[QUERY] Steam Chat vs Discord : Steam

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

Why do people use Discord when they have Steam Chat?

I got curious when I noticed game developers on Steam sending Discord group links.

Why didn't they setup a Steam Group Chat?

1. Is it because Steam is more/less secure?

2. Is it because they don't know about Steam Chat?

3. Is it because Discord is better than Steam Chat?

4. Is it because Steam Chat isn't as cool as Discord?

References
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discord-vs-steam-chat/

https://steamcommunity.com/updates/chatupdate
"Quality and Security
Steam voice chat was rewritten from the ground up with a new WebRTC-based backend. As a result, voice chat uses high quality Opus encoding, voice traffic is encrypted, and all traffic is sent through Steam servers rather than directly to peers. This keeps your IP address private, which masks your physical location and also prevents network attacks."

[Brian9824]

Edifier a écrit :

WhiteKnight a écrit :

Steam chat = Basic
Discord = Advanced

How is it basic?

Steam chat can handle videos being posted. Same with images and gifs. After that there is little to add to a chat.

Is there something Discord can do that Steam chat can't?

Discord can do

Channels
Roles
Announcements
Private Messaging without having to be friends
Anyone can join a chat
Polls
Voting
Voice Chat
Live Streaming
Security and permissions on a channel basis, aka channel for beta testers
and so on

Discord is NOT just a chat room. Not sure why your having trouble understanding that.

[Blargo]

brian9824 a écrit :

Edifier a écrit :

How is it basic?

Steam chat can handle videos being posted. Same with images and gifs. After that there is little to add to a chat.

Is there something Discord can do that Steam chat can't?

Discord can do

Channels
Roles
Announcements
Private Messaging without having to be friends
Anyone can join a chat
Polls
Voting
Voice Chat
Live Streaming
Security and permissions on a channel basis, aka channel for beta testers
and so on

Discord is NOT just a chat room. Not sure why your having trouble understanding that.

Steam chat is also lacking in the @mentions feature:

- @mention messages are barely visually distinct from other messages, making it easy to miss them in chat.

- There's no way to view/jump to any @mentions. If someone mentions you in a group chat and you aren't available until later, then have fun scrolling back up until you maybe find the, again, not very visually distinct message.

[Brian9824]

Also pinned FAQ's, pinned links to past messages, etc. Its a hybrid forum/chat feature that works quite well for gaming discussions

[Edifier]

brian9824 a écrit :

Edifier a écrit :

How is it basic?

Steam chat can handle videos being posted. Same with images and gifs. After that there is little to add to a chat.

Is there something Discord can do that Steam chat can't?

Discord can do

Channels
Roles
Announcements
Private Messaging without having to be friends
Anyone can join a chat
Polls
Voting
Voice Chat
Live Streaming
Security and permissions on a channel basis, aka channel for beta testers
and so on

Discord is NOT just a chat room. Not sure why your having trouble understanding that.

Being able to message people with Private message without being friends is how we end up a lot of threads with hijack reports. So that isn't really a good feature.

If you start a group chat you can set it up to anyone being able to join it.

Voice chat exist on Steam chat. For quite some time too.

Streaming is done via Steams Streaming platform and if you make one you have ability to let all see it or just friends. The streaming system comes with a chat as well.

Don't really need much security in a group chat between friends and when you make a group you can appoint people to officers .


The thing I'm having "Trouble" understanding is how you can call Steam "Basic" as basic would imply text chat only. It clearly does not do that.

[Brian9824]

Edifier a écrit :

Being able to message people with Private message without being friends is how we end up a lot of threads with hijack reports. So that isn't really a good feature.

Just because a small number of people are dumb and believe anything doesn't mean its not a good feature. I mean by that logic telephones are bad because people call and try to scam using them...... Those same people will believe the IRS is on the phone for them and give out their credit card number......

Edifier a écrit :

If you start a group chat you can set it up to anyone being able to join it.

Not like on discord when you can control the chat based on roles and control what users are able to access what voice chats

Edifier a écrit :

Voice chat exist on Steam chat. For quite some time too.

Nowhere near as good as Discord, especially for groups

Edifier a écrit :

Streaming is done via Steams Streaming platform and if you make one you have ability to let all see it or just friends. The streaming system comes with a chat as well.

Again much better on discord

Edifier a écrit :

Don't really need much security in a group chat between friends and when you make a group you can appoint people to officers .

Again not talking about a group chat between friends, talking about a business using Discord to communicate open to 10,000+ people joining, navigating the various channels, contacting admins, etc. That is where discord is leaps and bounds beyond. Being able to mention people, put chat cooldowns, tag stuff, set roles, etc far outshines what Steam has because steam's chat isn't meant to be used by a business

Edifier a écrit :

The thing I'm having "Trouble" understanding is how you can call Steam "Basic" as basic would imply text chat only. It clearly does not do that.

Steam CHAT is basic, steam has other features you've mentioned that is not part of its chat.

