Discord's 'Age Verification' Causes Mass Subscription Count Loss

Feb 18
2 min read

In a recent press announcement, Discord announced an age verification process that will be implemented in March, 2026. This has causes a backlash from users on Reddit and X.

What's the big deal?

While Discord claims that most users will not be affected, and will probably never have to upload an ID to verify their age, users are looking for alternatives to Discord.

Last year, Discord had a data breach that caused over 70,000 government ID's to be leaked.

Now, we can begin to see why uploading an ID might be a little much for the average Discord user. Furthermore, Discord has essentially stated they have technology to single out and seek users that may be underage or in servers that are age restricted.

So, on one hand, we expect a level of privacy when using these applications but then rebuke the idea of surveillance when it comes to keeping ages limited to content.

The proverbial Discord Mod.

Is Discord cooked?

Well, at the end of the day, only time can tell. One thing that is for certain is many people are becoming increasingly annoyed by tech companies pulling one over on its user whenever possible. This will definitely produce a ripple that can eventually cause the cup to spill.

Many users are openly stating on social media that they are canceling their Nitro Subscriptions as apart of retaliation. I supposed it is a good thing Discord is not a publicly traded company!

Are there any Discord alternatives?

Well, sure!

In this day in age, there's always going to be an alternative to almost any application or software out there. Ugh, but having to search yourself is mad annoying.

Here's 3 Discord alternatives you can take about and try for yourself.

Signal
Signal is a secured chat application. It is best for communities who value secrecy and privacy, however, it is noted that the interface can be messy and threading can be difficult. Signal is not decentralized and relies on AWS servers, so if you're worried about having that tether, Signal may not be right for you.
Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is like Slack, but more technical. It's fairly decentralized since 2025, but offers a similar experience to any PM/comm software. They also offer End-to-End Encryption.
Root
This a fairly newer application, not to be confused with Root Insurance. Not much is really known about the Root App, but according to users on Reddit, its a near-identical to Discord! We will have to make an account soon and update this article.