Multiplayer battle games are certainly exciting, but they can also be stressful at times, especially when you’re playing with your friends and everyone’s trying to coordinate their moves.
The thing is, it’s easy for a person to miss a key piece of information that could make or break the match in multiplayer battle games.
Moreover, if it’s your responsibility to coordinate everyone else’s actions, it’s even more important for you to know what they’re doing at all times – and that’s where Discord AFK Channels come in handy.
With these channels in your server, you can see who is currently active in the voice channel and who hasn’t made any actions in a while.
Therefore, the next time you’re playing a game with your friends and one of your teammates is away from the keyboard for a while, you’ll know immediately – no more wondering who disappeared.
This guide will serve as an all-in-one resource to help you know everything about Discord AFK channels so you can start using the feature immediately on your own server.
AFK Channel On Discord – What Is It?
The term AFK stands for “Away From Keyboard” and is mainly used by gamers who want to describe a member who’s active on Discord but hasn’t done any activity for a while. It’s almost like a voice channel, except for the fact that the people who are moved here after being inactive for a certain time are muted.
Adding an AFK channel to your Discord server is quite easy and can be done with just a few easy steps. You can even control how long someone needs to stay in the AFK channel before being transferred to the voice channel again.
That being said, let’s now proceed with how to create an AFK channel for the servers you own or moderate.
How To Make An AFK Channel On Your Discord Server?
To make an AFK channel on Discord, you need to access it through the web or Desktop version. Once you’ve logged in to the platform on your preferred device, follow the steps given below:
- On the top left corner of your screen, click on the arrow next to the name of the server you own or moderate, to reveal a dropdown menu
- Choose the “Server Settings” option from the dropdown menu
- Only if you have administrative privileges on the server, you can see the “Overview” section
- Locate the “Inactive Channel” section and click on the dropdown underneath
- You should consider making a new channel and naming it AFK or anything else
- Then, select the respective channel on the dropdown menu from the “Server Settings” menu
- Now, under the “Inactive Timeout” section, choose how long someone would be AFK to be shifted on this channel
And that’s it! Just make sure you don’t forget to click on the “Save Changes” button and you’re good to go. You’ve successfully made an AFK channel on your Discord server.
How To Make A Discord AFK Channel Mobile Application?
You can also create an AFK channel on your server through Discord’s mobile application on both your Android and iOS devices. Here’s how:
- Firstly, click on the three dots next to the name of your server
- As long as you have administrative privileges for the server, you should see a cog icon labeled as Settings. Click on it
- Then, click on Settings > Overview
- Scroll down to find the “Inactive Settings” section
- Tap on the “No Inactive Channel” option to reveal the list of voice channels available on your server
- In case you haven’t already created an AFK channel separately, go back one step and choose the “Create Channel” option
- You can give a desired name to the channel. Just make sure you keep the “Private Channel” box unchecked, otherwise, users won’t be shifted automatically there
- Once done, return to Server Settings > Overview > Inactive Settings, and choose the new voice channel that you just created
- Choose your desired timeout before someone is moved to the AFK channel
Now, just make sure to hit the save button and your AFK channel will be up and running. Now let’s discuss certain other things about the Discord AFK channel.
Reasons Why You Need An AFK Channel On Your Discord Server
Now when you know how you can create an AFK Channel on your Discord server, let’s discuss why you need one in the first place. There can be many benefits of having one such channel on your Discord server, such as:
Freeing Up Queue For Others
As you may already know, Discord has a limit on how many members can join the voice chat in a single session.
Players who are inactive might be occupying the space unnecessarily, and the AFK channel ensures that active players can join the voice chat while inactive ones are transferred to the AFK channel to free up some space.
Automatically Mute Inactive Users
The best thing about AFK voice channels is that it automatically mutes the users who are moved to this channel, as long as you haven’t set it as private.
Users can also join this channel themselves when they aren’t available. This will not only ensure that the rest of the team can coordinate better, but also serves as a better way to know when they’ll be back.
Notify Others About Your Unavailability With Discord AFK Bots
Some Discord bots allow you to let others know you’re away from your computer by setting a custom status message. Dyno bot’s AFK module and AFK bot are two ways that you can add this functionality to your Discord server.
In Dyno AFK, for example, you can use the ?afk command to indicate that you are going off-line. Dyno will add “[AFK]” at the beginning of your nickname (if it has permission to) and send an away message to anyone who attempts to mention you.
What To Do If Your Discord AFK Channel is Not Working?
Sometimes, the AFK channel might not be able to put inactive people away. In case that happens to you, here’s what you should consider doing to fix the issue:
- You might have your mic or headphones turned on that may have caught some noise and assumed you’re still active in the voice chat. So, in case you have to go AFK, consider muting your microphone first.
- If any member of the voice chat is using Discord in a voice browser, they won’t be shifted to the AFK channel. The feature works only on the Discord mobile and PC applications.
- The AFK timer only starts when the Windows is in the locked state, which means if a member’s Windows is still on, they won’t be transferred to the AFK channel.
So, the next time you encounter any problems with the AFK channel on your Discord server, make sure you look out for the aforementioned things.
Final Words
We hope this article encourages you to take a closer look at Discord and the functionality it offers.
From the tools on offer to the communities fostering themselves within, there are countless reasons why you might want to make use of Discord.
Hopefully, we can help you do so with confidence.
