Are you on Discord patiently waiting for someone to respond to your messages?
Finding yourself asking the questions, what does idle mean on Discord, and how do you know if someone is idle on Discord?
Whether you’re a newbie to the app or just need a better understanding of how it all works, these are important questions to ask when you are using this online community-based chat service.
With Discord being a free, informal chat app that brings people together from all over the world, it’s no wonder you’ll be asking how does AFK work, and what is it when you’re not receiving any responses from your chats.
We have created this easy-to-follow guide just for you to help you understand what idle means on Discord, and provide you with more information related to this topic.
What does idle mean on Discord?

What does idle mean on Discord
You’ve been on Discord for a while chatting in private chats or communities you’ve joined, and you notice an orange crescent moon next to someone’s profile.
How do you know if someone is idle on Discord?
This little logo represents a user that is ‘Idle’. This will appear automatically on someone’s profile when they have logged into Discord, but have not been active with other users, or on the site for around 10 minutes.
You may know the term ‘AFK’ which means ‘Away From Keyboard’ and is pretty much exactly the same thing as being idle on Discord. Once someone is back and they begin interacting, the idle logo will automatically disappear, and your status will go back to being ‘online.’
Note, the automatic change of your status may take a few minutes to reflect on your profile.
How do I change to idle in Discord
Although changing to idle will automatically happen on your profile when you have stepped away for a few minutes, you are able to manually change your online status to idle;
Step 1. Log into Discord
Step 2. Find your profile at the bottom of the screen on the left and click on it
Step 3. Select ‘Idle’
Your profile will now be idle and show the orange crescent moon.
Note, manually setting your profile to idle will mean you will have to change it back to online yourself, unlike the idle status coming on automatically.
You can also set your status online, tp do not disturb, and invisible.
What does invisible on Discord mean?

What is Invisible on Discord
With manually being able to change your profile’s status on Discord, it’s handy to know what each one means.
The ‘Do Not Disturb’ status is self-explanatory. Setting your profile to this status will tell other users you do not want to be contacted, and if someone does message you, you will not be notified of it until you make yourself online again.
‘Invisible’ on Discord is a bit of a different status and may be confusing for some who are very new to using Discord.
Changing your status to ‘invisible’ will show to others that you are offline. This will tell other users that you are not available to chat or play any games with them, and if they message you, you won’t receive it until you’ve gone online.
Invisible is quite the opposite. You will still receive notifications and messages that are being sent through to you. You are still able to chat in private messages and your selected communities. Your profile will be seen as unreachable to those you are not communicating with.
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How do you know if someone is invisible on Discord?
The invisible status on Discord has been created specifically for not letting other users know you are online.
Any users logged into Discord will not be able to tell if someone is on invisible mode, as a person’s profile will show up as offline.
If however you receive a message, or you are playing a game with someone with an offline status, you will be able to assume that they have activated the invisible status.
Setting the invisible status on will show up as a grey dot, just as if you had logged out of Discord.
Do you appear offline when you close Discord?

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
Logging out of Discord or closing the app will cause your status to change to grey which would confirm you are now offline, and not reachable on Discord.
So what happens when you close discord? Once you have closed Discord, it will disconnect your device from the server, whether that’s your mobile or your PC. Just like any app, you will need to connect back onto Discord if you wanted to check if you have received any notifications.
One thing to note is that when you have decided you want to log out of Discord completely, it will be beneficial to ensure it is no longer running in the background on your device, as this can use quite a bit of data, as well as battery life, especially if you are on your mobile network.
On PC
Get into your Task Manager, and check to see Discord is not running, If it is, click on Discord, and choose ‘End Task’.
On iPhone
On your home screen, swipe up to the middle of the screen. If you find the Discord app appearing, click on it and swipe upwards to get rid of it.
On Android
Go into Settings and find the Discord app. Select it, and choose ‘Force Stop’. If it does not give you the option to force stop, Discord was not running in the background.
Concluding Thoughts
Understanding how to set up your profile on Discord, and what each setting means is fundamental in having a great user experience with the app. Without knowing how does idle work on Discord and what does invisible on Discord mean, can prevent you from making the most of your time on the chat service.
We hope this easy-to-read guide has covered everything you needed to know in the status settings of Discord, and if you have any further queries or concerns, you can make use of Discord’s help center.