Discord is one of the most popular social media platforms, and it’s only growing in popularity. With this kind of scale, Discord's development team puts a lot of work into its tools. One of the tools that the development team uses is Discord Canary, also known as Discord Alpha on Android.
Discord has three public builds: stable (regular), PTB (public test build), and Canary. Stable, as its name suggests, is the most stable version. Crashes and bugs are mostly unexpected, but Stable is the last version to receive new updates. PTB is the middle ground between the Stable and Canary builds. Although crashes and bugs are expected, they shouldn’t happen often, while updates are available a bit earlier than usual. Finally, Canary is the most unstable version of Discord. Frequent crashes and bugs are expected, although you’re probably not going to face any problems since issues are quickly fixed. Canary is the first build to receive updates.
Discord Canary is a public test version of Discord that lets developers update the app's code and gather feedback from users. It can be downloaded using an official link, which can be found by Googling "Discord Canary" or heading to Discord's "Discord Testing Clients" blog post. The Canary build is available on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android. Unfortunately, it’s not available on iOS.
You can find all available download links for the Canary below:
- Canary Linux deb: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=linux&format=deb
- Canary Linux tar.gz: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=linux&format=tar.gz
- Canary macOS: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=osx
- Canary Windows 64-bit: https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?platform=win&channel=canary&arch=x64
Why is it Called Discord Canary?
You might’ve heard about “Canary” versions of other apps. Canary, also known as canary release, is a software version that allows developers to update the code for a pre-determined number of end users.
Canary releases are usually utilized to get user feedback about new changes. The users are not usually informed of the changes, which allows developers to distinguish between actual problems, mild problems, and safe updates.
The term “Canary” comes from the Miner’s Canary, a bird used to detect toxic gases in coal mines. Some popular apps with Canary versions are Google Chrome Canary, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build (Canary Build), and Microsoft Edge Insider (Canary Channel).
Is Discord Canary Safe?
Discord Canary and regular Discord are based on the same app foundation, so there aren’t many changes in security between regular and Canary builds. However, you should be cautious no matter which build you use.
Discord Canary is safe to use, but again, all standard security measures should be utilized. You should always use a 2-Factor Authentication and a strong password, and avoid clicking on links and sharing personal information.
Is Discord Canary or PTB Better?
We mentioned a build called PTB, also known as Public Test Build. PTB is the middle ground between the Stable (regular) and Canary versions. It is not as stable as Stable but not as unstable as Canary. The same goes for update access. With PTB, you won’t get updates as late as Stable and as soon as Canary does. So it’s not a question of which version is better but of how much you’re willing to tolerate.
If you like accessing features early on, you should decide how much you can tolerate an unstable app. If you can tolerate a lot of crashes, bugs, and glitches (they rarely happen even in Canary), you should use the Canary build.
How to Use Discord Canary
Discord Canary (Alpha in Android) and Stable versions don’t differ in terms of using the app. Everything you know about regular Discord will be applicable to Canary and vice versa. The only possible difference is the features. There aren’t new features all the time in Canary - it's just when developers want to test any new ones. So, don’t worry if your Discord Canary is virtually the same as its regular counterpart.
Downloading them might be the biggest difference between the two. Let’s take a look at how you can download Discord Canary on desktop and Android. Remember that Canary doesn’t have an iOS counterpart, but PTB does! Check out our guide on Discord PTB to learn more.
Downloading Discord Canary on Desktop
Downloading Discord Canary on the desktop is just like downloading the regular version. To do so, Google "Discord Canary" or head to the Discord's "Discord Testing Clients" blog post. In both results, you'll be able to find the download links of all Canary versions.
If you don't want to bother, here's the official download links of Discord Canary for all operating systems!
- Canary Linux deb: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=linux&format=deb
- Canary Linux tar.gz: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=linux&format=tar.gz
- Canary macOS: https://discord.com/api/download/canary?platform=osx
- Canary Windows 64-bit: https://discord.com/api/downloads/distributions/app/installers/latest?platform=win&channel=canary&arch=x64
Downloading Discord Canary (Alpha) on Mobile
Before being able to download the Alpha, the Android counterpart of Discord Canary, you should first request to join a Google Group. You can visit the Group and request membership. Once you’re accepted into the group, you’ll need to visit the Alpha version’s download page there.
After downloading, you’ll notice that there shouldn’t be many differences between the regular app and Alpha, so you can use it just like you would the regular app.
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