How to turn off Discord DMs
Preface
Scammers on Discord have been abusing the DMs feature to no end. Scammers are becoming harder and harder to identify as they become more innovative. One way to protect yourself from them is to disable DMs from strangers on Discord.
What Does Disabling DMs Do?
Disabling your DMs will remove the capability for other users to send you direct messages. This applies to spambots AND regular users. Discord allows you to modify your DMs on a per-server basis, but this article will disable them in EVERY server you are in to stop all DM spam completely. You can enable your DMs in servers you wish to receive DMs by adjusting your privacy settings in the target servers.
iOS
We will assume you are using an iPhone, but these steps should work on an iPad.
1.Select your profile at the bottom right of the screen. You can see your profile in various places across the app, including your DM list, mentions list, and more.
2. Select Privacy & Safety
3.Under the Server Privacy Defaults header, use the toggle to turn off the Allow direct messages from server members setting. The green should not show on the toggle to indicate the setting is OFF.
4. Select Yes to apply the setting to all of your existing servers. If you select No, it will only apply to future servers you join.
5. You're done.
Android
1.Select your profile at the bottom right of the screen. You can see your profile in various places across the app, including your DM list, mentions list, and more.
2. Select Privacy & Safety
3. Under the Server Privacy Defaults header, use the toggle to turn off the Allow direct messages from server members setting. The circle in the toggle should be positioned, hugging the left side to indicate the setting is OFF.
4. Select Yes to apply the setting to all of your existing servers. If you select No, it will only apply to future servers you join.
5. You're done.
Desktop
1.Select the gears setting button at the bottom of the Channel List panel towards the left side of the screen. The gears button will be on the far right.
2. Under the User Settings header, select Privacy & Safety
3.On the new page that displays on the right side, select the toggle for the Allow direct messages from server members setting under the Server Privacy Defaults header. Ensure the toggle displays an X (like the toggle for the feature pictured below, under the arrow) which indicates the feature is OFF.
4.Select Yes to apply the setting to all of your existing servers. If you select No, it will only apply to future servers you join.
5. You're done.
You now know how to disable direct messages from strangers, which will remove some headaches. Be careful with friend requests and any other strange behaviors you encounter, as Discord is filled with opportunistic scammers. Further readings: