Discord is working on a new feature for its mobile app that will make it easier for you to find and add friends. The messaging service is currently testing the feature, called Find Your Friends, with a small number of users. But the company has already shared how it will work once it rolls out with a future release.

In a recent post on the r/discordapp subreddit, a member of Discord's product team shared details about the Find Your Friends feature. According to the post, it's an opt-in feature that will let you discover and be discoverable by people in your phone's contact list and send them a friend request on Discord.

Discord claims that many users face difficulties finding friends on the platform as it lacks a user search feature. The Find Your Friends feature aims to address this by showing you a list of people from your phone's contact list who are available on Discord. This will effectively make adding new friends on the platform a whole lot easier. But you will only be able to find friends who have the feature turned on. On the flip side, if you don't want people from your contact list to discover you on Discord, you can leave the feature disabled. It's also worth noting that the Find Your Friends feature won't work if both parties don't have each other added to their contact list.

If the thought of sharing your contact list with Discord worries you, there is some good news. Discord claims that it will cryptographically hash all the phone numbers it syncs from your contact list, and it will use this cryptographically hashed data to detect a match while looking for friends. The service won't upload contact names and won't store raw phone numbers to prevent any mishaps. This process also prevents spam and ensures that you're only matched with people you know and not with those you've blocked. Discord has also assured that disabling the Find Your Friends feature or deleting your Discord account will automatically remove all your contact data from its servers, and the service won't use your contact information for any other purpose.

Discord is currently testing the Find Your Friends feature with a small number of users in Canada. At the moment, the platform hasn't shared any info regarding a wider rollout. We'll update this post as soon as we learn more.

The new Find Your Friends feature comes just months after Discord rolled out inline replies support and screen sharing capabilities to the mobile app. Along with this feature, the platform is also working on a Clubhouse alternative that will let users create a "Stage Channel" for larger audiences.