Discord introduced on Tuesday that it rebuilt its Overlay characteristic from the bottom up.

The brand new Overlay makes streaming video games on Discord extra user-friendly on the streamer’s finish.

In its legacy type, streamers may toggle the Overlay show to make use of Discord whereas taking part in video games, however this may carry up your entire Discord consumer within the heart of the display screen, blocking the stream and making for a clunky person expertise.

Within the new model of Overlay, customers can add particular Discord widgets that may seem across the display screen for straightforward entry, making it potential to see messages and modify sound and video settings with out pulling up your entire Discord consumer. These widgets could be custom-made for opacity, sizing, and placement on the display screen.

If one other pal is streaming on the identical time, the picture-in-picture widget enables you to watch their feed from your individual Overlay, which may very well be useful for individuals taking part in on-line video games collaboratively. Customers also can see different customers’ webcam movies in the event that they’re in a dwell chat.

Discord says that the Overlay characteristic can be appropriate with extra video games and can function with smoother efficiency.

Discord can be unveiling some updates to its Desktop app. Darkish mode lovers can be happy to study that the platform is getting extra free darkish themes, so you may toggle between barely completely different shades of black and gray (Ash, Darkish, and Onyx to be particular). The brand new UI density choices may also let customers customise phrase spacing.

These updates are geared extra towards energy customers, particularly creators who might use in-server livestreams as methods to become profitable. However even for informal customers taking part in video games with some associates, these quality-of-life upgrades must be welcomed.