Discord has announced an upcoming change that will make public server conversations accessible through search engines. This feature will become active from mid-December 2026, but you can already opt out whether you’re a user or server owner.
Starting November 16, 2026, all Discoverable Servers, meaning those that are publicly accessible without an invitation, will have a Server Web Page. This page will display related information, such as summaries of discussions to give new members an idea of the server’s purpose. While this isn’t a new feature, it will now be enabled by default for all servers with at least 1,000 members. According to Discord, more than 63,000 servers currently fall into this category.
Then, beginning in mid-December 2026, these servers will also become indexed/searchable via search engines such as Google, including individual messages posted on public channels. While private servers, restricted channels, and direct messages will be excluded, (public) Discoverable Servers will be automatically indexed unless the admin opts out.
Both admins and users can already opt out of these features today, before anything goes live. To do so, if you are an admin, head to Server Settings > Community > Web Presence to select which channels take part, or disable either feature entirely.
Also, if you are a member of any of these servers, you can also prevent your messages from being indexed by opting out in User Settings > Data & Privacy. This is important, since any messages that have been indexed will remain even after you opt out, unless you delete them manually. Even so, search engines may retain a copy of them. Thankfully, messages sent before the December rollout will not be included.
Either way, usernames and avatars will not accompany these messages, and older messages will not be included. Plus, in the EU, UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and South Korea, this option will be off by default due to legal restrictions. The same goes for teenage users.
Considering the way in which Discord has replaced traditional community and game forums, making all that valuable information easily searchable could be a great idea. For example, World of Tanks closed its forum website, switching fully to Discord. Needless to say, this made finding guides, troubleshooting steps, and so on extremely hard.
Now, all this knowledge should be once more easily searchable and accessible. That said, this will also be an opportunity for AI trainers to get access to a lot of valuable data. While Discord claims it doesn’t sell user messages to third-party AI companies, by making a portion of this data indexable, nothing will stop them from scraping it.
These features arrive as Discord continues adjusting its privacy and access, following the recently added age verification system. Unfortunately, none offer a security/backup in case Discord closes one day, which would mean the loss of these resources.
