Discord is a free text, voice and video chatting app which is used by users all over the world to talk to their friends and family and make a community. Discord is used daily to talk about topics ranging from games to politics to discussing projects, health support etc. Discord is base for any big or small online community. It is used by people all over the world. The majority of the discord servers are private servers or invitation-based servers. This helps to keep the community together and provides an easy way to keep in touch with your community members. There are several open servers in discord too which as centered at specific topics such as Call of duty War zone, Pubg, Fortnite etc. All the conversations are optional either you are talking or you are just scrolling through reading the comments.
What is Discord Overlay?
Discord overlay is a feature of discord which allows the users to make voice calls, video calls and respond to chat notifications. When you enable the overlay server it lets you interact with the discord interface in a deeper way. Enabling the overlay lets you chat with your friends with ease and without any interruptions. However, not everyone finds this feature interesting rather than they find it distracting. Especially when you are playing solo and do not want to be disturbed while playing your game. The overlay feature can be disabled and then enable whenever you want it to be. Here we will explain how to turn off discord overlay, keep reading the article to know more.
If you are annoyed by the countless notification and disturbance by the discord overlay function and you want to disable discord overlay function you are on the right track. Here we will tell you how to disable the discord overlay feature and game in peace without the discord notifications disturbing you.
Here Are the Steps to Follow to Disable the Discord Overlay Feature:
Method#1: Disable the Discord Overlay Permanently
You can disable the discord overlay permanently for all games at once, so that you can play your game and enjoy discord without getting the annoying notifications over and over again. The easiest way to disable the overlay feature is using these steps:
- Turn on your Discord app
- If the app fails to launch double click on its icon in the system tray in the bottom right of your desktop.
- Navigate and click on the user settings icon in the bottom of the window.
- In the user setting navigate to the overlay menu
- In the overlay menu, navigate to App settings menu
- Turn off the Enable in-game overlay option
Now your overlay function will be off and you can play your games without the annoying discord overlay notifications. If you want to turn on the overlay feature again, just follow the above steps but instead of turning it off, you need to enable the option and you will have the discord overlay working for you again.
Method#2: Disable the Discord Overlay for Specific Games
If you want to keep using the discord overlay for most of the games and want to disable it for a few of the games then you can do that too. The steps to disabling the discord overlay is the same as above but it has a few additional steps, these are the total steps you required to disable your overlay feature:
- Turn on your Discord app
- If the app fails to launch double click on its icon in the system tray in the bottom right of your desktop.
- Navigate and click on the user settings icon in the bottom of the window.
- In the user setting navigate to the overlay menu
- Turn the enable in game overlay option on
- After enabling it, click on the games tab and choose the game
- Disable the overlay in the settings of the game you want to disable
Now your overlay function will be off for the games your switched it off and it will be on for the games you want to keep. You will receive the discord overlay notifications for the game it is still turned on. If you want to enable the overlay feature again, just follow the above steps but instead of turning it off, you need to enable the option and you will have the discord overlay working for you again.
Method#3: Run Discord as Administrator to Fix the Disable Discord Overlay
If you are not running discord as administrator you could be facing the trouble when disabling the discord overlay settings. As discord does not have admin permissions many of its features might not run properly this means you won’t be able to disable the discord overlay settings either.
To run discord with administration privileges you need to follow these steps:
- Right click on the discord icon on your desktop
- Select the properties menu and then go to the compatibility tab when the window pops up.
- Check the box where it says run as administrator and click the ok button
Now after giving it admin privileges go to the discord application and open it. Follow the above steps and disable the discord overlay and the overlay features on discord according to your needs.
Method#4: Disable the Antivirus to Fix Discord Overlay Error
Sometimes the antivirus can play a big part in making services such as overlay by the discord to stop working. To make sure the antivirus is not interfering with your discord, you need to either disable the antivirus while you are gaming or you need to put the game in the whitelist of the antivirus software. We would suggest putting discord into the whitelist of the antivirus instead of disabling the antivirus as your system could be affected by viruses if you keep your antivirus off for a long time.
Method#5 : Disable the Discord Hardware Acceleration
Discord’s hardware acceleration feature can also take up a lot of memory making your discord slow and causing the overlay to act weirdly and show unnecessary notifications. so to make sure you play your game in peace without the discord overlay disturbing you. You might need to turn off the hardware acceleration feature in discord to make your gaming experience better. Here are the steps to switch off the hardware acceleration option:
- Open your Discord from the desktop
- Right click on the gear button which will open the discord settings window
- Turn off the toggle of acceleration hardware in the appearance settings.
After following these steps make sure to reboot your pc. Restart your Pc and run discord, the issue would be resolved. If you are still facing the issue you need to download a fresh copy and reinstall discord again.
Method#6: Download and Reinstall Discord
Before moving to talking to the customer support for the issue you are facing, lets see if it could be solved by reinstalling discord. Usually, a corrupt file or a missing file can cause and error too even an unwanted file that has been downloaded by discord can cause the overlay to not work properly and give you issues. So, to fix the issue we need to delete the old discord files and reinstall it as a new application to do so you need to follow these steps:
- Search for the control panel in the windows search bar
- Navigate to the program’s menu
- In the program’s menu select, uninstall program
- Navigate to the discord application, right click and choose uninstall discord
Now you need to go to discord website and download an updated version of discord. After you have downloaded discord, install it by following the instructions on the screen. Once you have installed it, log in to your account and see if the problem still exists or not. If it still does you need to contact customer support and get your problem fixed.
Method#7: Contact Customer support
This is the last resort when everything fails and you are out of solutions. Contacting customer support to help you with your problem. The customer support people are the best option if everything fails and you are not sure what to do next. Email them and ask for solutions, they might be the people who would help you out. As they are in contact with the developers of Discord and they know how to deal with problems which cannot be solved at the users end.
Conclusion
Discord is a famous chatting app for millions and millions of people worldwide, the small community every genre has is full of information and necessary things. But like other application this too can be annoying sometimes with the overlay feature, in the article above we have discussed many ways to fix the overlay problem as well as switch off the overlay when you are annoyed and do not want to be disturbed while you are gaming. You need to follow the steps properly to get your discord overlay issue fixed.
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