Removal of messages tab on mobile
The one thing I massively massively preferred about the mobile redesign was the separate messages tab and now it's been randomly reverted with no warning several months later because some people apparently complained about it? This really gives the impression of a company with no idea what it's doing and no confidence in itself.
For me browsing servers and direct messaging friends are totally different activities that occupy a totally different mental space in my brain, moreso on mobile where the smaller screen really means you have to focus on one activity at a time. So having them occupy separate top-level sections of the app UI was ideal, it made me much more inclined to use Discord as a messaging platform on mobile, whereas previously I'd found it an overly clunky experience compared to dedicated messaging apps due to the way messages were just jammed into the already crowded server list, almost like an afterthought. Well now it's back to the old ways and it sucks just as much for me as it did before.
I understand the desire for consistency between desktop and mobile but the two serve different needs and very different screen sizes and I don't think it's really wise to just throw your hands up and fall back on the desktop way when you get even the slightest bit of pushback. After all desktop doesn't have a bottom tab bar at all, so if you were aiming for consistency wouldn't you get rid of it altogether? As it is now with its sparse three icons it feels like a kind of half-functional vestige of a feature that used to be useful.
And yes I'm sure there are people who massively preferred it the old way as well and are rejoicing at this change. So maybe this is a case for a toggle to have DMs in either location? Or even a totally customisable bottom bar? I know app devs these days hate adding toggles and UI customisation and see a one-size-fits-all solution as the platonic ideal, but… sometimes one size really doesn't fit all! With Discord you've made a very versatile app that serves a lot of different needs and people use it in a lot of different ways and I think that's something to be proud of, and ultimately I also think that means you should not be scared of allowing a little customisation to enable your diverse userbase to tweak the UI to meet their differing needs better.
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Yes, and scrolling through to find active VCs is almost impossible on the mobile app. It seems to prefer going to the opened message rather than scrolling…
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This feedback perfectly sums up my discord mobile experience.
When I'm on Desktop I use servers. When on Mobile I exclusively use it as a Direct Messaging Service like signal/whatsapp/messenger.
The UI Change to remove the separate Chat Tab makes the mobile app a nuisance at best and useless at its worst.
The bottom bar now takes up space with stuff I personally do not use/need on mobile and the one feature I used frequently is now hidden between icons of maybe hundreds of servers I am in.
The TabsV2 UI might not have had all features people liked/used but this is also not it.2 -
It’s mindboghling that they still haven’t reverted this change and given us a DM tab again. It’s made me use discord so much less
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