What Does ‘Idle’ Mean on Discord

There are five (5) user statuses available on Discord that can be used by Discord users anytime they want; where four of them are defaults, and the fifth one is a custom status. These are (in order from top to bottom): Online status, Idle status Do Not Disturb status, Invisible status, and Custom status.

What does Idle mean on Discord?

In this article, we will focus on what the Idle status means, how long it takes for Discord to show you with Idle status, how to set your status as Idle on Discord, and how to set your status as Idle on the mobile version of the Discord application.

By definition, the word idle means ‘spending time doing nothing’, or ‘(a person) avoiding work, or being lazy’. But what does Idle mean on Discord?

The Idle status on Discord means the Discord user is or has been away from the keyboard (AFK). For users who have been AFK, Discord will automatically change their status as Idle.

However, Idle users do not only mean they are AFK, as they may still be running Discord open in the background while they’re doing something else on their computer. But because they are not on the app itself, hence the Idle status is set automatically.

How Long Does It Take For Discord to Show You With Idle Status?

Discord will change the user status and switch to Idle automatically when the user has been away from the app for 5-10 minutes. From the green icon that indicates ‘Online’, it switches to the crescent moon icon that indicates Discord’s Idle status.

Note: The difference between Idle users and Offline users is that Idle users can still receive notifications, while offline users don’t.

Although Discord status automatically changes from an active status to Idle status, you can manually set Discord statuses. If you want to set status to Idle manually, here’s how:

1. STEP 1

   

   Open Discord account and choose the Discord server you want to appear “Idle” to.

2. STEP 2

   

   Click on your user’s avatar and a drop-down menu will appear where you can choose the status you want to set manually.

3. STEP 3

   

   You can now manually set your status to Idle by clicking on “Idle”.

If you want to customize your status even while still choosing “Idle”, here’s what you can do to manually change and customize the status that appears on your user account:

1. STEP 1

   Click on your profile picture, and the drop-down menu will appear.

2. STEP 2

   

   Select “Set a custom status”.

3. STEP 3

   

   Type the custom name/status you want to appear as your user status and select an emoji. you can type in what you are doing (example: Cooking Dinner).

4. STEP 4

   

   Choose how long you want your custom status to last until it changes back to default.

5. STEP 5

   

   Choose activity status and don’t forget to save changes.

   

1. STEP 1

   

   Launch Discord mobile and tap on the three horizontal lines on the upper left side.

2. STEP 2

   

   Tap on the profile icon at the bottom right corner.

3. STEP 3

   

   Tap on “Set Status”.

4. STEP 4

   

   Select “Idle”.