Discord Privileged Intents: Presence, Members and Message Content

The three intents

1. Presence: whether members are online, idle or offline, plus their activity status.
2. Server members: member join and leave events and the full member list. Needed for welcome messages, verification and auto roles.
3. Message content: the actual text, embeds and attachments of messages. Needed to read prefix commands and for anything that scans text.

Without message content, a bot still receives messages that mention it, direct messages and its own messages, plus interactions such as slash commands. This is why modern bots lean on slash commands.

How approval works

For a bot in fewer than 100 servers, you simply tick the toggle on the bot's page in the Developer Portal. When a bot reaches 100 servers, Discord requires verification of the bot, and the privileged intents then need approval with a stated reason. Without it, the bot loses them. Discord decides on a case by case basis, so a clear explanation of the feature that needs the data helps.

If a bot connects asking for a privileged intent it has not enabled, