New layout rolling out

Since February 3rd, 2025, Discord has been slowly rolling out its new design to all its users. All new accounts created from that date on will have the new layout directly applied to their profile, and they will be unable to switch back to the old layout. Discord users aren't always so fond of a new design. This scenario has already happened in the past where people were perplexed and some even angered by the sudden change of layout in the server list and how to access your DMs. 

The general layout at start-up

Discord has always had a bold layout, everything in rectangles and shades of dark grey to black. You can, of course, change the theme of how you see Discord but this is how most people see it. With this update, the Discord theme had become lighter, and somewhat more cosy and some features have changed place. Almost all bars, categories and displays have been given a medium grey colour with a lighter edge to distinguish them from a little darker coloured background.

One of the negative sides, I would directly say bad change but it did irritate me the first time I saw it, is that the top bar has become thicker and displays the server name of the server you are in or that you are in the Direct Messages, your inbox and the help button next to the tab buttons. On the contrary, the DM list and channel display have become wider, your account is displayed at the bottom, where it always has, but across the DM list and the server list.

Direct Messages

Not much has been changed to the DMs. Your conversation is still displayed in the middle, the person you are messaging with on the right and your friend/DM list on the left next to your server list. The bar at the top of the DM is still the same as the old layout, all buttons are in the same places and all still do the same things.

The big noticeable change is in the message bar, which has become thicker. As you type your message, it displays between the buttons available to add other things than text like an emoji, a GIF, etc. Yet by the new layout, the message you type displays above all these buttons, giving you a wider view of your message, making it easier to see your message, put things in bold, etc.

In the DM list where you see all your friends and people you send messages to, the section Message Requests and Nitro has disappeared from the top. In the Friend bar, the suggestion section has disappeared too and the "Add Friend" button has become blue instead of green.

Server list, channels and setting

In general, the server list has become slimmer, server icons are more rectangle-like than round and you can see more of your servers. If a server icon has text in it, it's unlikely that you are still able to read what it says due to the slim fit of the list and the shrinking of the icons. 

The channel list of a server, the same as with the DM list in Direct Messages, has become wider. So now, instead of that you need to shorten your channel names so they are readable, you name it the way you want to name it. After close analysis, it is rather annoying to see that the half dots indicating that something has been sent in the channel that you haven't read before, the other half hidden under the server list, simply displays as if it was nonchalantly cut off. This may not be annoying for others, but it did bother me the first time I noticed it.

A lot more changes have been made to the server settings, surely when it comes to the different settings you can change. Instead of the categorisation of the general settings, apps, moderations, community and the others, you now have general settings, expressions, people, apps, moderations, uncategorised community settings and all the others. This difference in categorisation makes it easier to know where to search for certain settings, making it easier for people without much experience in server creation to make their own server.

I will be putting only one category in the picture, the one of the server profile and engagement, the 2 top setting tabs. Where you would normally have your server profile where you could say where people will join your server and where a welcome message would be sent, these are now 2 different tabs instead of one. In Server Profile you can now choose the colour of the banner of your server, the traits it has (what the server stands for) and the games played on the server, since there is a big surprise of game-themed servers.

Other changes

There have been many other changes, some that are not so visible or some that have never been that important. If you want to see all these new features and layouts for yourself, the advice is to create a new account since all new profiles will have the new theme. Otherwise, you would have to wait until the update rolls out to your profile, this might take some time.

Personal conclusion

In general, I like the new layout. It feels cosy, warm, welcoming and structured. Some small changes may be annoying in the first days/weeks of using the new layout, but you will get used to it after some time. You can see more servers of those you are in, servers are easier to make and messages are clearer. I have only been using the new layout on an alternative account and a couple servers where the new layout suddenly popped up so I can't say much about the long-time experience with it yet.

Once the new layout rolls out to all profiles, even my main account, I will be happy with it instead of annoyed as when the last layout change happened, which bothered me for a whole month. I hope you will be happy with these changes too.

So if it comes, watch out!!