Discord Display Names (Pomelo) - What's it all about?

In the coming weeks, users will receive a notification once they are able to set their username. Please keep in mind that account age matters.

Step 1: How are Discord rolling out this feature?

Discord said that they've thought long and hard about how they would roll this feature and about it coming into place generally. In the coming weeks, you may receive a notification about setting your new username. All Discord users will be asked to choose a new username, Discord are prioritizing longtime users and members of the partner program. They'll be assigning priority based on when you created your account.

Step 2: A sprinkle of controversy among servers:

This feature was only released a few hours ago and it's clear that Discord users have their own opinions. First let's go over some reasons for people opposing this change:

1. People are worried that people will begin to sell and buy accounts more, as select usernames are likely to be more rare.
2. Using a display name inevitably makes it easier for people to hide their identity and avoid accountability for their actions online.
3. Name duplicates seem to be a big turning point for many, some are worried they won't be able to catch their name!
4. People won't feel they are unique anymore, with this change it's pretty clear that you can't be as custom as you would like, which isn't great.
5. The idea of tags was creative and made Discord stand out among other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
6. There are thousands of accounts with the same name, and now there will only be 1, which could force users to change their name if they have something common.
7. It's pretty common that people like to change their names, people won't want to do this as they are afraid of losing their original name, which could make Discord a bit boring.

Step 3: Why some people believe that this is a good addition:

Even though some people have hates on it, there are still some people who thinks that this is a great feature. Let's see some of the reasons:

1. No more impersonation: There are many people impersonating content creators and celebrities. However, with the new feature being rolled out, it's highly likely that impersonation will no longer be possible.
2. No more special characters in usernames: Discord currently has thousands of users with non-ASCII or unpingable usernames (e.g: 𝓓𝓮𝓹𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓯𝔂). These usernames are not only annoying for many people, but also difficult to type when adding them as friend. After the implementation of this feature, users will no longer be able to use special characters in their names, which will greatly improve user experience.
3. No more adding the wrong user: As Discord says, if you meet someone in real life and they tell you their username and tag as "I am Phibi One Nine Three Six!", you might attempt to add them on Discord using "Phibi#1936". And then, you discover that you have added the wrong user, as the correct username is "pHibi#1936".
4. Easier to memorize: This feature will be beneficial for both new and existing users, as it will help them to memorize usernames more efficiently. They will no longer need to remember each user's discriminator.