Discord is one of the most popular social media platforms, but it’s not as widely used as Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter – meaning there are some people who don’t know Discord as well as others. If you’re one of them, you’re in the right place.
In this guide, we will walk you through how you can type messages on Discord on both desktop and mobile versions of the app. Once we’re done with that, we will share some advanced tips about making your text look cooler and more accessible.
How to Type Messages in Discord
Since Discord is a text-message-focused app, before all others, let’s take a look at how you can type a message on Discord. When you’re using Discord, you can send messages to server channels or DMs.
Whether you’re using Discord on a desktop, regardless of the operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux), or if you’re using Discord through its app or the browser, you can navigate to server channels by clicking on a server. To navigate to DMs, click on the Discord icon at the top left of your screen.
If you’re using the mobile version of Discord, you can do the same thing. Pressing on a server icon will take you inside the server, where you can select which channel you want to chat in. Pressing the chat bubble icon at the top left of your app, however, is going to open up your DM list.
Once you’re in either a server channel or a DM, on both desktop and mobile versions of the app, you’re going to see an input field at the bottom of your screen. That’s where you can click and start typing your message.
Once you’re ready to send your message, you can hit the Enter button on your keyboard to send your message if you’re using the desktop version, or press the blue send button if you’re using the mobile version.
If you see the “You do not have permission to send messages in this channel.” message instead of the input field, that means the owner of the server you’re viewing has disabled your permission to send messages in that channel.
This doesn’t mean, at least in general, that the owner or any admin has disabled your permission specifically – it usually means no one except the staff can send messages there.
Ways of Altering Your Text on Discord
Now that you know how you can type and send messages on Discord, it’s time to move on to more advanced ways of modifying your messages. These include the auto emoji settings, headers, small, bold, and more.
Turn Off Auto Emoji on Discord
Let’s start with one of the most frequently asked questions about Discord: can you turn off the auto emoji formatting? If you were to type :) in Discord, without changing any of the app’s settings, your message will display the plain text smiley as an emoji (🙂). Turning this setting off is easy.
First, let’s click the Settings button to go to the app’s settings. You can do this on a desktop by clicking on the cogwheel icon next to the microphone and output device buttons. If you’re using the mobile version of Discord, press on the cogwheel icon at the top right of your screen inside the You section of the app.
Discord’s desktop and mobile versions have most of the same settings, and their names are the same. In the settings, go to the Chat section and find the “Automatically convert emoticons in your messages to emoji” setting and toggle it off. Doing this will prevent Discord from converting plain text emojis like :) and :D to emojis.
Type Headers in Discord
Typing headers in Discord wasn’t possible until the last big Discord markdown update. Before that, people were using bold and ALL CAPS to deliver the feeling of headings. Now you can type headers very easily. To make headers, simply put a number sign (#) and a space at the start of your line. This is going to transform that line into an H1 heading. Adding two and three number signs is going to make the lines H2 and H3, respectively.
Typing Code in Discord
When you type code snippets in Discord, some characters might trigger Discord’s formatting, and your message will look like an unreadable code, which isn’t practical. Instead, you should consider using inline or code block formatting. To type code on Discord, simply surround your code with single backticks (`) for single-line codes and three backticks (```) for code blocks.
Pro Tip: When formatting a message as a code block, you can put the name of the coding language you’re typing in after the first three backticks to add syntax highlighting.
Type in Bold on Discord
Formatting a text as bold in Discord is a great way to make a specific part eye-catching, and doing so is simple. To type in bold on Discord, all you have to do is surround your text with two asterisks (**). If you’re using the desktop version of Discord, you can also use the formatting popup’s Bold button (B icon) or the CTRL + B (CMD + B on macOS) key bind to format the highlighted part as bold.
Type in Italics on Discord
Italic formatting on Discord is very similar to bold formatting – it can be used to emphasize parts of your message, referencing books, movies, or games, implying sarcasm, and more. To type in italics on Discord, all you have to do is surround your text with a single asterisk (*). If you’re using the desktop version of Discord, you can also use the formatting popup’s Italics button or the CTRL + I (CMD + I on macOS) key bind to format the highlighted part as italics.
Type Nothing in Discord
Typing nothing on Discord is a frequently asked shenanigan usually used to harmlessly confuse other users. When you use the soft hyphen () or the hangul filler (ㅤ) characters, which both look like whitespace, you can send empty messages on Discord and it’s going to look like the message isn’t loading to most people. This is a silly function that people use to have fun with others.
- If you’re using Windows, you can type the soft hyphen by holding ALT, entering the 0173 numbers on your Numpad, and then releasing ALT. However, it’s not possible to type the hangul filler on Windows. While you might come across some sources telling you that the ALT + 3164 is the combination for hangul filler, it actually results in a backslash (\).
- If you’re using macOS, you can use the CMD + CTRL + Space key bind to open up the Character Viewer and search for soft hyphens and hangul fillers.
Type Small Text, aka Subtext, in Discord
To type small text in Discord, put a hyphen (-), a number sign (#), and a space at the start of a line to format it as subtext. This is going to transform your text from a 16px white text to a 13px gray text. It’s useful for adding footnotes to your messages.
Type Spoilers in Discord
Nobody likes spoilers, and if you want to share spoiler material with people whilst respecting everyone’s wishes, you can use the spoiler formatting. To type spoilers in Discord, all you have to do is surround your text with two vertical bars (|). This is going to put a dark gray foreground to your text, which will disappear once clicked, revealing the text behind it. Remember that the “Show spoiler content” setting can be set to reveal spoilers on click, always open on the servers that you moderate, or always open.
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