GoofCord

Discord is perhaps the default option for many when it comes to meeting up with their friends virtually. We're all used to the platform by now, so if there was to be some alternative client for it, what would you need to switch over?

More privacy and customizability should sound tempting enough to many, and that's essentially what GoofCord provides. Though much of the core experience is unchanged, this unofficial Discord client is a privacy-first alternative that confers the end user some additional freedoms, both in regard to their privacy and customization capabilities.

The platform's interface should be quite familiar to most of us by now, and given that the majority of things changed here are under-the-hood, the overall appearance remains largely unchanged. You can thus start chatting with your online buddies just as you would on the official client.

Privacy-wise, the developer claims that their client is a privacy-first alternative which blocks Discord's data collection and improves general security. Heading into the settings menu and clicking on the GoodCord Version link at the bottom will display the whitelisted URLs. The developer notes that allowed URLs will be displayed therein, while any telemetry or non-permitted URLs will be blocked. You can add or remove entries as you see fit, but it's best to be cautious.

Accessing the Vencord menu under Settings will provide you with some additional functionalities. You'll be able to modify the notification style, as well as their position, log limit, and timeout.

Plugin support is a particularly noteworthy feature, in that it provides some worthwhile quality-of-life functionalities. For instance, you can anonymize the name of your uploaded files, add a timer to voice chats, clear tracking from URLs, and much more. Some of these functions even have their own configurations that can be modified.

Speaking of customizability, support for custom themes is also present. There are several Discord theme galleries on the web, so feel free to look through them and pick the appearance that suits you best.

GoodCord is a Discord client that confers users additional features over the official version. Custom theming, plugins, and added privacy protections make this a solution worth trying, especially if you often use the platform.