Can You Tell If Someone Is Invisible On Discord?

The subject of invisibility on Discord is a contentious one. As a social platform, it does kind of defeat the object but as an open platform that welcomes anyone, it has to offer every way it can to encourage engagement. If you run a server or channel, can you even tell if someone is invisible on Discord?

No you cannot tell if someone is invisible on Discord. This is one of the most requested features on the suggestion forums but so far the company has not given in to those wishes.

Personally, I think invisible status should be removed or should be able to be disabled by admins on certain channels. If you want to be left alone, use Do Not Disturb. If you don’t want to be seen on Discord, log out. I see no positive purpose for an invisible mode except for people to lurk and listen to conversations without anyone knowing they are there. Not cool as far as I’m concerned.

Invisible on Discord

Being invisible on Discord is one of the statuses you can choose when logged into a channel. As well as Online, Idle and Do Not Disturb, you have Invisible which is like having a bug in your living room where all your friends are hanging out and chatting. You can hide in the darkness listening while they have no idea. We all know what we think of people who do that in real life!

Online status makes perfect sense. You’re on the server, logged in and ready to chat. Idle is logical too. You’re still logged in but may have left your desk to get lunch, be running errands, doing your homework, chores or whatever. Another logical status that tells people you’re around but might not answer immediately.

Do Not Disturb is another logical status. You’re online but in the middle of something. You could be raiding, crafting, in a private chat or doing something else. You don’t want to be disturbed for a while until you’re done. Makes perfect sense.

Invisible status doesn’t make sense to me. If you don’t want to be seen online, log out of Discord. If you’re busy doing something else, use DND.

Setting status on Discord

With the exception of Idle, you manually assign your status on Discord. You can manually assign yourself to Idle but otherwise the system will do it for you when it sees you’re not doing anything for a given period of time.

To manually set your status in Discord, do this on desktop:

1. Log into a channel as you normally would.
   
2. Left click your avatar in the bottom of the channel list.
   
3. Select a status from there.
   

To manually set your status in Discord, do this on Mobile:

1. Select the user icon at the bottom of the screen.
   
2. Select ” Set a Status”.
   
3. From there set a status you want to show.
   

A change in status is signified with a change in the color of the dot in your avatar. If you’re Online, you’re green, Idle is yellow, Do Not Disturb is red and Invisible is a hollow gray dot. You should see this reflected in your avatar once you make the change.

Once you set yourself to Invisible status, you disappear from the online list for everyone in the channel. You will see your own status reflected as Offline with the gray dot to remind you you’re set to invisible.

Can server owners or admins see offline users?

Not even server owners or admins can see offline users. This is less than ideal if you’re working on channels or want to see what the peak or low numbers are to make administrative changes. As far as I know, there is no bot or hack that will show invisible users either. If you want to know who is online, you’re going to need to shout out and request a DM back to count numbers but that could take a while if you run a larger server.

Invisible users can still DM or send messages but it will immediately tell at least the recipient that they are online. On most channels, those set to invisible shouldn’t mind sending a DM to an admin or server owner but not everyone will do that. You’re just going to have to guess how many people you have online at any one time!

I think Discord should remove the invisible setting as soon as they can. It makes running a server more difficult than it should be and gives users an excuse to lurk and monitor conversations without being seen. Unfortunately, it seems Discord aren’t listening as there is no mention of them even contemplating this anytime soon.

What’s your opinion of Invisible status? Like it? Loathe it? Tell us your thoughts below!