- Discord’s age verification plans are pushing users to alternative platforms
- Stoat, formerly known as Revolt, is having capacity issues to cope with the influx of people leaving Discord.
- Discord is apparently sticking to its plan to implement global age verification measures in March.
Discord hasn’t done itself any favors so far this year, with plans to implement age verification measures globally on the platform in March, following the introduction of the policy for UK users due to the Online Safety Act. These changes are still weeks away, but the impact is already clear.
As reported by Destructoid, an alternative Discord platform, Stoat, is facing capacity issues due to a large number of Discord users leaving the service to avoid these age verification schemes.
Stoat’s status page indicates that performance on the social platform has been going downhill, with a note saying: “There are simply too many people, but we are doing our best.”
It’s worth noting that Stoat was previously called Revolt, but was renamed in 2025, keeping the same team and maintaining the app interface.
Fortunately for those flocking to Stoat, the interface resembles Discord’s, but with the benefit of free themes and customization (whereas with Discord, this is locked behind Nitro’s subscription paywall).
Image 1 of 2
The Battle for Discord Defectors
While servers and voice chats are available on Stoat, there are no screen sharing options, which could be a deal breaker for many (I know it is for me).
However, that hasn’t stopped a flood of people from joining the platform, and with Discord showing no signs of reversing its identity verification plans, we’re likely to see more defectors heading to various alternative services (like Root).
There will likely be a huge battle to get the attention of those fleeing Discord.
While identity verification is not mandatory, those who do not undergo the process will have a “teenager by default” setting, which limits quite a few facets of the Discord experience and is far from ideal.
The other part of the controversy here, of course, is the Discord data breach in 2025. That has left some people understandably skeptical, with trust issues around handing over personal data, and many apparently unwilling to take that risk.
The question is: at what point might the number of departing members cause Discord to reconsider its current stance on identity verification?
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and tiktok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
