Discord has officially rolled out end-to-end encryption for all voice and video calls across its platform, completing a multi-year effort aimed at improving user privacy and communication security.
The company confirmed that end-to-end encryption is now enabled by default for direct messages, group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams. The rollout follows Discord’s gradual deployment of its custom DAVE encryption protocol, which was first introduced in 2024 as part of the platform’s broader privacy initiative.
According to Discord, the encryption system prevents third parties, including Discord itself, from accessing the contents of ongoing audio and video conversations. The company said encryption keys remain exclusively on participant devices, ensuring only users involved in a call can decrypt communications.
The DAVE protocol was designed to support Discord’s large-scale infrastructure while maintaining low-latency voice and video performance across multiple platforms, including desktop clients, mobile devices, web browsers, and gaming consoles. Discord stated that all supported clients were required to adopt DAVE before joining calls, effectively eliminating fallback support for older unencrypted connections earlier this year.
Discord originally began experimenting with encrypted voice and video technologies in 2023 before publicly introducing DAVE in September 2024. The company later expanded compatibility to browsers, consoles, bots, and third-party integrations as part of its migration toward mandatory encrypted communications.
The protocol and its implementation were also released as open-source projects, allowing external researchers and security experts to audit the technology. Discord said the encryption framework underwent third-party security reviews and remains part of the company’s active bug bounty program.
Despite the expanded encryption rollout, Discord clarified that text messages on the platform are not end-to-end encrypted. The company stated that many moderation, safety, and platform management features currently rely on server-side access to text communications, making encrypted messaging significantly more difficult to implement without redesigning core functionality.
Stage channels also remain excluded from end-to-end encryption because they are designed for large-scale broadcast-style communication rather than private conversations.
The move positions Discord alongside messaging platforms such as Signal, WhatsApp, and Apple’s iMessage, which already use end-to-end encryption for private communications. Privacy advocates previously described Discord’s adoption of encrypted voice and video calls as a significant improvement for user security on large communication platforms.