Discord To Remove Four-Digit Suffixes on Usernames

Discord is growing up, and it wants its users to do the same.

The popular messaging app for gamers recently announced it's doing away with four-digit discriminators usually found at the end of users' display names.

The four-digit discriminators have been with the Discord app since 2015, allowing people to use the same username without being asked to modify it.

Discord Username Suffix Removal Details

Discord co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy mentioned in a statement that Discord usernames/display names are changing to remove the four-digit discriminators found after them due to the growing number of users.

According to Vishnevskiy, the technical and product debt Discord incurred years ago at its inception caught up with it, causing issues that, while small, are causing significant impact on tens of millions of people. Many users are now complaining about the discriminators and the case-sensitive nature of the app's usernames being difficult to remember and confusing. Discord found that more than 40% of its users either don't remember their four-digit discriminator or don't even know what they are, as evidenced by a post on the r/discordapp thread.

Discord also received complaints about certain usernames being blocked for use due to them being too common and used by too many people, being rate limited when changing usernames way too often and having issues finding a friend using a special font when they entered their username on sign-up.

As such, almost half of all friend requests fail to connect users with the people they want to match with due to them either entering an incorrect or invalid username due to a combination of a missing discriminator and incorrect casing.

To remedy these issues, Discord plans to implement "a more comprehensive and robust long-term solution" that would give people the ability to have a Display Name they can change anytime with very relaxed limits and ease of discovery by other people.

One of these solutions is the use of an alphanumeric username limited to lowercase letters, numbers, and two special characters (period and underscore), in addition to the removal of the four-digit discriminators. Discord will also give users a non-unique Display name that will be users' main name and how they'll appear in the world, meaning that users' Discord username won't be their display name anymore.

How Many Are Using Discord?

Discord is not just popular with gamers, though they were the app's main users until a few years ago. According to a CNBC report, the app now has non-gaming servers that include ones focused on TV shows, geographical regions, sports, memes, dating, and investing.

Many are now using Discord due to the ability to create a server with Voice and Text at no extra cost, per Medium writer Lela Benet. At the time when Discord first launched, TeamSpeak, its main competitor at the time, required users to rent a server, which can be draining.

Thanks to its accessibility, Discord had around 563 million users worldwide by Jan. 2023, per Statista.