From “ditch Skype and TeamSpeak”
to “all fun & games”

The June 27, 2015 capture shows a laptop and two phones running the app over dark fantasy artwork, with a green button: Try discord now, it's free. Beside it, a hand-drawn arrow connects no download required to the button. Then comes the table, under See How Discord Stacks Up. It lists 16 features, from 100% Free Communication to Direct Messaging. Two of Discord's cells, the in-game overlay and custom hot keys, say Coming Really Soon!

The copy talks like a player. Stop getting ganked because you're logged into Skype. GIFs in chat only play when you mouse over them, so your CPU is spared. Post those GIFs. Oh yeah!

It even names the language its servers run on: Our resilient Erlang backend.

The gaming roots go back further than the app. Before Discord, its founders' studio built Fates Forever, a battle game for phones, and the company says the first Discord grew out of what they learned making it.^[1] That first version came out in May 2015, a month before this capture.

One paragraph answers the question every free app gets. Wondering how we’ll make money? In the future there will be optional cosmetics like themes, sticker packs, and sound packs available for purchase. We’ll never charge for Discord’s core functionality.

By our November 2016 capture the dark fantasy artwork has been replaced by a Blurple illustration: a desktop, a laptop, two phones and a game controller float among coins and a question-mark block. The code gives its images labels such as Potion, Bomb, Coin, Game Cartridge, Shield and Headphones among them. The headline keeps the fight, minus the last three words: It’s time to ditch Skype and TeamSpeak.

The 2017 capture repeats the scene, and in our replay of both years the download buttons don't render. In October 2018 the same devices move onto a dark background, under two buttons. The archived code says Download for Windows. Our screenshot says Download for Linux, because the button reads the visitor's system, and our capture browser runs on Linux. It does the same on every capture from here to 2026.

The language menu grows behind the scenes. In 2016 its code lists eight languages. By July 2019 it lists 28, and Polski is one of them.

The July 2019 capture keeps the device collage and the Skype and TeamSpeak headline, and this time the footer is in the screenshot. It still invites players: Ready to try Discord? It's free!

Our September 2020 capture is the first one we selected from discord.com, and it greets you with a new page. A sunny illustration, with a frog reading on a balcony and boats in the sky, sits around the words Your place to talk, followed by a list of who it is for: Whether you’re part of a school club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or just a handful of friends that want to spend time together. Gaming is one item out of four. The player counter is gone, and further down than our screenshot reaches, the archived text asks Ready to start your journey?

The new address is part of the story. The move happened on May 4, 2020, and Discord's help page warned about a side effect: browsers and password managers had saved your password under discordapp.com, and permissions such as microphone access were tied to the old name too.^[4]

Discord launched this site on June 30, 2020, with a post that said it had passed 100 million monthly active users. The change went into the app as well: We’ve also made the jokes and references within the app less gaming specific.^[5]

The Nitro page, captured in the same month, has dropped the games without a trace. It now offers an enhanced Discord experience for one low monthly cost: better emoji, 100MB upload size, two Server Boosts and HD video. The price stays at $9.99, and so does Doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoit.

By our October 2021 capture the headline has changed to Imagine a place... over a brighter Blurple, and the logo in the corner is new. Clyde, the mascot in the logo, has left its speech bubble, and the wordmark has rounder letters instead of the old sharp capitals.

Discord's design team admitted something in its May 2021 announcement: the old logo was horizontally asymmetrical, a flaw the team said it had been waiting years to fix. The antennas were simplified because sharp little antennas didn’t translate well on small prints such as a pin. Clyde was also officially allowed facial expressions, which fan art had already given him.^[6]

The new color has an internal name that sounds like a file after one round of feedback too many: blurple_5_plus_adjustments. The same post lists older gray shades called Greyple, Dark, but not black and Not quite black, and describes the new Blurple as brighter and more saturated.^[6]

The browser tab didn't get the memo. In our 2021, 2022 and 2023 captures the page title still reads Discord | Your Place to Talk and Hang Out.

The 2022 and 2023 homepages keep the 2021 layout, almost word for word. Beside the feature sections, illustrations of the app show made-up members called Graggle, Cap and Billy Goat in channels like study-group and pet-photos.

Scroll the June 2023 capture down to From few to a fandom and a member card shows Graggle's full username, with four digits: Graggle#2873. Those digits, called a discriminator, are still on the page a month after Discord announced it was removing them. Its post gave the reason in numbers. More than 40% of you either don’t remember your discriminator or don’t even know what a discriminator is, and almost half of all friend requests fail to reach the person they were meant for.^[7]

The July 2023 Nitro page splits in two: Unleash more fun with Nitro above a blue Nitro Basic card and a purple Nitro card. Basic has 50MB uploads and Custom emoji anywhere. Full Nitro has 500MB uploads, HD streaming and Server Boosts. Discord announced Basic's worldwide rollout in October 2022, at $2.99 a month, after an earlier release in the UK that summer.^[8]

By our June 2024 capture the illustrations have given way to a deep blue gradient and a 3D scene: a big monitor, a phone and cartoon characters lounging in front of them. The headline puts games back on top: Group chat that’s all fun & games. The sentence under it starts with Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends.

Discord explained the turn on May 29, 2024. It was used by 200 million people every month, and Over 90% of them played games, so it would focus on talking and hanging out before, during, and after playing.^[9]

The new copy is the loosest on any of our captures. Streaming feels like hanging out on the couch with friends while playing a game, watching shows, looking at photos, or idk doing homework or something. Further down than our screenshot reaches, just above the footer, the archived text tells you to leave: YOU CAN'T SCROLL ANYMORE. BETTER GO CHAT.

The June 2025 capture keeps the headline and the 3D scene. A month earlier Discord turned ten, and its birthday post described what all that group chat looks like: 90% of all activity on Discord happens in small, intimate servers with your closest buddies. The average voice call has Just four of you.^[10]

Our June 2026 homepage capture keeps the headline, the 3D scene and the Open Discord in your browser button of 2024. The Nitro page, captured two weeks earlier, has the surprise.

A banner across the top of the June 2026 Nitro page says NITRO NOW INCLUDES XBOX GAME PASS. The full Nitro card lists Xbox Game Pass first under Everything in Basic, plus, and the section below promises 50+ PC and console games like Stardew Valley & Fallout 4 and 10 hours of cloud gaming each month. The small print reads Available in select regions. The archived text prices the plan at $9.99 / MONTH, though the prices don't render in our screenshot.

Seven years after the catalog most subscribers ignored, a library of games is back in the subscription, this time from Xbox.

The 2015 page had promised optional cosmetics like themes, sticker packs, and sound packs. Things like them did turn up as Nitro perks. The archived 2023 Nitro text lists Color Themes, Special Stickers Access and Custom Sounds Everywhere (behind a Show all perks button in our screenshot), and the 2026 card ends with Color app themes and more!

2015 · Ditch Skype and TeamSpeak2015 · Then2026 · All fun & games2026 · Capture

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In 2015 the page compared itself with Skype. In 2026 it doesn't mention anyone else. It just says the group chat is all fun and games.discordapp.com, June 2015 → discord.com, June 2026