Discord to let search engines index public server messages

Discord plans to make discussions in Discoverable Servers easier to find through web searches, including for people who do not have a Discord account or invitation. The company says the change is intended to make useful information in those conversations accessible to a wider internet audience.

The change applies only to Discoverable Servers, publicly listed communities with at least 1,000 members. Discord says it hosts approximately 63,000 of them. Private servers, direct messages, and group announcements in servers that do not meet the requirements are excluded.

Discord is piloting Community Messages and Server Web Pages in the NBA 2K, Rust, and Dead by Daylight communities. Server Web Pages will be created automatically on November 16 for servers whose admins have not created them. According to the company’s schedule, admins can avoid this by making a server private before that date. A gradual rollout is planned for December, and messages posted before release will not be included.

Admins can exclude individual channels or disable channel content sharing in Server Settings > Web Presence. Members can control whether future messages appear on a Server Web Page in User Settings > Data and Privacy. Discord says messages that have already become public cannot be retracted.

Sharing will be off by default in EU countries, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and South Korea; members there must opt in. Underage users are excluded and cannot enable the feature until they turn 18.