debonair

debonair, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

Barring design changes, Discord changed the user interface of their mobile app that is functionally worse than the old one:

—search results no longer show images and are an endless scroll instead of pages, making it harder to find stuff.

—search function no longer has filters for channels. You have to be in the channel for search results to show, which is not only annoying but is limiting if you’re looking for results across multiple channels.

—can no longer swipe right to show the list of server members. Instead, you have to click on the channel name to see it. However you can still swipe left to show server lists, so it’s inconsistent and breaks muscle memory.

—by default, contact lookup is enabled, which is big privacy violation and isn’t easy to turn off. Such a thing should be opt-in, not opt-out.

—you can no longer see who has DMed you. All you see is a notification in the direct messages button instead of the user’s profile image.

—some users have reported that when they send an image or video in a server, the screen opens to the latest DM instead of that channel. As a result, they’ve seen images and videos to the wrong chat. It might be a bug but, if not, a very poor decision.

—the new dark mode is not accessible to users with vision problems.

—a lot of buttons were moved needlessly, which not only breaks muscle memory but generally isn’t common sense. Some options, like in voice calls, are harder to access now.

A lot of users liked Discord’s simple and intuitive UI. In my experience, the updates in the past weren’t so radical and unpleasant. Such an overhaul is just really disorienting and irritating, does not make for a good user experience.

Also, Discord on Twitter has been dismissive of people’s complaints, telling people to get used to it rather than acknowledging the issues they’re bringing up.