The end of unencrypted Discord calls is here

Anamarija Pogorelec, Managing Editor, Help Net Security May 19, 2026 Share The end of unencrypted Discord calls is here Discord has protected voice and video calls in DMs, group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default. The company began experimenting with E2EE for voice and video in 2023, starting a long-term effort. End-to-end encryption allows only participants in a call to access its content, while Discord does not have access to media encryption keys. Since then, the company introduced DAVE, an open and audited E2EE protocol developed for voice and video communication, expanded support to desktop, mobile, web browsers, consoles, bots/apps, and the Social SDK. Support for DAVE became required for Discord calls on March 1, 2026. Calls require DAVE support for clients and apps, establishing DAVE as the standard for Discord voice and video calls. Clients and applications without DAVE support cannot participate in supported voice and video sessions. “We know the next question might be: what about text? We have no current plans to extend E2EE to text messages. Many of the features people use on Discord were built on the assumption that text isn’t end-to-end encrypted, and rebuilding them to work with encryption is a meaningful engineering challenge,” Mark Smith, VP of Core Technology at Discord, explained. The company said E2EE works transparently and does not affect the user experience, call quality, or performance. Stage channels, which are designed for broadcasts to larger audiences such as live events, AMAs, and community town halls, remain outside E2EE because they use a different architecture designed for larger-scale sessions. More about encryption privacy Share