Discord Enables End-to-End Encryption by Default for All Voice and Video Calls

Discord has announced that all voice and video calls on the platform are now protected by default with end-to-end encryption. The rollout was completed in March, and the company is now making the news official after thorough testing at scale.

They are also beginning to remove client code that supported unencrypted fallback. The platform currently has around 690 million registered users and over 200 million monthly active users.

What Discord Now Encrypts End-to-End by Default

End-to-end encryption is used for direct messages, including voice and video calls, group direct messages, voice channels, and Go Live streams.

Stage channels are the only exception, as they are meant for large public broadcasts rather than private conversations. Encryption is automatically enabled on all supported platforms, such as desktop, mobile, web browsers, PlayStation, Xbox, and Discord SDKs, without requiring any opt-in.

How Discord’s DAVE Protocol Powers End-to-End Encryption

The encryption in Discord is based on DAVE, an open-source protocol that was first introduced in September 2024. DAVE was developed with help from security firm Trail of Bits, which also conducted audits. The protocol uses WebRTC encoded transforms, Messaging Layer Security for scalable group key exchanges, and ephemeral identity keys. Its design aims to improve privacy while reducing latency and call disruptions when participants join or leave a session.

Discord engineers note that extending DAVE to all supported platforms without causing noticeable latency is a technical challenge. One example they mentioned is a compatibility issue with Firefox, which was addressed through direct collaboration with Mozilla rather than by dropping support for Firefox.

Why Discord’s Text Messages Still Aren’t Encrypted End-to-End

Discord has confirmed that DAVE will not be expanding to include text-based communications for now. The company explains that their text features were originally developed with the assumption that messages are not encrypted. As a result, adding end-to-end encryption to text would require significant engineering efforts.

This means that direct messages, group chats, and channel texts remain accessible to Discord on their servers, while only voice and video calls are now protected with end-to-end encryption. The encryption feature is currently available for all users.

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☞ El artículo completo original de Arthur Kay lo puedes ver aquí