Discord makes festive notifications optional after user backlash

Discord has made the ear-splitting festive notifications and ringtone optional after users voiced plenty of dislike over the sounds.

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As a part of what Discord is calling “snowsgiving”, every single sound in the Discord app was briefly changed to give the service a more festive feel. A quick look at the Discord Twitter account shows how plenty of users were not pleased with the sounds, which Discord has now made “opt-in” – which means it is off by default.

update: snowsgiving sounds have now been made opt-in and you can find them in settings > notifications (ctrl + R to refresh)

here's how to find them in the app: https://t.co/feuILcF3gt

— Discord (@discord) December 6, 2021

Comments on the Discord subreddit show that plenty of users were surprised by the change, and immediately relieved to hear the sounds had been switched off.

“I enjoy it,” said one user. “The stream start/end noises are especially pleasing. It’s great to have my head split in half every time I want to screen share.”

“I honestly think if the sounds weren’t so sharp and ear-piercing people would be less upset,” added another.

If you would like to turn the snowsgiving sound effects back on, you can do so by going into user settings > notifications > select the snowsgiving sound pack. Either way, the option to hear these sounds probably won’t be around for long, as they’re tied to the festive season.

Another recent Discord feature was met with widespread user dislike, as founder Jason Citron teased the integration of cryptocurrency wallets and other blockchain features. This led to many vocal users cancelling their subscriptions to Discord’s premium service Nitro, which was followed by Discord stating it has “no current plans” to integrate crypto into the platform. Although this doesn’t mean integration won’t be attempted in the near future.

In other news, four Xbox Game Pass for PC announcements have been teased for The Game Awards, with each being a day one title for the service.

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