Xbox Consoles Are Getting New Discord Calling and Streaming Features

Microsoft and Discord are continuing to work together to improve the Discord integration on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. An update coming to select Xbox Insiders later today will enable direct calls to Discord friends. It will also let Xbox users watch their friends streaming their games in Discord voice channels.

As of today, Xbox users can only talk with their Discord friends on voice channels. On Discord servers, these channels let users hang out over voice and video and share their screens, and they’re ideal for group chats. However, it’s currently not possible to call Discord friends directly from an Xbox: the only workaround is to ask them to join the same server and voice channel.

By letting Xbox users call their Discord friends directly, Discord on Xbox will offer almost the same flexibility as the natively integrated Xbox Party Chat feature. The Xbox Friends list will also display Discord friends who are gaming or chatting under the “Happening now” pane alongside contacts using Xbox Party Chat.

For many years, the game streaming experience on Xbox consoles hasn’t been great. Xbox gamers previously had to use the clunky Twitch app to stream games, but Twitch streaming is now natively integrated into the Xbox OS. While it’s still not possible to stream games from an Xbox to YouTube, Xbox users can stream their games on a Discord voice channel. However, a Discord Nitro subscription is required to stream in 1080p/60FPS quality.

While streaming on Discord voice channels offers a more “private” experience compared to Twitch, it’s currently not possible for Xbox gamers to watch their friends’ Discord streams from their console. However, today’s Xbox Insider update will finally change that: To watch streams from their Discord friends in the same voice channel, Xbox users will just need to select their profile and choose “Watch Stream.”

Overall, these new Discord features should really help the service to feel “native” on Xbox consoles. Discord is also integrated on the PlayStation 5, but the integration work the Xbox team is doing now goes a bit further.