How to use Discord

Creating a Discord Account

  1. Go to discordapp.com.
  2. Click Open Discord in your browser.

    Homepage

  3. Enter the username you want to use and click the arrow.

    Username

  4. Complete the Captcha as directed.
  5. A popup will appear and give you the option to Get Started with creating a new server, or skipping ahead to finish creating your account. Click Skip.
  6. Discord will then ask you to claim and secure your account by entering your email address and setting a password. When done, click Claim Account.

    Claim

  7. A popup will appear to offer a download link for the Discord desktop application, click X to skip this for now.
  8. To complete the account creation process, log into your email account and find the confirmation email. Click the link within that email to verify your new Discord account.

Congratulations, you have now created a Discord account!

Managing Discord Friends List

While most Discord users interact via Discord servers, it is also possible to set up a contact list or Friends List on Discord. This list allows you to interact with other users via direct message and voice or video calls.

  1. To Add a friend on Discord, click on the Add Friend button at the top of the Discord Home Page.
  2. Next, you will be prompted to enter a username. This username will be the DiscordTag of the friend you wish to add.

    The DiscordTag is a username followed by a # symbol and a series of random numbers and can be seen on the bottom left hand corner of the Discord interface.

    You can also find the DiscordTag by clicking on the profile picture of the user you wish to add as a friend. This will take you to their profile page, which will show the DiscordTag. There is also a Send Friend Request button on the profile page that you can click to directly send a Friend Request.

  3. Once you have entered the DiscordTag you wish to add, click Send Friend Request.
  4. After the other user has accepted your friend request, they will then show up on your friends list.

Congratulations, you now know how to add friends in Discord!

Joining a Discord Server

As Discord communities are housed in distinct servers, you will need to find a server that suits your interests. Once you have located a community you’d like to participate in, you will then need to join their server. We will outline this process below:

  1. Click on the Magnifying Lens symbol to start searching for servers.

    Find Server

  2. On the following page, type what you want to search for in the text field and press the enter key. In this example, we are looking for tech-centric communities with the search term “tech”.
  3. The search tool will then display a list of servers based on your search criteria. Click View to see the server homepage for any server that interests you.

    Search

  4. Once you’ve found a server you want to join, click Join Server at the bottom of the server homepage.

    Microsoft Discord

  5. The icon for the new server will now appear on the left-hand side of your Discord homepage for quick access.
  6. If you want to leave the server at any point, right-click on the server icon and select Leave Server. It will prompt you to confirm this decision. Click Leave Server again to complete the process.

    Leave Server

By following these steps you can add as many servers to your Discord homepage as you would like, giving you easy access to your favorite communities.

Changing Notification Settings

To make sure you never miss a moment, you may want to modify the notification settings for the servers you have joined. As some of the options may not be clear, we will outline and explain the process here:

  1. Right-click on the server icon for the server you want to modify.
  2. Select Notification Settings.
  3. The first option allows you to mute the entire server. Selecting this option still allows you to receive a notification if someone mentions your username in one of the chat channels. This is useful if you don’t want to be overwhelmed by notifications but still want to know when someone is trying to contact you.

    Notification Settings 1

  4. In the Notification Settings menu, choose from the following options:

    All Messages: You will get a notification every time a message is sent in one of the chat channels you have access to on the server.

    Only @ Messages: You will only get a notification if someone tags you by typing the @ symbol before your name

    Nothing: You will not receive notifications from this server.

    Notification Settings 2

  5. Below those options are three toggles that further modify your notification settings:

    Suppress @everyone and @here: By default, Discord notifies all users in a server when someone uses the tags @everyone and @here. Turning this option on disables those notifications.

    Suppress All Role @mentions: By default, Discord notifies all users assigned to a specific user role on a server when @UserRole is typed in one of the chat channels. Turning this option on disables those notifications.

    Mobile Push Notifications: By default, Discord will forward any notifications you receive to the email address associated with your account. Turning this option off disables those notifications.

    Notification Settings 3

  6. At the bottom of the menu, there is also the option to override the default settings of individual channels instead of the entire server. To do this, you click on the drop-down menu, select the channel you want to override, then check the corresponding bubble for which notification setting you want to change. This is useful for servers that have a large number of chat channels as it allows you to filter which channels you receive notifications from.

    Notification Settings 5

  7. When you are finished making changes, click Done to save the changes.

    Notification Settings 6

After setting up your notification preferences, you should be all set to start using Discord to enhance your online experience and find communities that match your interests without being overwhelmed by excess notifications.

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