What is the Discord Overlay?
Discord has become one of the leading VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) programs in recent years, with it especially being popular with gamers. To appeal further to that audience, they’ve added a ton of features to help augment the gaming experience. The Discord overlay is just one of these features. However, there are multiple reasons you would want to disable it, which makes the fact that it’s on by default annoying. Luckily, this guide will teach you how to turn off the Discord overlay.
Why Turn Off the Discord Overlay?
Before getting into the guide proper, here are a couple of reasons why you would want to turn off the overlay.
- Improved Game Performance
The overlay will add an extra graphical layer on top of your game, which uses system resources. If your PC is barely running the game in the first place, then this can cause problems such as lower frame rates, stuttering, and longer load times.
- Avoiding Game Crashes
Some games simply don’t play nice with overlays in general, especially if they’re older games that run DirectX 9. You can run into issues like the game refusing to launch, the game crashing or freezing after alt-tabbing, or the overlay UI may even be permanently stuck on the screen.
- Reducing On-Screen Clutter
If you’re in a competitive environment while playing a game like CS:GO where the first person to spot the enemy has a massive advantage, then you’ll want to keep the screen as clean as possible. You may also want it off if you’re playing a cinematic or story-driven game, as it popping up on screen can be distracting and break your immersion.
- Fixing Input Lag
In some cases, overlays can cause your inputs to start lagging. This can be especially noticeable if Discord’s default keybinds happens to overlap with some in-game controls.
- Maintain Privacy while Streaming
If you’re streaming or recording your gameplay, the overlay can expose usernames and private messages to your viewers – information you might not want the general public to know.
How to Turn Off Discord Overlay
The settings to turn off the Discord overlay have several levels to it. You can turn it off completely, disable the overlay only for a specific game, or only toggle it off temporarily while you’re mid-game. We’ll go over how to do so below.
How to Turn Off Discord Overlay Entirely
You can do this if you want to completely stop Discord from trying to display it in any game.
- Make sure Discord is open.
- In the bottom left, click on the gear icon next to your username.
- Scroll down to the “Game Overlay tab”.
- Click on “Enable Overlay”, making sure the switch is set to the left side to disable it.
How to Disable the Overlay for a Specific Game
If you only want it gone for specific games, like hypercompetitive ones where you want all the screen space you can get, but also want it active for more chill games, then this is the option for you.
- Make sure Discord is on.
- Navigate to your user settings by clicking on the gear icon in the bottom left.
- Scroll down and go to the Registered Games tab.
- Toggle the overlay off for the games that you want it off for by clicking on the screen icon next to their name.
Repeat this for whatever games you want the overlay to be hidden for. If the game doesn’t show up in your list of registered games, then Discord couldn’t detect it at all and won’t display an overlay for it anyways.
Toggle it On or Off While In-Game
If you don’t have time to fiddle with the Discord settings because you’re in the middle of a game, then there’s a quick shortcut to toggle it on or off. Simply press Shift+` to toggle it on or off. That’s Shift+backtick, the button next to the number 1 on your keyboard.
Clearing Up Your Screen
While the Discord overlay can be a handy way to identify exactly who in your voice chat is talking and to keep in touch with your friends in general, it can get in the way at times. There are a bunch of ways to handle it. For more permanent solutions, you’ll want to dive deep into your Discord’s settings. If you just want to temporarily toggle it on or off, then simply using the keyboard shortcut is enough. Whichever way you decide to go, we hope that this guide has helped you out.
