Trying to turn off the new game overlay that Discord automatically turned on in its latest update? Here’s how.
Discord has pushed out a brand-new update—if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry, you will soon. To say it’s not well-received is an understatement, as a bunch of visual updates make the chat application look much worse to most people.
Of course, reactions to aesthetic changes like this will vary from person to person. While I don’t like how the server icons are smaller now and how the profile bar spans both the server and channel lists, others will be thankful for the extra space on the server list and the profile bar being more prominent.
With this update, Discord also rolled out a new game overlay feature to replace the old one—but the problem is that this option was turned on by default, whether you had it on originally or not. Having Discord messages pop up in my game suddenly after years of having the overlay off did not make me happy, and seeing as many people in the servers I frequent are trying to figure out how to turn it off, I’m not alone.
I Had the Overlay off for a Reason
While I don’t inherently hate Discord’s game overlay, I had it turned off for a few reasons. First and foremost, having Discord messages pop up in the corner or the flickering free light of someone taking in voice chat is highly distracting. If I’m trying to focus on whatever I’m doing in a game, the last thing I want is a random Discord ping catching my eye and making me mess up on whatever game I’m playing.
Given that I also have two computer screens, it’s easy enough for me to look at Discord when I’m not focused on the game and respond to messages then. While the game overlay might be helpful for those with only one screen, you’ll need to either tab out of the game or respond via the overlay itself, and that feels counter-intuitive. It’s still a disruption in that way, and that will be a problem with most games.
It’s worth mentioning that Steam’s overlay does work similarly to Discord’s, so those who make use of Steam’s overlay options may not have an issue with Discord’s version of it. However, I’m not fond of Steam’s overlay as well, so for me at least, it’s a moot point.
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The other reason for turning off the overlay is much simpler—I don’t want it to slow things down. While I have a decent PC rig, there’s a bottleneck specs-wise with the graphics card, so too many fancy images or fancy applications can slow things down and make my games stutter.
Before I realized the new overlay was on, when I saw a Discord message pop in, half the time, the Discord message graphic stuttered in a distracting way. While it didn’t affect the game I was currently playing, it was obvious that the overlay would cause more issues if I was playing a title with more demanding graphical requirements.
How to Turn Off Discord’s New Game Overlay
Thankfully, turning the game overlay back off isn’t difficult, but navigating Discord’s myriad menus can be challenging at times.
The new game overlay is only available on Discord’s desktop app; this feature is not available on the web browser version nor the mobile version of the chat service.
To start, navigate to your (now much bigger) profile bar at the bottom of the application and hit the cog icon for the User settings.
The Game Overlay settings are all the way at the bottom, in the ‘Activity Settings’ section. You’ll likely need to scroll down to see this section, even past the App Setting section’s ‘Advanced’ settings option, which is why it’s a bit harder to find.
From there, you’ll have a bunch of Game Overlay settings you can tinker with, including how the voice widget looks, what notifications you’ll get while in-game, and more. If you want to keep the overlay but not have it ping you so often, here is where you can customize it.
Thankfully, the toggle to turn the overlay off completely is at the top of the options. Click the ‘Enable Overlay ‘toggle so that it’s grey with an ‘X’, and you’re good to go.
If you want to keep the overlay, but only for certain games, you can click the arrow next to the main toggle and toggle games and apps individually.
Make sure that the Legacy Overlay is off, too—on my app, it was automatically turned off, but it’s always best to double-check.