, only audio. It’s pretty similar to Clubhouse, actually, and we see that this idea has been copied by numerous other applications such as Telegram.
When you’re in a Discord server, you’ll see these chatrooms – which are named “channels” on the app, and they’re accompanied by a “#” or hashtag prefix. For example, if Bytehaps were to have a Discord server, #generaldiscussion could be one of the channels. The hashtag prefix indicates that it’s a regular, text-based voice channel.
Voice channels, however, won’t have a # sign, but will have a sound icon instead. That’s the quick and easy way to recognize Discord voice channels, just by looking at the symbol.
How to join a Discord voice channel on a computer and iPhone
The answer is actually really simple: you just click on the channel with the sound icon, and you’ll be instantly connected. By default, your microphone and speaker will be on automatically, so make sure you’re ready to talk. The process is identical for every Discord application, whether you’re using it on a pc, an iPhone, an Android device, or any other device that supports the Discord app.
When you click a Discord voice chat, you should see something like this:
As you can see, we are currently the only person in this voice chat. You can invite others to join you by pressing the icon at the top right, and you’ll be able to select people who are also on the same Discord server.
When you’ve initiated a Discord voice chat, the following will also appear on your screen:
When you see the “Voice Connected” banner in green, that means everything is good to go. Your internet connection is stable enough to be able to converse perfectly. When it drops to yellow, your internet might be a bit unstable and there will be interference on the call. Red usually means that the connection has been lost or is so terrible that you can’t make out any conversations at all.
You also see the Video and Screen buttons. With the first button, you’ll be able to share your camera with the rest of the people in the voice chat. Use the screen button to share a recording of whatever is happening on your computer screen.
Do I talk automatically in a Discord voice chat?
The default setting is that you talk automatically in one of these voice chats, just like in a regular phone conversation. You can, however, change that setting and make sure that you’re only recording audio when you want to. This can be particularly helpful if you’re in an environment where there’s a lot of background noise, which can otherwise be annoying for the rest of the conversation.
Simply head over to the Discord App Settings if you wish to enable Push to Talk functionality.
How to enable Push to Talk in Discord on pc
- Head to Discord App Settings and click “Voice & Video”.
- Under the “Input Mode” section, you’ll see two choices: Voice Activity and Push to Talk. Choose the latter.
- You’ll also have to define a key or a shortcut (also defined as a keybind) to enable push to talk. When you press this key, your microphone will record the conversation. This can be any key you like, the shift of control (command on Mac) key usually does the trick.
How to enable Push to Talk in Discord on iPhone or Android
The idea is actually the same, and you can follow the exact two first steps above. Once you’ve done that, you’ll notice that the recording screen on your mobile has changed, and there’s now a big ‘Push to Talk’ button where the mute button used to be.
Summary
You can easily join a Discord voice chat by identifying the sound icon of a voice channel, and simply clicking on it. You’ll be joining the conversation instantly and will be able to talk, share your screen and share your camera, if you’d like.
