We use Discord for all communications at my company, including now our video chats. We are fully remote and Discord is so much better than Hangouts it's not even funny.
I've also transferred all my skype and hangouts contact lists into Discord. It's a lovely tool, lock in be damned.
I agree about the drawbacks of threads as "another layer of indirection".
But if you don't have threads, and the number of participants in the same chat room grows, how do you manage the intertwining of messages belonging to different subjects?
Yes, but as far as I know, only admins can create a new channel on Discord. If you want to continue a discussion on a specific topic in a dedicated group, then you have to ask an admin?
Excellent, save screenshare which is currently broken on the Discord desktop client (but works fine in web browser). I use Linux exclusively, I wouldn't be propping discord up if it weren't :)
You're correct that there's a lot more overlap with the gamer space, but that's not limiting them right now or in the future. They'd be wise to court other communication needs.
I've also transferred all my skype and hangouts contact lists into Discord. It's a lovely tool, lock in be damned.