The other day, we reported that major changes are coming to Discord, as the popular chat service is introducing age verification worldwide. If you are not willing to provide proof of your age, you will only have access to content that is "teen-appropriate," which means heavy censorship of both the channels you can access and what you can do on the service.
The changes are primarily intended to protect minors, but not everyone is keen to disclose their identity (for reasons ranging from privacy concerns to Discord's recent data breach last year), or to go through the verification process. Now, Windows Central reports that Google searches for "Discord alternatives" have increased in the US by around 10,000% in the last two days, compared to the previous month.
Other searches that have increased significantly are specific Discord alternatives such as Stoat, Matrix, IRC, and Mumble, all of which have increased by up to 4,000%. These types of strong reactions tend to blow over with time, but historically have also led to alternatives emerging. A recent example is Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, which led to a large number of people leaving the service, with Bluesky coming forward as an alternative, and above all, Threads being launched and becoming a hugely powerful competitor.
Whether Discord will reconsider, whether this will blow over, or whether a successful challenger will actually arise remains to be seen. What is your view on the matter? Will Discord maintain its unique position even after this?