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Discord is delaying its age verification rollout after significant backlash from users over privacy fears. While it still plans to implement mandatory age checks for all its users, the popular voice chat and messaging platform has pushed back global rollout to the second half of 2026. In the meantime, it's hoping to alleviate users' concerns by clarifying exactly what they can expect when it does arrive.

Co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy addressed misgivings about Discord's age verification system in a blog posted on Tuesday, attempting to reassure worried users.

"In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works," Vishnevskiy wrote. "The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why…

"Our goal is straightforward: keep the Discord experience completely unchanged for the vast majority of people while ensuring an age-appropriate experience for everyone."

Earlier this month, Discord announced that all users' accounts would be defaulted to teen safety settings from March, which could only be deactivated once the platform had verified their age. This change was to include adding filters that blur sensitive content unless a user's age has been verified, as well as preventing them from accessing age-restricted spaces. Direct messages from potentially unknown senders would also be sent to a separate inbox, and only age-verified users would be able to speak in stage channels, voice chat rooms featuring a number of speakers while others listen as an audience.

Many Discord users expressed disgruntlement at this announcement, with some even fleeing to alternative platforms. 

Now, in addition to pushing back the teen safety settings global rollout to the latter part of the year, Vishnevskiy has stated that most Discord users' experiences won't actually change much once it does arrive. In the majority of cases, the platform will automatically guess users' ages using available data without requiring them to supply additional information or documentation.

"For 90%+ of users, nothing changes. Most users never access age-restricted content or change their default safety settings," wrote Vishnevskiy (emphasis original). "For those who do, we have an internal system that works to accurately determine your age… [using] account-level signals: how long your account has existed, whether you have a payment method on file, what types of servers you're in, and general patterns of account activity."

Vishnevskiy noted that Discord already uses such signals for other purposes, such as to detect spam, raids, and harassment campaigns.

"If you're among the less than 10% of users who do need to verify, we'll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity," Vishnevskiy continued (emphasis original). "Your age group is private. No other user on Discord can see it."

If you are among this 10 percent of users and choose not to manually verify your age, Vishnevskiy claims you will be unable to see age-restricted content or change some of Discord's default safety settings, but that "[n]othing else about your Discord experience changes." It is unclear exactly what these default settings might be, or if they're fully encompassed by the restrictions Discord laid out for teen safety settings earlier this month. 

Discord declined to comment further when Mashable reached out for comment.

Vishnevskiy also acknowledged fears regarding invasive data collection, with many users leery of potentially handing over their personal ID for access to all of Discord's features.

"[M]any of you are worried that this is just another big tech company finding new ways to collect your personal data," he wrote. "That we're creating a problem to justify invasive solutions. I get that skepticism. It's earned, not just toward us, but toward the entire tech industry. But that’s not what we’re doing."

According to Vishnevskiy, Discord will not receive any identifying personal information from users who need to manually verify their age. Instead, it is partnering with third-party age verification companies, who will gather this information and only tell Discord users' age group.

"The idea is simple: we don't want to know who you are," he wrote (emphasis original). "We just need to know whether you're an adult. And it works both ways: a vendor has no way to associate your identity back to your Discord account either. That's by design."

Of course, this still means that users' personal identification will be collected, even if it isn't done directly by Discord itself. Vishnevskiy emphasised that Discord conducts security and privacy reviews of its potential age verification contractors before moving forward with them, including examining their policies on data use and retention. Contractors must also conduct the entire age verification process entirely on users' devices, so that their biometric data doesn't leave it. 

Despite such measures, Discord has already suffered a few security issues with its contractors. After Discord ran a trial with age verification vendor Persona in the UK last month, recent reports claim it shared users' data with other companies and left thousands of files of code exposed to the internet. Discord has since stated that it is no longer partnering with Persona.

Vishnevskiy further addressed a security breach of another third-party vendor last October, which potentially exposed around 70,000 government IDs used to verify Discord users' ages.

"To be clear, we do not use that vendor for age assurance," he wrote. "In fact, we no longer work with them at all, and we've taken the lessons from that incident seriously."

While Discord is aiming to implement age verification globally in the latter half of this year, Vishnevskiy stated that it will not proceed with the rollout unless it first hits several milestones intended to reassure users. These include adding more options for how users can verify their age (such as by supplying credit card information), clearly disclosing which companies it's using to conduct age verification, and releasing age verification system data and statistics in Discord's transparency reports. Discord will also publish a technical blog post explaining how its automatic age verification works.

"[Discord's age determination system] does not read your messages, analyze your conversations, or look at the content you post," wrote Vishnevskiy. "We know 'trust us' isn't enough here, which is why we'll publish the methodology before global launch."

Vishnevskiy further announced that Discord will be adding a new "spoiler channel" feature prior to its age verification global rollout. Currently, many Discord moderators create age-restricted channels to discuss topics that aren't necessarily sexually explicit but may warrant siloing, such as movie spoilers, politics, or other mature subjects. The new spoiler channel option will enable users to continue marking channels as containing mature content without being forced to age-gate the entire server.

Discord's attempts to implement age verification features has been rocky, to say the least. Last July, users discovered that its age verification system rolled out in the UK could be bypassed by using the face of a video game character from Death Stranding. 

Age verification has become a pressing issue across the globe, with multiple governments implementing laws requiring social media platforms to take such measures. VPN use has more than doubled in the UK since its new Online Safety Act came into force, with studies suggesting that such age verification laws are ineffective in keeping minors away from adult material and simultaneously suppress free speech.

UPDATE: Feb. 26, 2026, 10:10 a.m. AEDT This article has been updated with Discord's response to our request for comment.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (30): Everything in this space must add up to 30. The answer is 6-5, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically; 5-5, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally; 5-0, placed vertically.

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 5-0, placed vertically.

Greater Than (0): Everything in this space must be greater than 0. The answer is 2-4, placed horizontally.

Number (15): Everything in this red space must add up to 15. The answer is 2-4, placed horizontally; 6-0, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (15): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 15. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically; 5-1, placed vertically.

Less Than (6): Everything in this space must be less than 6. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically; 3-3, placed horizontally; 3-6, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally.

Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally; 3-3, placed vertically; 3-2, placed horizontally.

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally; 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically.

Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 6-0, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed vertically.

Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 6-4, placed vertically.

Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically; 0-3, placed horizontally.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition is for people who love the orange and black.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Hit a meatball

• Green: Dark colored teams

• Blue: Found in Canada

• Purple: Types of derbies

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: To Hit A Baseball Hard

• Green: Orange and Black Teams

• Blue: Associated with Montreal

• Purple: ___Derby

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #520 is...

• To Hit A Baseball Hard - BELT, BLISTER, HAMMER, TATTOO

• Orange and Black Teams - BENGALS, FLYERS, GIANTS, OKLAHOMA STATE

• Associated with Montreal - 1976 OLYMPICS, CANADIENS, EXPOS, YOUPPI!

• ___Derby - HOME RUN, KENTUCKY, MERSEYSIDE, ROLLER

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.