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Unlocking Discord‘s Hidden Developer Superpowers

Have you ever wanted to build a custom bot for your Discord server? Automate moderation tasks? Or dig into understanding how Discord works behind the scenes? Well my friend, you‘ve come to the right place. Developer mode opens up a world of possibilities!

But before we dive in, let me provide some background for context…

What Makes Discord So Popular?

As you probably know, Discord exploded from a plucky startup to one of the world‘s largest chat communities in just a few short years. Today over 150 million of us gather on Discord monthly to hang out and chat about our favorite games, hobbies, memes, and more.

Discord‘s slick mobile and desktop apps made it fast and fun to jump into voice, video, and text chats with friends and strangers alike. Servers and channels streamlined organizing large communities. Embeddable media, GIFs, and custom emoji helped us infuse our own personalities.

But underneath that glossy exterior lies a powerful platform brimming with technical capabilities. Capabilities I‘ll show you how to unlock…

Unlocking Developer Mode – What‘s Possible?

Enabling developer mode grants you under-the-hood access to Discord normally reserved only for building chat bots, apps, and integrations. With great power comes great responsibility.

Here‘s a taste of what you can do:

  • Inspect identifyers for users, messages, channels, and servers
  • View detailed event timestamps
  • Access debug logs to troubleshoot issues
  • Build and test Discord bot assistants
  • Integrate Discord with external applications
  • Analyze chat data and usage metrics
  • Automate moderation and other tasks
  • Customize Discord‘s interface and functionality

Let‘s get started…

Step 1: Open User Settings

First we need to open user settings to find the developer options.

On desktop, click the gear icon ⚙️.

On mobile, tap the hamburger menu ≡️ and choose User Settings.

User Settings:
    Desktop:  ⚙️  
    Mobile: ≡️ > User Settings

This opens the Discord settings page.

Desktop and mobile user settings

Step 2: Navigate to Advanced

In user settings, choose "Advanced" in the left sidebar.

Discord advanced settings

Here lies the magical developer mode toggle.

Step 3: Flip the Switch

Turn developer mode on by toggling the "Developer Mode" switch on.

Toggle Discord developer mode setting

Alright! 🎉 With developer mode activated, we gain access to under-the-hood Discord functionality.

Wielding Our Newfound Powers

With great power comes great responsibility. As Spiderman‘s uncle famously said:

"With great power there must also come—great responsibility!"

The same applies when accessing Discord‘s developer mode. We must use these elevated privileges judiciously and legally.

But enough lecturing. Let‘s discuss what we can do!

Inspecting Discord‘s DNA

Ever wonder how Discord organizes and identifies all our users, messages, channels and servers? Developer mode exposes this internal data DNA.

When you right click or long press on any Discord object, new options appear for copying identifying metadata:

  • User: Copy ID
  • Message: Copy ID + Timestamp
  • Channel: Copy ID
  • Server: Copy ID
ID Options Unlocked:

    User: 
        Copy ID

    Message:
        Copy ID
        Copy Timestamp   

    Channel:
        Copy ID

    Server:  
        Copy ID

Analyzing these IDs helps developers understand Discord‘s inner workings to build better integrations.

Time Travel 🔮

Discord‘s servers keep chat history so we can scroll back to past messages if we missed them.

Developer mode unveils exact millisecond timestamp data for each message behind the scenes:

Discord message timestamp

Why might timestamps matter? By tapping into message timing data, developers can analyze usage patterns. When are users most active on my community server? How quickly do moderators respond to rule breaking? How long do support conversations last?

Making New Chat Friends 🤖

One of the most popular uses of Discord developer mode is to build and test chat bots:

Discord bot example

These scripted bot assistants can welcome new members, moderate conversations, provide helpful information on demand, entertain with games, cat memes, and much more!

Bots run the gamut from simple single purpose tools to elaborate multi-function aides capable of complex interactions.Unlock advanced functionality like:

  • Send/receive messages
  • React to events
  • Integrate with external APIs
  • Analyze conversations
  • Automate tasks
  • Run apps, games, services!

Customizing Discord

Developer mode doesn‘t just unlock back-end capabilities. It also offers front-end UI customization via Advanced User Settings > Appearance:

Discord UI customization

Options include:

  • Timestamp format
  • Color theme
  • Debug log visibility
  • Notification customizations
  • Keyboard shortcut overrides

Experiment and tailor Discord‘s interface to match your preferences.

Through hands-on exploration, may you discover amazing ways to harness Discord‘s developer powers for good! Let me know what you end up creating.

Your partner in possibilities,

Steve

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