Starting in mid-December, messages from specific Discord servers will begin appearing in web search results. This new feature, which Discord is implementing to help communities find each other and users find answers to their questions, affects public servers with over 1,000 members that do not require an invite to join. These are referred to as "discoverable" servers.
Discord has stated that administrators of these discoverable servers can select which channels will be included in search results before the feature launches. The company also noted that only messages from adult accounts will be searchable. Furthermore, individual users who are members of a discoverable server can opt out of having their messages appear in search results through their privacy settings. Direct messages, private servers, and group DMs will not be affected by this change.
The stated intention behind this feature is to make the vast knowledge bases within large, public Discord communities more accessible. Discord offered an example of a user searching for information about a video game and potentially finding an answer posted in that game's official Discord server. This move aims to replicate the role that traditional forums once played in archiving specialized information, potentially reducing the repetition of frequently asked questions within servers.
While the feature is opt-out by default for servers, individual users can choose to opt out of being searchable. Discord's announcement emphasizes its goal of helping people connect and find information more easily.