Discord's Social Layer could become a new retention tool for mobile developers

Discord is bringing its Social Layer technology to mobile games after reporting encouraging engagement results from its early PC integrations. The system is intended to place social presence, friend discovery and communication closer to the game itself rather than forcing players to switch repeatedly between a title and the Discord application. According to Discord, participating games have seen improvements in retention and frequency of play, although performance will naturally vary by title.

Mobile may be an even more interesting environment for the technology because user acquisition is so expensive. A recommendation or invitation from an existing friend can be considerably more valuable than another advertising impression. The difficult part is interface design. Mobile screens already contain controls, chat systems, currencies, event notices and promotional banners, so another social layer can easily become clutter rather than convenience.

Discord says the mobile implementation has been adapted for smaller displays. If developers can integrate it selectively, Social Layer could give smaller games access to sophisticated community infrastructure without requiring them to build every feature internally.