Ads on Discord are imminent, but may not be as bad as rivals

Discord will soon be getting ads on the mobile app. Don’t worry, they won’t be as annoying as they are on other social media platforms.

According to a report from The Verge, the gaming-focused chat platform will be launching a pilot for Video Quests on mobile this summer. Video Quests are sponsored ads that Discord users can watch to earn rewards for their accounts, like in-game items and avatar decorations — things that usually cost money whether they have a Discord Nitro subscription or not.

The ads won’t show up at random moments like they do on other social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. They’ll pop up as a Quest bar on the bottom of the screen and, should the Discord user choose to tap it in the dedicated Quest tab, will play a full-screen video. If they don’t want to watch ads as, they can dismiss them. It’s a similar method used in some mobile games like Candy Crush Jelly Saga, where players can choose to watch ads to regain moves when they’re close to beating a level.

Peter Sellis, Discord’s product leader, said the move to expand Video Quests to mobile is part of a strategy to appeal to gaming brand partners. Discord introduced Video Quests on PC last year, which caused some controversy among users who pride Discord on being one of the few ad-free platforms in tech.

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“Expanding our advertising platform to mobile is an obvious, natural evolution in our strategy,” Sellis said. “Our mission is to create the most authentic, player-centric advertising platform in the galaxy. This expansion will provide brand partners access to Discord’s highly engaged, cross-platform mobile audience — and create new opportunities for businesses to connect with our community in meaningful, and performant, ways.”

Discord’s announcement of its expansion of Video Quests to mobile comes over two weeks after the company spoke with investment banks about launching an initial public offering (IPO). Discord is worth $15 billion as of 2021. The news also comes after it updated the platform with some impressive new features, including the ability for users to ignore certain users without their knowledge.

Discord will launch Video Quests on mobile June 2025.