The new feature on Discord seems a bit invasive. Here’s how to turn it off

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Discord began as a simple chatroom with voice chat capabilities and has evolved into the primary communication and community-building platform for gamers, games, and organizations. Since its debut nearly a decade ago, the company has faced numerous challenges, some more significant than others.

One recent change that may be unwelcome for some gamers is that the list of Discord contacts will now display not only the games your friends are playing but also how long they’ve been playing each game and their activity over the last 30 days.The new feature on Discord seems a bit invasive. Here’s how to turn it off.

The updated summary could reveal that a contact has been engaged in Call of Duty for the past 13 days, and another has dedicated over 100 hours to playing World of Warcraft, which is then highlighted with a marathon badge. Additionally, you can respond directly to individual in-game time displays or activities by using emojis on the tiles visible for your Discord friends.

Even more significant is the ability to check on any contact’s activities from the past 30 days, even when they’re not online.

However, this feature poses a potential issue. Not everyone wants their Discord contacts to have visibility into their recent activities, such as playing Counter-Strike a few days ago. While it may seem harmless, the issue is not the specific activity itself.

For instance, if you decide to skip a planned gathering with friends to play solo, this feature could make it quite easy for others to see that you’re gaming alone. This could lead to unwelcome confrontations, interrogations, or hurt feelings.

Additionally, you might prefer to keep certain details private, such as having beta access to an unreleased game or playing a game with explicit content. All reasons for desiring privacy are valid.

To turn off the new feature, you can take the following steps:

Thankfully, Discord has not made this feature compulsory, so you have the option to disable it if you prefer not to have your activities monitored and logged.

Simply go to Settings and find the Privacy and security section. From there, you can deactivate the feature under Activity status.