If you’ve been a long-time Discord user, one reason you may have stuck around is its reputation for being a platform without traditional ads. Unfortunately, it looks like Discord is determined to change that.
You’ll Start Seeing Ads on Discord Mobile Soon
Discord has announced via a press release that users will start seeing third-party ads on its mobile app in June 2025. Fortunately, they’re not the kind of pesky ads that interrupt your gaming experience entirely.
Instead, the company is bringing Video Quests to mobile. If you’re unfamiliar with Discord’s Quests, here’s a quick rundown. There are two types—Play Quests and Video Quests. The former allows you to unlock in-game rewards by completing tasks like playing or streaming a game. The latter allows you to watch video ads in exchange for rewards like in-game items and Discord avatar decorations.
With Video Quests expanding to mobile, ads will now appear at the bottom of the screen as a “Quest bar”. The good news? The full-screen ad only plays if you accept the Quest. Otherwise, you can dismiss it and won’t receive further notifications for that respective Quest again.
Discord first introduced Video Quests on PC and consoles in March 2024. While the launch was controversial, many users found them tolerable since they could opt out of Discord ads easily.
The Verge has confirmed that mobile users will also be able to opt out of personalized promotions or hide in-app promotions for certain Quests, which is definitely a relief.
It’s worth mentioning that the announcement doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. Many users on forums like Reddit have reported Discord testing Quests on mobile for a while now, and it’s clear gamers aren’t thrilled.
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Peter Sellis, Discord’s product leader, stated that “expanding Video Quests to mobile will create new opportunities for businesses to connect with our community,” making it pretty clear this move is great for advertisers.
While I appreciate that Discord’s ads aren’t as in-your-face as other platforms (looking at you, YouTube), I still find myself silently wishing we could go back to the ad-free days.
