Discord has announced that its audio and video end-to-end encryption (E2EE A/V or E2EE) is now rolling out to its users around the world.
In a blog post published this week, the company discusses how its Discord Audio & Video Encryption (DAVE) will be available for the “roughly 200 million people who use our platform every month.” Starting now, voice and video in DMs, Group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams will begin using E2EE.
Once available, users will be able to verify whether E2EE is being used and will be able to “perform verification” of other members in the calls. Discord confirms that its DAVE is being independently audited. “We collaborated closely with Trail of Bits, a renowned independent cybersecurity firm, to conduct a thorough review of both the design and implementation of DAVE in our code base,” the company states. For those interested, Discord has provided the design review and implementation review from Trail of Bits.
Discord goes on to explain that during E2EE calls (both audio and video), no one but the participants can access the content of the ongoing conversations. This includes Discord, which won’t have access to the media encryption keys. New keys are generated for each call. “When the participants join or leave a call, keys are changed and members cannot decrypt media that was sent before they joined or after they left,” it’s said.
While Discord’s E2EE covers audio and video, it refrains from encrpyting text messages. According to the company, this is a deliberate choice. “Safety is intertwined with our product and policies.” The company confirms that it’ll continue to follow content moderation for messages sent on the service.
Discord also states that audio and video calls made in some browsers won’t be encrypted due to technical limitations. “To transmit real-time audio and video, Discord uses WebRTC. When it comes to web clients, we are limited by the WebRTC API availability in browsers, which poses a unique challenge to supporting E2EE A/V.”
The rollout of Discord’s E2EE is a gradual one. The company states that it aims to enable support to all users by “next year”.
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