Discord is a premier communication app used by both gamers and non-gamers worldwide, with over 200 million monthly active users leveraging the social platform to chat with friends, join millions of dedicated Discord servers on various topics, or use it for work and productivity.

Whether you're using Discord regularly for game chats or basic productivity, you might not be aware of just how feature-rich the software truly is. These are my favorite Discord features that you might not know about.

4 Code blocks in chat

Markdown text offers special formatting

Discord's chat function supports Markdown text, which is a way of formatting text using simple characters, such as adding asterisks on either side of a sentence or word to italicize or bold it. What you might not know is that this Markdown feature allows you to insert properly formatted code blocks, with supported syntax for the most popular coding languages.

By adding a single backtick (`) before and after your code in the chat box, you can insert single-line code blocks that will appear properly formatted for everyone in the chat. For multi-line code blocks, use triple backticks (```) before and after your code. For proper syntax highlighting, specify the language you are using after the first set of triple backticks.

Check out all the neat Markdown features supported in Discord's text chats, like spoiler tags, strikethrough text, and block quotes.

3 Text-to-speech

A feature for fun and accessibility

When you're hanging out in a voice channel with your friends or colleagues, you can use Discord's built-in text-to-speech feature to have Discord read any message aloud. The message can either be heard just by those in the voice channel or by those in the server, depending on their notification settings. This feature has proven more versatile than I thought at first glance, beyond accessibility.

My favorite use has been to have messages read aloud to the channel when I know most of us are using single-monitor setups, making it difficult to tab in and out of our games to check Discord. Using TTS, I can deliver strategy calls, game updates, or just humor without the distraction of leaving the game to check the chat.

TTS can also aid in multitasking by having messages read out loud while you are using Discord hands-free, like while cooking or driving. Server admins can also set up automated TTS for certain notifications, alerts, or as automated responses to certain events using bots. Bots can be programmed to announce things like new members joining the server or even delivering moderation warnings via TTS.

2 Custom soundboards

Clip your friends and create custom sounds

This might be my favorite toy to use within Discord when gaming with friends and family. For gamers that use clipping software, the likes of which can be found natively within AMD Adrenalin or the Nvidia App, you'll end up with a relatively gold mine of funny moments, sounds, expressions, and exclamations from your gaming friends. You can then clip these in any free audio editing software like Audacity, then upload them to Discord as a custom sound within your server's soundboard.

Soundboards can be customized by server, allowing you to create unique sounds for the different communities that you run or participate in. I can tell you this feature has been enjoyed endlessly by my friends and I when gaming, and it provides endless potential for creative uses. Users can set the volume of soundboards within Discord, so if you don't want to hear soundboard clips, you can simply turn the soundboard volume off.

1 Bots, bots, bots

Endless innovation from developers both small and large

Thousands of different developers have worked tirelessly to develop and deploy tens of thousands of unique bots that Discord users can integrate into their servers and everyday use of the platform. Admins can install dozens of apps simultaneously on their servers to perform a myriad of functions, from setting reminders and scheduling messages to more complex implementations like chatbots built on LLMs and virtual assistants for large and complex public servers.

For the programming-savvy user base, or anyone who has a strong command of ChatGPT, Discord makes it easy to upload your own bots that you've built to the platform. I used ChatGPT to build a Discord bot that would share pictures of my Golden Retriever anytime someone said "show me Peanut" in a text channel. My brother-in-law built a bot that created Star Wars romantic fan fiction on demand, which provided hours of entertainment.

Discord is so much more than just voice and text chats

Microsoft offered over $10 billion for Discord in 2021, though a deal never materialized, and it completed a funding round at a $15 billion valuation later that year. It remains one of the best free communication apps available and offers a deep feature set that is friendly to gamers, developers, and casual users alike. From bots to soundboards and every feature in between, Discord can be leveraged for just about any use case involving online communication with collaborators, employees, or friends.