So the question "Why use Discord rather than Whatsapp or Messenger?" is probably a question you will hear a lot especially in smaller communities who use either Messenger or Whatsapp to coordinate raids and playing Pokemon Go. But what really is the best tool to use to communicate playing Pokemon Go?
We, in Swindon, started off on a Facebook page back when Pokemon Go released in 2016 and at the time until raids came out, there was no real reason to need to communicate instantly. It was a page for bragging what you have caught and those medals you had got gold on.
Then in 2017 when raids released, normal Facebook posts were not suitable because they would not always show the most recent post on your news feed. So we then moved to Facebook Messenger, which at first we a lot better, because you would get real time information on any raids which we could see in and around the town. But quickly we reached the 250 limit on participants. Whatsapp would be no better as it has the same limits. We needed something to hold more people.
So we looked at Discord, and it seem to fit what we needed it for, a free text chat app which has no limit on members.
People were very reluctant at first to move away and to create a discord account and have another app on their menu. However it because quickly easily to have separate text channel to talk about different aspects of Pokemon Go. Discord quickly grew from a couple of members to 900+ members.
So... this is how trainers from Swindon moved from Facebook to Discord, and we have never looked back.
We are currently collaborating with other smaller towns around Wiltshire to create a hub for different communities. This day and age people travel a lot for work and travel through towns and villages which have smaller player bases and may not need to move away from their Messenger group with 20 people in. Discord has a lot to offer in the way of bots and permissions which can make your Pokemon Go life a lot easier. (Check out what bots we use here).