--- title: "Did Fluxer copy Discord's design?" description: "Fluxer keeps a chat layout many people already know and builds its own app on top of it, with its own code, logo and artwork." url: "https://fluxer.com/help/did-fluxer-copy-discords-design" language: "en" last_updated: "2026-11-01" category: "About Fluxer" --- > Index of Fluxer's official pages for AI agents: https://fluxer.com/llms.txt > Links to Fluxer pages go to their Markdown versions when they have one. For other Fluxer help, policy or blog links, remove any #section part and add .md to the end. # Did Fluxer copy Discord's design? Fluxer keeps a chat layout many people already know and builds its own app on top of it, with its own code, logo and artwork. No. Fluxer's code, logo and artwork are its own. It uses [a chat layout that many people already know](https://fluxer.com/help/fluxer-vs-discord.md) from apps like Discord, so people can find their way around from the first day, and the design keeps changing as we add new features. ## Did Fluxer copy Discord's design? No. Fluxer uses a common chat layout, with your communities in a column on the left, their channels next to them, the conversation in the middle and the member list on the right. Fluxer's code was written for Fluxer, apart from open source libraries that many apps use, and anyone can check that by reading its [open source code](https://fluxer.com/help/open-source.md) on GitHub. The Fluxer logo and artwork were made for Fluxer and are under Fluxer's own [artwork license](https://github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer/blob/main/fluxer_static/LICENSE). The icons, emoji and fonts come from open source sets that any app can use, and the [list of third-party files](https://github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer/blob/main/fluxer_static/THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md) says where each one comes from. ## Why does Fluxer look like Discord? While building Fluxer, Hampus tried many different layouts. People in the private test group told him that the different choices made the app harder to use for people coming from apps like Discord, because common things took extra steps. Fluxer kept the layout people already know and builds its own direction on top of it, one feature at a time. That layout is older than any one app. Chat channels that you join by name go back to IRC, which [RFC 1459](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1459) described in 1993, and forum software, gaming voice apps and workplace chat apps each built on the ideas that came before them. ## Is it legal for an app to look like Discord? In general, yes. Copyright protects specific creative work, such as code, artwork, icons and sounds. It doesn't protect ideas, methods of operation or what a program does, and courts in the US and the EU have drawn that line several times. - In [Lotus v. Borland](https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/049/49.F3d.807.93-2214.html) (1st Cir. 1995), a US appeals court held that a program's menu command hierarchy is a method of operation that copyright doesn't protect. - In [Apple v. Microsoft](https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F3/035/35.F3d.1435.93-16883.93-16869.93-16867.html) (9th Cir. 1994), a US appeals court held that interface features that were licensed, or that were ideas or standard elements, couldn't support a copyright claim, and that what was left was protected only against nearly identical copying. - In [Google v. Oracle](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf) (2021), the US Supreme Court held that Google's copying of declaring code from the Java SE API was fair use, without ruling on its copyright. - In [SAS Institute](https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-406/10) (C-406/10, 2012), the EU Court of Justice held that copyright doesn't protect a program's functionality or its programming language. - In [BSA](https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-393/09) (C-393/09, 2010), the EU Court of Justice held that a user interface can be protected as a work only when it's its author's own intellectual creation, and that parts dictated by their technical function don't meet that test. Logos and specific artwork can still be protected, for example by copyright, design rights or trademarks. Fluxer has its own name, logo and artwork and doesn't use Discord's. ## Will Fluxer's design change? Yes. We keep expanding and changing the interface so it becomes more our own. New features bring their own design with them, such as the [planned public web mode for forum channels](https://fluxer.com/blog/roadmap-2026.md), where anyone will be able to read a public forum without an account. The [new voice and video system](https://fluxer.com/blog/roadmap-2026.md) that we plan to release in 2026 also adds verification codes that you can compare with the other people in an end-to-end encrypted call. --- Canonical page: https://fluxer.com/help/did-fluxer-copy-discords-design Last updated on November 1, 2026