Suggestion - An "Active Now" for Voice Channels currently populated
Feature description: Just like with the current “Active Now”, that shows what friend are up to, this feature is called “Active Voice Channels” and displays a list of all voice channels that currently have users talking in them.
Use cases: Let's say a discord user has a random free night on an inconspicuous Tuesday. None of their friends are available, and the common discords they join in on are currently inactive. This particular user joined 70+ servers for such an occasion. But, clicking through every single folder, through every single server to see which one is currently has people on VC is just too much to ask. It's fair to say that perhaps no one is online on a VC and they'll just have to shut down the app to find something else to do.
However, with "Active Voice Channels", there will be no need to manually look at every discord, this feature will just populate with the VCs that currently have people in them for him to join when they wish.
In another example, let's say a user always hangs out in a big chat room with many people talking at once. It's neat sometimes, but today they want to talk in a smaller server. With "Active Voice Channels," they can quickly see which discord server has even a small amount of people talking for them to hop over.
Users wondering about which servers are the most active with the most social members will be able to see at a glance which one of their servers has the most people talking often. This allows them to plan social interactions faster and easier. Especially if they need a few hours to warm up to the social interaction.
This feature may even allow some inactive servers to become more active. If a person hangs out alone in a VC, "Active Voice Channel" will allow a larger audience to see a lone person on a discord they rarely visit, and may feel inclined to join.
Target audience: Discord users that are currently in 10+ discords or use folders to organize servers they are in.
User interface (UI) considerations: Due to its similarity to the "Active Now" feature in the Friends tab, it would be intuitive to have a separate tab called "Active Voice Channels" right below the "Friends" tab and just above "Nitro" tab. There needs to be an association with the concept of "Friends" and "VC" so many of the design choices should mimic how the "Friends" tab looks such as-
The header having this set up:
- Active Voice Channel | Active [] Streaming [] Camera
Each tab is clickable just like in the "Friends" tab and represents the following:
- Active shows what VCs currently has at least one member
- Streaming shows what VCs has a person streaming in it
- Camera shows what VCs has a person with their camera active in it
Following the header, you have the search bar to search for particular servers or users. Following that, a number of the currently active VCs. Below that, a list in this format:
- Server Icon [] Server Name [] Voice Channel name [Right Alignment] Number of users talking [] Number of users muted
When hovering the mouse over an entry, the alt text will show a small window with the users' icons currently in the VC. Just like with the regular hover over the server icons on the left sidebar, icons note if a particular user is streaming or using their camera.
Impact on performance and resources: To save on resources, it may be wise to consider for the client machine to only show the number of members currently talking in a VC that is active. Only when user inspects the VC via clicking or hover over, does the population list appear showing icons.
Competitive analysis: I believe Facebook has a similar feature that mimics this by showing events happening nearby. For discord, the event is the casual chats in VC. This feature will provide a richer user experience in understanding that Discord allows users to meet new friends and people they wouldn't otherwise see.
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