Discord’s Gift Causes Discord
As of this moment, the top post on the DiscordApp subreddit is a tutorial on how to disable the app’s new notification sound. So… yeah, it appears we have an issue. Recently, the developers behind Discord – a popular communication app designed for gamers – pushed out a holiday-themed update. “Snowsgiving”, they called it. It promised “snowy surprises every day through Dec 13”, and… well… I’m sure people appreciate the sentiment.
Somewhere.
Maybe.
Snowsgiving is here! ☃️
As part of our annual winter celebration, we’re bringing out snowy surprises every day through Dec 13! Today we dropped a festive loading animation, some snowy SFX, and even a new home icon. https://t.co/bxKQyYMQun pic.twitter.com/4brWtxfmkv
— Discord (@discord) December 6, 2021
Honestly, they seem fine with the non-intrusive stuff. Minor cosmetic changes, especially seasonal ones, are par for the course. And the ones that are there are actually kinda cute. But the notification sound? They changed it from the iconic “bo-beep” to something people find not so pleasant. They don’t just miss the old sound – claims of “it hurt my ears” are more commonplace than descriptions of the actual noise.
As of now, Discord has walked things back a bit. It’s strictly an opt-in affair, you’ll need to flip a setting if you want to give the new bells a listen. And so, things return to normal.
So, what went wrong? While this story is still developing, one contributing factor was probably the rollout. Nobody was warned that their notification sound was going to be changed. People discovered it the usual way – someone sends a message, and they start to assume that their speakers had broken. When you surprise people like that, you’re bound to get a negative response.
Snowsgiving is bound to come with more gifts in the future, if that tweet is to be believed. The surprise rollout of this feature is sure to affect future gifts, a backlash like this is not so easily forgotten.