Discord Public Server Messages May Be Soon Searchable On Google, But You Can Opt Out

Discord is making a policy change that will further increase the visibility of conversations on its largest public servers. On November 16, the platform’s Discoverable Servers will all be getting Server Web Pages. These hubs will display some basic information about the server, including a description and summaries of discussions happening on their public channels. By mid-December, Discord said that messages on posted to those channels could start appearing word-for-word on both the Server Web Pages and in search engine results. Neither the channel summaries nor the individual channel messages will display the poster’s username or avatar.

The reason Discord gave for the change is to make it easier for information from these communities to be surfaced in web searches. In other words, you might start seeing Discord pages and messages the same way you’d find a Reddit thread among search hits.

This change is limited to Discoverable Servers, the large communities of at least 1,000 members where no invitation is required to join. Private servers, DMs and Group DMs will remain private. But considering Discord just weathered blowback over its implementation of age verification policies, this decision could raise new questions around how the platform handles privacy concerns. 

Server admins for those Discoverable Servers can take action starting now to opt-out channels from being included in their eventual web presence. And individual users can also choose to keep their Discoverable Server posts from being indexed via the Data and Privacy section of Discord’s User Settings. In select markets — the EU, UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia and South Korea — channel messages will be off by default to honor local regulations, so for those regions users will have to manually opt in to the feature. Teen Discord users are also excluded and do not have the option to turn on channel messages until they are of adult age.