Install Discord on elementary OS 6.0/6.1

Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends. Users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called “servers.” Discord is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux Distros.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Discord client on elementary OS 6 using three different methods.

Prerequisites

• Recommended OS: Any elementary OS 6.xx distribution.
• User account: A user account with sudo or root access.

The tutorial will utilize the terminal for the installation found in Applications (Top Right Corner) > Search > Terminal.

Example:

Update Operating System

Update your elementary OS system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The tutorial will be using the sudo command and assuming you have sudo status.

To verify sudo status on your account:

sudo whoami

Example output showing sudo status:

[joshua@elementaryos~]$ sudo whoami
root

To set up an existing or new sudo account, visit our tutorial on Adding a User to Sudoers on elementary OS.

To use the root account, use the following command with the root password to log in.

su

Install Dependecies

To complete the installation, you will need to install the following software packages by using the following command in your terminal.

sudo apt install software-properties-common wget -y

If you are unsure, run the command; it will not harm you.

Option 1. Install Discord .deb package

The first option is to install Discord with the Debian package using the wget command. Before proceeding, visit the Discord download page to grab the latest link if the one below has changed.

wget https://dl.discordapp.net/apps/linux/0.0.16/discord-0.0.16.deb

Once you have completed the download, proceed to install the .deb package.

sudo apt install ./discord-0.0.16.deb

Example output:

Type Y, then press ENTER KEY to proceed with the installation.

Next, verify the installation was successful by running the apt-cache policy command:

apt-cache policy discord

Example output:

To remove Discord, you can use the APT remove command.

sudo apt autoremove discord --purge

Option 2 – Install Discord with Snapcraft

The second option is to use the Snap package manager. Snap is not installed on elementary OS by default, but it is available to install from its repositories.

To install Snap, use the following command:

sudo apt install snapd -y

Before you continue any further, it is recommended to reboot your PC to make sure all paths for Snap have been generated. Failure to do this may result in errors using Snap. If you encounter these, make sure to go back and follow this step.

sudo reboot

Next, some packages come in classic, so you need to create a symlink to enable classic snap support.

sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

Start the snapd service and enable automatic startup.

sudo systemctl enable snapd --now

If you are installing Snap for the first time, it is advised to install the core files to avoid conflicting issues:

sudo snap install core

Example output:

core 16-2.52.1 from Canonical✓ installed

Next, install the Discord package using snap:

sudo snap install discord

Example output:

discord 0.0.16 from Snapcrafters installed

As above, this informs you that Discord was successfully installed and the version number.

Snap packages are more significant in size than traditional repositories through the APT package manager for several reasons. However, the trade-off is more straightforward maintained packages that are often updated to the latest available version.

For the future, to update along with any other packages installed by Snap, run the following command:

sudo snap refresh

If you no longer need Discord installed, remove it using the Snap remove command.

sudo snap remove discord

Example output:

discord removed

Option 3 – Install Discord with Flatpak

The third option is to use the popular package manager Flatpak. Users who have used other Linux distributions such as Fedora, Linux Mint, or Pop!_OS, to mention a few, would be familiar with Flatpak packages as they feature on more operating systems. By default, elementary OS distributions come with Flatpak pre-installed.

First, install Flatpak if you removed it previously using the following command.

sudo apt install flatpak -y

The next step is to reboot your system if you have re-installed Flatpak; if not, skip.

sudo reboot

Next, you need to enable Flatpack using the following command in your terminal:

sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Now begin the installation using the following flatpak command.

flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord

Example output:

Type Y Twice, then press the ENTER KEY Twice to install.

Flatpak should auto-update packages roughly 10 minutes into a new desktop session by default. However, if you need to update manually, use the following command.

flatpak update

To remove the Flatpack version of Discord, run the following command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.discordapp.Discord

Example output:

Type Y and then ENTER KEY to remove using the Flatpak method.

Note you will be prompted twice to Type Y or N. The second option removes all data for complete removal.

Another handy hint can be to use the following command to make sure Flatpak hasn’t left behind any unnecessary packages as it is known to sometimes.

flatpak remove --unused

How to the Launch Discord Client

With the installation complete from either installation method, you can run Discord in a few different ways.

First, while you are in your terminal, you can use the following command:

discord

Alternatively, run the discord & command in the background to free up the terminal:

discord &

Snap users will need to launch using the command below from a terminal instance:

snap run discord

Flatpak users will need to launch using the command below from a terminal instance:

flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open with the path: Activities > Show Applications > Discord.

Alternatively, if you cannot find it, use the search function in the Applications menu if you have many applications installed.

Example:

Now open Discord, you will come to the login page, either create an account or use an existing account, and that’s it; you have successfully installed Discord on elementary OS 6.

Comments and Conclusion

The tutorial has outlined how to install Discord using snapcraft, flatpak, or the download .deb package. A bonus is if you want multiple discord clients, installing these various methods means you can technically have more clients running at once since they exist in separate containers.

Discord is and will be the number 1 gaming platform for online communities for the years to come as it’s cemented itself by working with major gaming companies and e-sports. However, TeamSpeak self-hosted is making a comeback. The future will determine if Discord can keep its dominance, given these days’ privacy concerns.