What does this article cover?
- What are Video Calls?
- Setting up your camera in Discord
- Starting a Video Call in a Direct Message
- How do you join a Server Video Chat?
- Server Video Safety
- Need Support?
What are Video Calls?
Video calls are an easy way to stay connected - all from within your DMs (Direct Messages) or server voice channels that you would normally hang out together in.
You’ll be able to hop directly into a voice channel or DM and start chatting over video together.
While in a video chat, you could:
- video chat only,
- screen share only,
- video chat and screen share at the same time, or
- do neither and just chat on voice and watch others’ videos!
This article will cover Video Calls in DMs and voice channels on the desktop client. For more information on how to share your screen please check out our Go Live - Screenshare article. If you have questions about video calls on a mobile device please review our [Mobile] Video Calls article.
Setting up your camera in Discord
Before you start your call, or join a voice channel, you can check your video settings by selecting the cog icon in the bottom left hand corner to open your User Settings page!
You'll then find a handy "Voice & Video" tab, where you can adjust your settings for voice and video chat.
As long as you have a video device available, you'll be able to select it from the camera options dropdown:
To double check your video before starting a call, you can select the handy "Test Video" button to make sure everything's shipshape and your hair is done just right before making first contact with your friends.
Note: For browser app users, you may need to enable camera access in your browser in order to use the device successfully. Select the "Allow" button in the permissions pop-up, and you'll be good to go here.
Starting a Video Call in a Direct Message
Step 1: Open a DM
To start a video call with a friend, you'll want to be viewing a DM (direct message) that you already started. Select the Home button (Discord logo) in the top left of the app and your DMs will be listed under "Direct Messages" to the right of your server list. Afterwards, select a DM.
Step 2: Start a Video Call
If your camera is already ready to go, you can start a video call in a DM by pressing the Start Video Call button on the menu bar at the top.
If you don't want to share video immediately you can select the Start Voice Call button instead and enable your camera from within the call later.
Enabling Video
If you're already in a voice call, you can enable video by pressing the Turn on Camera button in the call panel.
Whenever you want to end your video stream, you can press the camera button once more to Turn off Camera.
Advanced In-Call Options
By pressing on the (arrow) icon by each of the call panel menu buttons, you’ll be able to modify the following settings:
- What camera you’re using
- Change your input and output device directly in the call
- Quickly swap between Voice Activity and Push to Talk
- Open your Voice Settings and then immediately head back into the call once you’re done making changes.
How do you join a video chat in a server?
This section below will cover 1) how to enable permissions to join a video call, and 2) then walk you through how to enable the call within the server!
What role permissions do you need?
Before even starting on your journey in joining a voice channel, you'll need to make sure you have a role with the Video permission enabled to stream your video!
If you own the server and want to make sure your friends can share their stream too, you'll be able to modify these permissions by selecting your Server Settings and then heading into the Roles tab!
Once you're there, you can scroll down to the Voice Permission section and modify the specific permission for each role you'd like!
Note: If you're the server owner, you'll be able to skip this step since you already have all permissions for your own server!
How many people can join in a Server Video chat?
Currently, a total of 25 people in the server can join the channel to video chat together!
When you activate a video within the server, the channel will automatically put a cap on the number of people who can join until all camera streams stop!
Once the channel is filled with 25 people, everyone else in the server will see an error letting them know that there’s too many people in the channel!
Instructions for joining a Server Video Chat
Step 1: Join a Voice Channel
Once you've confirmed permissions, to join an ongoing video call, the first step is to select a voice channel in your server!
After selecting the voice channel, you’ll be able to watch the ongoing chat in a small window in the corner of your desktop app.
Note: At this point, your video isn’t shared with everyone else in the channel, but you’ll be able to join in the chat with your voice!
Step 2: Share your video!
To share your video with the rest of your friends, just press the Video button in the bottom left corner (within the Voice and Video Panel) or the Turn on Camera button within the video call window.
View Modes
Once you’re in the call, you can switch between different types of view modes and window modes to optimize your viewing experience!
Grid View -
- All server video calls will start in this view! This is the perfect view to see all the videos within your video chat at once!
Focus View -
- If you’d like to focus on one specific person, you can then use this view to make their screen the center of attention! The focused screen will show as the largest screen while everyone else’s screen will show up on as smaller screens at the bottom.
- Want to make that focused view even larger?
- You can also hide the streams of the other Server Video Members (by pressing on the
Hide Members button within the focused stream) while in the Focus View to only show the main screen you’re focusing on! That way, you won’t get distracted by anyone else’s screen!
- You can also hide the streams of the other Server Video Members (by pressing on the
- Want to change which screen you want to focus on?
- To switch which screen you’d like to focus on, you can press the
Show Members to show all the smaller streams once more and then select the other person’s screen!
- To switch which screen you’d like to focus on, you can press the
Window Modes
Pop Out View -
- To have the video chat all appear in a separate window, press the Pop Out View button to be able to move that window anywhere on your screen!
- If you want to pin the Pop Out window so that it stays above all other windows, you can use the Stay On Top button. To unpin the window, use the Remove from Top button.
Full Screen View -
- Last but not least, press that Full Screen button if you want to maximize the video size on your screen!
Stream Modes - Video and Screenshare
Additionally, since we're right within the server, you'll also be able to simultaneously video chat AND Go Live - Screenshare all at the same time!
Just follow these steps below:
- Press the
Go Live streaming icon in the voice status panel (near the bottom left corner) and a new window will pop out
- Select an individual application window to share, or select an entire screen to share
- Press the "Go Live" button at the bottom of the window when you are ready to share your stream
Note:
- Multiple people can stream their screen and Go Live at the same time on the video call.
Server Video Safety Best Practices
Discord values every user’s privacy and safety, and we want to make sure that everyone is aware of how they can keep their server space safe and secure!
- Step 1: Check your Roles and Permissions!
- As an initial step, we recommend that you always make sure to double-check your roles and permissions so you control who has access!
- To maximize security, you can set up permissions so that the @everyone role is set to have no permissions in the server! With this setup, if anyone unwanted or hostile were to join the server, they would not be able to view, participate or interact with the server in any way, shape or form, until an admin assigned a role to that person.
- Step 2: Set your Verification Level to the Highest Possible Level!
- By setting your Verification level to the max, this will only allow users to have a verified phone number attached to their Discord account.
- This will add a blocker to anyone hostile trying to join in the server!
For more tips on tools to protect your server, check out these links below:
As always, if you have evidence of a violation to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, you can contact our Trust and Safety team directly at https://dis.gd/request.
Need Support?
If you have any follow-up questions or are running into any issues, send a ticket to our support team at https://dis.gd/contact with all the following information so we can help investigate what's going on!
- A clear description of your issue
- The OS and OS version you're using (ex: Windows 10)
- Which clients is this issue occurring on (ex: browser, mobile and/or desktop)?
- Screenshots of all your Voice & Video settings
- A list of input and output devices you’re using
- What apps you're trying to screenshare/soundshare with
- A copy of your debug log
- You can find this option when you scroll down in your Voice & Video settings