Getting started with Taverns

Taverns accounts are free. Create one with your email address and a password at tav.gg. New accounts receive a generated Aether Name automatically, so you can start using Taverns right away.

Your Aether Name is your unique handle across Taverns. It is 3 to 20 characters long and can contain letters, numbers, and underscores. Your first custom name change does not use the normal 30-day cooldown. People use the name to find you, mention you, and send friend requests, so choose one you are happy to keep.

Read the account and security guide

Taverns are the communities of the platform. Each one is a shared space with its own halls, members, roles, and culture. There are three common ways in:

• Invite links. A member sends you a link, you open it, sign in if needed, and accept any rules the tavern asks new members to agree to.
• Vanity URLs. A Tavern owner can claim an eligible short handle, giving the community a memorable invite address.
• Discover. When this surface is available in your current client, use it to preview public taverns. Select Join and complete any rules or approval step the community requires.

The basic language maps cleanly: a Discord server is a Tavern, and a Discord channel is a Hall. Categories, roles, permissions, emoji, stickers, forums, text, and voice use familiar community patterns.

The free Discord migration tool can bring supported server setup into a new Tavern without changing the source Discord server. It does not copy members or message history.

Read the guide to moving your Discord serverOpen the Discord migration tool

Each tavern is organized into a few building blocks. They look similar at first but behave differently:

• Halls are the individual channels where conversation happens. Text halls hold messages, voice halls hold live audio and video, and announcement halls broadcast updates from the team running the tavern.
• Categories are folders that group related halls in the sidebar, which keeps larger taverns tidy.
• Threads branch off a message in a text hall. They keep a side discussion together without flooding the main conversation.
• Forums are post-based halls. Members create individual posts that others reply to, with tags, pinned posts, and the ability to mark an accepted answer.

A green dot next to an avatar means that person is online. Your presence is shared while you are signed in, and people may also see activity such as whether you are in a voice hall.

You can limit online-status and activity visibility from your privacy controls. Hiding your status does not prevent you from using Taverns; you appear offline to other people instead.

Review safety and privacy controls

Use Taverns in the web app at tav.gg/app, or in the free apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Communities, messages, and account preferences stay with your account. Device-specific voice, video, and input choices may need to be set again in each browser or device.

On a computer, download the free desktop app: Taverns for Windows on Windows 10 and 11, or Taverns for Mac on macOS 13 and later. It brings your Taverns, voice chat, and DMs to your computer and keeps itself up to date. On Linux, grab Taverns for Linux: an AppImage that updates itself and runs on the Steam Deck too, or a .deb for Debian and Ubuntu. The rest of this Help Center covers account security, voice chat, billing, safety, and creator tools.

Get the Windows appGet the Mac appGet the Linux appGet the iPhone and iPad appGet the Android appTroubleshoot voice and videoManage a Tavern and creator tools