BetterDiscord Lets Users Mod the App to Their Heart's Content

For years, gamers have sworn up and down that Discord—not Slack—is the best desktop chat app. But like with any great thing, there’s room for improvement. Enter BetterDiscord.BetterDiscord allows users to tailor Discord’s desktop app to their own personal aesthetic and UX preferences, and introduces other quality-of-life improvements major and minor. Just download and install the free software, and then pick and choose plug-ins and skins from BetterDiscord’s database. Other changes automatically appear, like a button for perusing a list of user-submitted servers and a new emote layout. (The software doesn’t work with the mobile app or in the browser.) Your Discord window background can be the face of your favorite anime waifu, and you can delete that pesky Gift button to the right of the text box. You can make Discord look like it did three years ago or add in a Google Translate option.The experience recalls an earlier internet era, when black-and-green terminal-style Winamp skins were popular, and everything downloaded online was customizable—officially or not. BetterDiscord is not an officially sanctioned app; and likely it breaks Discord’s terms of service, which prohibit modifying Discord. But the software has been installed more than 5.3 million times since 2015, and…
Read More