Discord made its gaming overlay a lot more user-friendly

Discord announced on Tuesday that it rebuilt its Overlay feature from the ground up.

The new Overlay makes streaming games on Discord more user-friendly on the streamer’s end.

In its legacy form, players could toggle the Overlay display to use Discord while playing games, but this would bring up the entire Discord client in the center of the screen, blocking the stream and making for a clunky user experience.

In the new version of Overlay, users can add specific Discord widgets that will appear around the screen for easy access, making it possible to see messages and adjust sound and video settings without pulling up the entire Discord client. These widgets can be customized for opacity, sizing, and placement on the screen.

If another friend is streaming their gameplay at the same time that you are playing, the picture-in-picture widget lets you watch their feed from your own Overlay, which could be helpful for people playing online games collaboratively. Users can also see other users’ webcam videos if they’re in a live chat.

Discord says that the Overlay feature will be compatible with more games and will operate with smoother performance.

Discord is also unveiling some updates to its Desktop app. Dark mode enthusiasts will be pleased to learn that the platform is getting more free dark themes, so you can toggle between slightly different shades of black and grey (Ash, Dark, and Onyx to be specific). The new UI density options will also let users customize word spacing.

These updates are geared more toward power users, especially creators who may use in-server livestreams as ways to make money. But even for casual users playing games with some friends, these quality-of-life upgrades should be welcomed.