Discord is popular with gamers because it has so many features and customization options. From Screen Share to adding audio bots for music, the possibilities are almost endless. Another advantage is that both newbies to coding and experts can use this service with ease.
Many gamers enjoy staying in touch with each other, especially in battles and raids. If your friends and acquaintances from Discord are trying to keep up with the game you are playing now, or you want to show what you can do, you can update your game status on Discord.
Manually change your game status on Discord
Discord has an auto-detection system that looks at what is running on your system and can recognize a bunch of games. For example, if it sees LeagueofLegends.exe running on Windows, it recognizes it as a game file and fills in your “Playing League of Legends” status message.
These are “proven” games. This means that the Discord database knows what the game executable looks like and can recognize it in the task manager.
It will then fill in your game status message with that status. As far as I know, you cannot manually edit verified games. There is a hack to get around this though. You can edit unverified games or other programs.
Make the game open and running in the background.
Open Discord and go to User Settings.
Select Games from the left menu and then add it to the right.
Manually add a game or program from the list that appears.
Turn on game status
You need a game or program to run in the background for Discord to detect a running process. Just Alt-Tab to exit the game, open Discord and follow the instructions above to get this to work. This is for gaming, but if you want to get a status message for another program, you can.
Once completed, your status message will show up in Discord as long as you have the associated program open. After you close it, Discord will do the same as with any other game, change the message to something else.
If you don’t want Discord to show the world that you have been playing The Sims 4 for the eighth day in a row, you can turn off game status. In the Games menu , you can turn off the Display currently running game as status message option .
Change the status of a verified game on Discord
While you can’t edit verified games on Discord, you can influence how it works. Since the system looks at running processes in the task manager, you can manually add a process and make Discord display it instead of the game you are playing.
For example, you are playing The Sims 4, but you don’t want the whole world to know about it. Open an unverified game or program, ask Discord to pick it up, and give the game a different name.
Notepad ++ is a useful program for this. It uses very few system resources and is not currently tested on Discord. Run it in the background, let Discord bring it up, give it a custom message, then start another game.
Game status is a great way to tell the world what you are doing and what you can play. It’s also a way to be witty or smart, and adds another element of fun to an already super cool system. While this is a bit limited to a proven gaming system, there is a way to play, so it’s not all bad.
How do you show which game you are playing on Discord Mobile?
There are two ways to do this on a mobile device: either specify your own User Status, or go to User Settings> In-Game Actions.
User status
Custom status gives you the ability to say whatever you want in a short message. If you would like to progress through this round, please follow the options listed below. You can write “I am playing _____” or whatever you see fit.
From the mobile app
- Click the top left drop-down list represented by 3 horizontal lines.
- Find your name at the bottom of the screen and click it.
- You will now see options for your online status.
- Click “Set your own status”.
- Now you can put any status you want.
Game activity
You will have more options to update your gaming activity from the desktop application than from the mobile application. If you want to enable / disable Game Activity, you can do this in the mobile version. You can update your gaming activity from a mobile device or desktop app.
As we’ll discuss shortly, you can only access your Game Activity from the Discord version of the app. It will not display in a web browser.
Mobile device
- Click the drop-down list in the upper left corner, represented by 3 horizontal lines.
- Find your name at the bottom of the screen and select the settings option represented by the gear.
- Scroll down to the Gaming Activity tab and click on it.
- You are now on the “Gaming Activity” tab.
- You can toggle the switch to show your activity or not
Desktop application
The PC version of Discord will let you show you what game you are playing as it shows up in the background of your PC. If you’ve made settings and added an Xbox in the Connections tab, your current game will be linked here.
Manually change your online status on Discord
Discord has four options for your online status: online, idle, do not disturb, and invisible. They are similar to most other chat apps, letting you display if you’re ready to speak.
However, this is different from your gaming display. To manually change your online status in Discord, right-click your avatar in the Discord client and select your status. You will need to manually change it when you need to, or it will return to automatic mode after restarting Discord.
Why can’t I see “Game Activity”
Many users are wondering why they don’t see “Game Activity” in Discord settings. Some even went so far as to say that the developers had given up on this feature. We have good news for you!
Play Activity is still available, but only available in the Discord app .
If you’re logged into Discord in Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, or Internet Explorer, you won’t see this option in Discord preferences. All you have to do is download the app, which is available for iOS, Android, macOS, or Windows.
Once the download has started; follow the instructions of your operating system to install the application. You will be prompted to log in using your Discord username and password. Then you can follow all the steps listed above to change your game status on Discord.
Overall, Discord is great for both gamers and non-gamers alike. This is an incredibly powerful VoIP and messaging app and we think it will meet the needs of most users looking for a tool to communicate, whether you are playing or not.
