Thoughts on the new UI, why I like it and how it could improve

I've been an avid Discord user since 2017 on both desktop and mobile. It is my primary platform for communities, voice chatting - honestly would prefer if i could use Discord over Teams/Meet - and text chat. I would get rid of Messenger if I could. Likewise I've been a beta tester of experimental features throughout the years, which has been interesting. With all this in mind, I wanted to share my thoughts on the new UI, why I personally like it, and how I think it could be improved upon - not reverted. I've been chatting with fellow long-time discordians as well as drawn upon my social studies background to reflect on the changes.

First and foremost I'd like to address the magnitude of the UI change. This isn't a small edit of a button, but a larger overhaul. 

According to the following article: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/12654190110999-New-Mobile-App-Updates-Layout 

The old mobile UI was designed to reflect the desktop app, and acted as a scaled down mobile version, whereas the new UI is intended to look and act like a native mobile application, including several new swipe gestures to access commonly used features. This goes hand in hand with the overall transition of Discord as an “application for gamers on desktop” to a social platform for desktop and mobile. Servers are evolving, communities are growing, there's even a possibility to attach a shop to your Discord server. And (yeah yeah, bring the pitchfork guys) the username change also reflects this transition. How so? By getting rid of discriminators (#0000), limiting the usernames to the Latin alphabet (no more odd characters) along with removing capitalization (the old name was case-sensitive). This change simplified the usernames and made them easier to give out on the fly in social situations. I'll compare an old possible username to a new one: ElevateShræk#3627 and saturn.moon

The old username has two capitalised letters that you have to point out, a special character and a unique identifier. The new one is two words seperated by a dot, lowercase (it doesn't matter the person typing it) and no identifier. Both are easy to add on desktop. Just copy paste it. But say you're at any kind of event, you both sit there with your mobiles out, and want to connect on Discord. That is now simplified and the potential errors in this process has been lowered.  

It is clear to me that Discord is becoming a social platform. I was against the username change at first aswell, until this dawned upon me. 

Likewise, I looked at the UI overhaul with skepticism. I think it is only natural, as human beings are habitual, and the reaction to these changes highlights that. “Change it back, the new is bad, the old was better”. Or was it actually better? Or were we just used to it?

One thing I'd like to point out is how, outside of the earlier linked article (which I first discovered today), I haven't seen much information pushed from Discord to smoothen the transition from the old to the new. It would've been nice with some informational GIFs in the patch notes pop up with explainers of “What's New?”. I believe this has helped push the divide and slow down learning of the new mobile application for long time users. 

Another thing that has stood out to me in the complaints has been regarding muscle memory and “what we're used to”. This has especially been a core argument regarding the latest change in the swipe gesture from right to left. A change from opening the member list of a server to making the reply feature more accessible. To this I have several notes of reflection: 1) Muscle memory is a myth. Rewiring the brain from accessing the server list to replying to a message is not a difficult, nor impossible, undertaking, but it can be an annoying one. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours of active usage to rewire. 1.B) I beta-tested this feature a year or two ago on mobile, and my initial reaction was frustration, because it changed what I was used to, but when it disappeared after a week or two I had become so used to it that I missed it. 2) On Discord, I use the reply feature in every conversation I have, and probably on average reply to a message 10 times more often (if not more) than I look at the members list. I would guesstimate this is a trend for the majority of the userbase. 3) Swipe to reply exists on several messaging applicationn from WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Messages to Messenger and Instagram, and it feels native. I like that it is now a swift motion in Discord, unlike before with press and hold that opened up a context menu with multiple choices. 

With all that being said as to why I believe the feature is good and should stay: Seriously Discord, add a toggle to change it back for those that want it. But for goodness sake keep it and let swipe to reply be default, as that is a native gesture on mobiles.

A similar, sweet addition would be to add a color scheme closer to what was before. I prefer the new color, but I've read complaints regarding accessibility. You already have color schemes, even more with Nitro. Add the old Discord mobile for free, thanks.

Overall I am a supporter of the overhaul. I've already used it so much I can barely remember what the old was like. The gestures and overall design feels native on a mobile, as it was intended and I like the added menu with a list of files and media etc. in a channel/DM 

The UI does have some issues on opening the application, where it can't really decide between showing the server tab or DMs, that slows it down. I've also noticed issues with slow loading on opening a DM  that wasn't present in the old UI.