(Image: Shutterstock.com). End-to-end encryption is intended to prevent providers and attackers on the internet from accessing sensitive content. Discord is now activating it for calls.. Discord is now enabling end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default. However, only for regular voice and video calls. Text messages remain unencrypted.. Mark Smith, Vice President of Core Technology at Discord, announced this in a blog post [1]. Initial experiments began in August 2023, resulting in a protocol for E2EE of voice and video calls called “DAVE”. It is open source [2]. Over the past year, the developers adapted and extended DAVE for various platforms. They completed the development in March of this year.. End-to-end encryption has since been active by default for calls, and users do not need to do anything. Previously, at least manual activation [3] was possible on platforms that were already supported. Discord developers point out the challenges that had to be considered during development. Various operating systems and architectures must be supported: smartphones, gaming consoles like PlayStation and Xbox, web browsers – all can be active in a call simultaneously and must be able to apply encryption. This has now been accomplished, and Discord also had the design and implementation of DAVE audited by external experts.. And what about text?. Discord is clear that the question of E2EE for text messages will now arise. There are no plans for this, Mark Smith announces. Many of Discord’s features were developed under the assumption that text is not end-to-end encrypted. Developing these anew with encryption would be a challenging technical task. However, Discord wants to continue strengthening privacy protection for users; this is an ongoing, not a one-time project.. From a data protection perspective, the introduction of E2EE is always welcome. But the fact that text messages in particular are not encrypted on the end device is at least disappointing. However, plaintext text messages are not unique to Discord. Instagram deactivated privacy protection [4] through E2EE for direct messages earlier this month. Reason: Because users had to manually enable encryption, it was rarely used.. (dmk [6]). URL of this article:. https://www.heise.de/-11300087. Links in this article:. https://discord.com/blog/every-voice-and-video-call-on-discord-is-now-end-to-end-encrypted. https://github.com/discord/libdave. https://www.heise.de/news/Discord-startet-Ende-zu-Ende-Verschluesselung-fuer-Audio-und-Video-Chats-9909594.html. https://www.heise.de/news/Ende-zu-Ende-Verschluesselung-Instagram-deaktiviert-Privatsphaerenschutz-11287210.html. https://pro.heise.de/security/?LPID=39555_HS1L0001_27416_999_0&wt_mc=disp.fd.security-pro.security_pro24.disp.disp.disp. mailto:dmk@heise.de. Copyright © 2026 Heise Medien
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