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Discord is currently testing a new design on its mobile app that changes how you move around. This new feature, called the ‘You bar’, replaces the standard navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. If your app looks different suddenly, you might be part of this random experiment.
The ‘You bar’ is a floating, rounded bar. It gives you access to your profile and settings. This change is being shown to a small, random group of users to gather feedback before deciding if it will be rolled out to everyone. Because the selection is random, you cannot choose to turn this feature on or off.
What Is Different About the New Design?
The traditional Discord mobile layout has a fixed bar at the very bottom of the screen. This old design provided clear, separate buttons for different sections of the app. The new ‘You bar’ changes this familiar structure significantly.
The previous design featured a static bar with distinct icons. It usually included a Home button to see your friends and direct messages, a server list icon, a notifications tab, and your profile picture to access settings. This layout was predictable and allowed users to build muscle memory for quick navigation.
New ‘You bar’
The new design removes the static bar. Instead, a smaller, floating bar hovers near the bottom. This bar combines several functions into one compact space, primarily centered around your user profile and settings. The dedicated Home button and the three-line server drawer icon are gone in this version.
This change streamlines the look of the app, giving more screen space to your chats and server content. However, it also changes the fundamental way users interact with the app’s core features.
How the ‘You bar’ Changes Your App Experience
The primary goal of any app redesign is to improve the user experience, but early reactions show that this change has both positive and negative effects. The most significant impact is on user workflow and navigation habits developed over years of using the app.
For example, many users relied on double-tapping the home or server icons as a shortcut. Double-tapping the home button would take you directly to your direct messages list. This small trick saved time and made moving between conversations faster. With the ‘You bar’, these shortcuts are no longer available, which can slow down navigation for long-time users.
Another point of frustration comes from users who are members of many servers. When you reach Discord’s server limit, navigating your server list becomes more complex. The old interface offered a clear path to manage this list. Some users feel the new, more compact design makes it harder to organize and switch between a large number of servers. The familiar layout provided a stable anchor point, and its removal forces users to relearn how to get around.
Why Is Discord Testing This?
Companies like Discord run these types of tests to collect data on user behavior. The goal is to see if a new design can make the app easier to use, more engaging, or more visually appealing. Internal testing for this ‘You bar’ began among Discord staff around February 2024. Now, the company is expanding the test to a small fraction of its public user base.
By releasing it randomly, Discord can compare how users with the new design behave compared to users with the old one. They might be measuring things like how quickly users find their settings, how much time they spend in the app, or if the new design leads to fewer clicks to complete a task.
Some users do appreciate the new look. They find it cleaner and more modern. It frees up screen space, which makes the app feel less cluttered. The floating bar is also reminiscent of design trends seen in other modern mobile applications. Interestingly, some long-time users have noted that this rounded, floating element feels similar to a much older version of Discord’s mobile app from around 2016, before the tabbed navigation system was introduced.
What Happens Next?
Whether the ‘You bar’ becomes a permanent feature depends entirely on the data and feedback Discord collects during this test phase. If the results show that the new design improves key metrics and receives positive feedback overall, it may be polished and released to all users in the future. If it proves to be confusing or leads to a worse user experience, Discord will likely discard the idea or try a different approach.
If you are part of the test group, your experience is valuable. While you cannot opt out, your usage patterns provide the information Discord needs to make a final decision. For now, users with the ‘You bar’ will have to adapt to the new layout and see if it grows on them over time.
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