Mobile Discord Experience Set for Major Deterioration

If you’ve been using Discord for a while, one of the reasons you might have stayed is its status as an ad-free platform. However, it seems that Discord is ready to change that narrative.

Ads Are Coming to Discord Mobile

Discord recently revealed in a press release that users can expect to see third-party ads on its mobile app starting in June 2025. The good news is that these won’t be the disruptive ads that completely ruin your gaming experience.

Instead, Discord is introducing something called Video Quests to mobile. If you’re not familiar with this feature, let me explain. There are two types of Quests—Play Quests, which reward you for playing or streaming games, and Video Quests, which offer rewards like in-game items and Discord avatar decorations for watching video ads.

With the launch of Video Quests on mobile, ads will appear as a “Quest bar” at the bottom of your screen. The best part? A full-screen ad only activates if you choose to accept the Quest. If you’re not interested, you can easily dismiss it and won’t be bothered with further notifications for that specific Quest.

Video Quests were first launched on PC and consoles in March 2024. Despite some initial backlash, many users found them manageable since opting out of Discord ads was straightforward.

The Verge has confirmed that mobile users will also have the option to opt out of personalized ads or hide in-app promotions for certain Quests, which should provide some relief.

It’s important to note that this announcement isn’t entirely unexpected. Numerous users on platforms like Reddit have documented Discord testing Quests on mobile for some time now, and it’s clear that many gamers are not too pleased with this development.

Peter Sellis, Discord’s product leader, mentioned that “extending Video Quests to mobile will create new opportunities for businesses to engage with our community,” clearly indicating that this move is primarily beneficial for advertisers.

While I appreciate that Discord’s ads won’t be as intrusive as those found on some other platforms (looking at you, YouTube), I still find myself nostalgically wishing for the days when the platform was completely ad-free.