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

the.angelhunter a écrit :

<™-=> Cookiez <=-™> a écrit :

Moderation is easier on Discord?

How so?

In steam chat you have less permissions. You can disallow a certain role to send messages. But that's for all channels. In Discord you can change it per channel. On discord you also can chance whether their links will be embeded, whether they can add attachments.

On discord you can require certain levels of verification to stop spam accounts/bots. Like: "Must have verified email", "Must be a member of this server > 10 minutes", "must have a verified phone".

Ban list is a bit more detailed, allows for bulk changes, and some more

Hmmm... I wonder why Steam doesn't do all that you mentioned...

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

Quint the Alligator Snapper a écrit :

Haven't used Discourse, Yahoo, or Google Teams, but...

Discord - keeps all chat history indefinitely, for free
Slack - chat history only up to like 10,000 or lines or something; to view the rest you need to pay

Also

Discord and Steam chat and Slack and others are instant messaging services.

A forum is not instant messaging. It is built for asynchronous communication.

Hmmm... The post seem to be update fast enough for conversations...

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

brian9824 a écrit :

Also pinned FAQ's, pinned links to past messages, etc. Its a hybrid forum/chat feature that works quite well for gaming discussions

That exists in Steam forums.

It's the first thing you see on a discussion page and we are doing quotes right now.

Maybe Steam is just not as pretty?

[Brian9824]

<™-=> Cookiez <=-™> a écrit :

the.angelhunter a écrit :

In steam chat you have less permissions. You can disallow a certain role to send messages. But that's for all channels. In Discord you can change it per channel. On discord you also can chance whether their links will be embeded, whether they can add attachments.

On discord you can require certain levels of verification to stop spam accounts/bots. Like: "Must have verified email", "Must be a member of this server > 10 minutes", "must have a verified phone".

Ban list is a bit more detailed, allows for bulk changes, and some more

Hmmm... I wonder why Steam doesn't do all that you mentioned...

Because it's not needed for what steam is...m

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

brian9824 a écrit :

<™-=> Cookiez <=-™> a écrit :

Hmmm... I wonder why Steam doesn't do all that you mentioned...

Because it's not needed for what steam is...m

Ok, accepted.

Steam is not Discord, so they don't want to add those features.

Totally fine.

[Jackhammer (Wholf)]

The best and most simple answer is that Discord offers way and way more than Steam.
More communication, more interactions, channels/categories, different servers, a better VC system including video calling while Steam is basically just a simply chatbox where you can also call with a friend but the quality isn't very good in my opinion. Discord is just more 'fun' to use.

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

WHOLF⚡ a écrit :

The best and most simple answer is that Discord offers way and way more than Steam.
More communication, more interactions, channels/categories, different servers, a better VC system including video calling while Steam is basically just a simply chatbox where you can also call with a friend but the quality isn't very good in my opinion. Discord is just more 'fun' to use.

You would switch to Discord too?

[Vulyx]

Just like discord more. Not much to it

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

KingCore a écrit :

Just like discord more. Not much to it

Yes, this is the weird part.

Why?

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

<™-=> Cookiez <=-™> a écrit :

Quint the Alligator Snapper a écrit :

Haven't used Discourse, Yahoo, or Google Teams, but...

Discord - keeps all chat history indefinitely, for free
Slack - chat history only up to like 10,000 or lines or something; to view the rest you need to pay

Also

Discord and Steam chat and Slack and others are instant messaging services.

A forum is not instant messaging. It is built for asynchronous communication.

Hmmm... The post seem to be update fast enough for conversations...

You can certainly use forums for near-instantaneous conversation, and Discord and even Steam chat for asychronous conversations.

But they're not primarily built for these purposes, and using them these ways may be less convenient. For example, on a forum, you can link to a specific post long in the past, whereas on Steam Chat you'd need to scroll up. (Technically you can link a specific message on Discord but it's still somewhat of a pain with the scrolling.)

Crazy Tiger a écrit :

Likely a combination of more features on Discord and it being a general chat service and not a specific service related one (like Steam chat.

Quint the Alligator Snapper a écrit :

Furthermore, everyone and their mom has a Discord account and in some cases even a Discord server or two these days.

I think I'm getting old, neither my wife nor I have an account there. :lunar2019grinningpig:

To be fair, my phrasing was hyperbole using a turn of phrase, but I would just like to point out that I have seen the following communities on Discord:

* gaming-related fandom communities
* gaming-related developer communities for their own games
* gaming-related developer communities for developer-related topics
* game store user communities
* chat servers for geographically-focused subreddits
* Linux distro support communities
* a variety of small groups of friends
* nature nuts
* politics geeks
* anime fans
* university students (with occasional appearances from admins too!)
* puzzle solvers
* music lovers

Discord itself rebranded recently to emphasize how it's not just for gamers but for basically anyone. This underscores how much they've expanded beyond just gaming. It's now basically the instant messaging platform on PC (perhaps with competition from such services as WhatsApp on mobile), and somewhat analogous with Reddit but for instant messaging rather than forum posting.