Turn off notifications in Discord settings

The fastest way to stop Discord notifications is through the User Settings menu. Open Discord, click your username in the bottom left corner, then select User Settings. From there, go to Notifications in the left sidebar.

You'll see a list of notification types — direct messages, mentions, replies, and more. Each one has a dropdown menu next to it. Click any dropdown and choose Off to disable that notification type entirely. If you want to keep some notifications but silence others, you can set different rules for each type. For example, you might turn off all notifications except direct messages from friends.

These settings explore to your entire Discord account across all servers and direct messages. Any change you make here affects every place you use Discord, whether you're on desktop, mobile, or the web version.

Key Takeaways

  • Discord's User Settings menu lets you turn off entire notification types — direct messages, mentions, replies — with a single dropdown choice.
  • Server-specific muting silences one server without affecting notifications from other servers or direct messages.
  • Channel muting stops notifications from a single channel while keeping notifications on in the rest of that server.
  • Do Not Disturb mode silences all notifications temporarily without changing your settings, and you can set it to turn off automatically at a specific time.
  • Mobile notifications can be controlled separately from desktop notifications, so you might mute your phone while keeping desktop alerts on.

Mute a single server

If you want to silence notifications from one server but keep notifications from others, right-click the server name in your left sidebar and select Mute Server. A menu will appear asking how long you want the server muted — you can choose 15 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, or until you unmute it manually.

When a server is muted, you won't see notification badges or hear sounds from that server, but you'll still see messages when you open it. The server name will appear slightly dimmed in your sidebar so you remember it's muted. You can unmute it anytime by right-clicking the server name again and selecting Unmute Server.

This is useful when you're in a server with lots of activity but you don't need to pay attention to it right now — like a gaming server during work hours or a group chat while you're sleeping.

Mute notifications from a specific channel

You can silence a single channel without muting the entire server. Right-click the channel name and select Mute Channel. Like server muting, you'll choose how long — 15 minutes up to indefinitely. The channel will appear slightly dimmed, and you won't get notifications from it, but other channels in that server will still alert you normally.

This is helpful when a channel is active but not urgent — like a #random channel full of memes, or a #announcements channel that posts frequently but you'll check manually later. You can mute channels individually even if the server itself is unmuted, giving you fine control over what gets your attention.

Use Do Not Disturb mode

Do Not Disturb (DND) is a temporary mute that silences all notifications without changing any settings. Click your username in the bottom left, and you'll see a status circle next to your name — click it and select Do Not Disturb. Your status will change to a red circle with a dash, and Discord will stop sending you notifications.

While in Do Not Disturb mode, you can still read messages and participate in conversations — you just won't be interrupted by sounds or badges. When you're ready to receive notifications again, click your status circle and choose Online or Idle.

You can also set Do Not Disturb to turn off automatically. In User Settings, go to Notifications and scroll down to Do Not Disturb. Toggle on Schedule Do Not Disturb and set the times you want it active — for example, 10 PM to 8 AM every night. Discord will automatically switch to Do Not Disturb during those hours and back to Online when the time ends.

Control notifications on your phone separately

Discord on your phone can have different notification settings than Discord on your computer. Open the Discord mobile app, tap your profile icon in the bottom right, go to Notifications, and you'll see options specific to your phone — sound, vibration, and which notification types appear.

You might want to mute your phone notifications while keeping desktop notifications on, or vice versa. For example, you could turn off phone notifications during work but leave desktop alerts on at your computer. Each device's settings work independently, so changing one doesn't affect the other.

If you want to silence your phone completely without opening Discord, you can also use your phone's system settings to mute the Discord app itself — this is usually found in your phone's notification settings under the Discord app.

Prevent notifications from specific people

Discord doesn't have a built-in "mute this person" feature, but you can achieve the same result by muting the channels or servers where they're most active. If someone is messaging you directly and you don't want notifications from them, you can mute that direct message conversation by right-clicking it and selecting Mute.

For a person who posts frequently in a server, muting that channel or server will prevent their messages from triggering notifications. If you want to block someone entirely so they can't message you or see your status, you can right-click their name and select Block — they won't know they're blocked, and their messages won't reach you.

Understand notification priority levels

Discord has different notification levels you can set per server. Right-click a server name and select Notification Settings. You'll see options like All Messages (notify for every message), Only Mentions (notify only when someone mentions you), and Nothing (no notifications at all).

This is different from muting — when you set a server to "Only Mentions," you still get notifications, but only for messages that tag you directly. This is useful for large servers where you want to stay aware of direct communication but don't need alerts for every conversation. You can set different priority levels for different servers based on how important each one is to you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will people know I muted them or their server?

No. Muting a server, channel, or person is invisible to everyone else. They won't see any indication that you've muted notifications. Your status will still show as Online or Idle normally, and you can still read and respond to messages — you just won't get alerts.

Can I mute notifications but still see unread message badges?

When you mute a server or channel, Discord hides both the notification sound and the unread badge. If you want to see that messages arrived but not get notified, use the "Only Mentions" priority level instead of muting — that way you'll see a badge only when someone mentions you directly.

What's the difference between muting and blocking?

Muting silences notifications from someone or somewhere but you can still see their messages if you open that conversation. Blocking prevents them from messaging you at all and hides their profile from you. Use muting for noise control and blocking only if you don't want contact with that person.

Do notification settings sync across my devices?

User Settings notifications (like turning off all direct message alerts) sync across devices. But server and channel muting is device-specific — you can mute a server on your phone and still get notifications on your computer. Do Not Disturb status also syncs across devices.

Can I schedule different notification rules for different times of day?

Discord's built-in scheduling only works for Do Not Disturb mode. For more complex schedules — like different rules for work hours versus evenings — you'd need to manually change your settings or use Do Not Disturb during specific times and adjust server/channel muting as needed.