{"id":26686,"date":"2022-12-30T15:03:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T15:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/30\/10-discord-features-you-should-be-using\/"},"modified":"2022-12-30T15:03:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T15:03:26","slug":"10-discord-features-you-should-be-using","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/30\/10-discord-features-you-should-be-using\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Discord Features You Should Be Using"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Discord is one of the most popular messaging services around. Even though it was originally designed with gaming in mind, it\u2019s now a great general-purpose chat and organization app, with plenty of features you might not know about.<\/p>\n

Discord\u2019s core functionality, like sending text messages or joining voice calls, isn\u2019t hard to figure out if you\u2019ve used other modern messaging platforms. There\u2019s also a pile of additional features available for paying Discord Nitro subscribers. However, other features are less obvious, or have uses you may not have thought about.<\/p>\n

Quickly Edit Your Last Message<\/h2>\n

I make a lot of typos when I\u2019m sending messages in rapid succession, so the ability to quickly fix mistakes comes in handy. You can hover over a message and click the edit button, but there\u2019s a much faster way: in the chat box, press the up arrow on your keyboard.<\/p>\n

Pressing the up arrow will jump to your previous message and switch into editing mode, without a single mouse click. Once you\u2019ve fixed your mistake, just click the Enter key on the keyboard (or the small \u201csave\u201d link) to save the changes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a super-charged way to edit a message, using sed commands<\/a>. Instead of clicking the up arrow key, you can just type a command like\u00a0\u201cs\/hello\/bye\u201d \u2014 that one replaces all instances of \u201chello\u201d with \u201cbye\u201d \u2014 and hit Enter. That probably isn\u2019t any faster than normal editing, unless you memorize all the available commands, but it could be useful.<\/p>\n

Type an Emoji or Emote<\/h2>\n

If you haven\u2019t used Discord for a while, you might not know that you can type out an emoji or emote, instead of scrolling through (or searching in) the emoji panel. Just type a colon (:), then the name of the symbol.<\/p>\n

\"Typing<\/p>\n

Disocrd will display results as you type, and suggestions from your available stickers will appear, too. Pressing the Enter key will complete the suggested emoji, or you can finish typing the name and end it with another colon.<\/p>\n

Type Out a Reaction<\/h2>\n

You might already know that you can \u201creact\u201d to a message with an emoji or emote by clicking the \u201cAdd Reaction\u201d button on a message. There\u2019s an even quicker way to react to messages, without even reaching for the mouse \u2014 as long as you want to react to the most recent message.<\/p>\n

In the chat box, type a plus (+) sign, then a colon (:), then start typing the name of the emoji or emote. The results will automatically complete as you type, just like when you type an emote in a normal message. When you hit Enter, or click an auto-complete result, the reaction will be added to the most recent message in the chat.<\/p>\n

Make Discord Less Distracting<\/h2>\n

All those animated emotes, stickers, and GIFs can turn Discord into something of a sensory overload. Thankfully, there\u2019s a fix for that in the app\u2019s accessibility settings. Go to your User Settings (the gear icon next to your name in the bottom-left corner), then click the Accessibility tab on the left side.<\/p>\n

\"Discord<\/p>\n

The Accessibility panel has many helpful features for changing how Discord looks and works, and there are a few visual tweaks available. You can turn off most UI animations with \u201cEnable reduced motion,\u201d and turn off automatic playback of GIFs, stickers, and animated emoji. You\u2019ll still see them in chats, they\u2019ll just be frozen on the first frame.<\/p>\n

Show Your Status With Any Application<\/h2>\n

Discord can detect most games on your PC and display them as your profile status, but it doesn\u2019t always work. As a workaround, Discord allows you to add any running application or game to activity detection.\u00a0Go to your User Settings (the gear icon next to your name in the bottom-left corner), then click the \u201cRegistered Games\u201d tab on the left side.<\/p>\n

\"Playing<\/p>\n

From this menu, you can click \u201cAdd it\u201d to add any app or game you\u2019re running, which will then be auto-detected in the future. The feature is mostly intended for games, but you can also use it in some creative ways. For example, I added the Audacity audio editor to my list, so friends can see when I\u2019m editing a podcast episode. If you do software development, adding your IDE to Discord is an option \u2014 if that IDE is Visual Studio Code, there\u2019s even an extension<\/a>\u00a0for full integration.<\/p>\n

Clean Up Twitter Links<\/h2>\n

This isn\u2019t technically<\/em> a Discord feature, but it does make Discord better if you\u2019re constantly sharing links from the Twitter social media platform. Embedded previews for Twitter links often look broken or incomplete in Discord messages, especially for tweets with videos.<\/p>\n

One solution is to use vxTwitter<\/a>, which generates its own embedded links based on data from Twitter\u2019s API. It\u2019s mostly helpful for tweets with videos, as it will use Discord\u2019s own video player instead of Twitter\u2019s web player \u2014 a much better experience, especially in the mobile apps.<\/p>\n

\"image
Twitter link in Discord (left) and vxTwitter link in Discord (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So how do you use vxTwitter? Easy, just add \u201cvx\u201d before \u201ctwitter.com\u201d after you paste a link, so the web domain is \u201cvxtwitter.com.\u201d Clicking on the link will redirect to the original Twitter page.<\/p>\n

Use Keyboard Shortcuts<\/h2>\n

Discord has a lot<\/em> of keyboard shortcuts, to the point where you don\u2019t need to reach for your mouse or touchpad too often once you get the hang of them. You can see the entire list of shortcuts through \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 a keyboard shortcut. Press Control + \/<\/strong> on Windows or Linux, or Command + \/<\/strong> on Mac, to see everything.<\/p>\n

Add a Note on Someone\u2019s Profile<\/h2>\n

You change your profile picture and nickname as often as you want, so it might be difficult to keep track of who\u2019s who. Thankfully, Discord borrowed a feature from Steam and other platforms: the ability to add a note to someone else\u2019s profile. The other person won\u2019t see the note, but you can use it to remind your future self about who they are\u2014or why they\u2019re in your friends list.<\/p>\n

\"Adding<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how you do it: click someone\u2019s name inside a chat, the friends list, or anywhere else, then you\u2019ll see a text box at the bottom of the popup. You can type a note in there, and it will appear again when you open their profile again. Super simple.<\/p>\n

Mark as Unread<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve all read a message (in email, texts, or anywhere else), told ourselves, \u201cI\u2019ll answer that in a minute once I\u2019m done with this other thing,\u201d and then completely forgotten about it. Thankfully, Discord allows you to mark a channel as unread after you read it. Hover your mouse over a message, click the three-dot button<\/strong> (\u201cMore\u201d), and select \u201cMark Unread.\u201d Discord will then act like that message (and everything newer) has not been viewed.<\/p>\n

Hide Muted Channels<\/h2>\n

Discord servers are usually organized into different channels for a given topic, so you can ignore conversations that you don\u2019t care about or don\u2019t apply to you. The main method for that is muting a channel, but if you want to go a step further, Discord also allows you to hide a muted channel completely.<\/p>\n

\"Checkbox<\/p>\n

First, if you haven\u2019t muted a channel already, right-click it in the list and select Mute Channel > Until I turn it back on. Next, click the name of the server at the top-left of the Discord window, and select \u201cHide Muted Channels.\u201d To see the hidden channels again, uncheck that box.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n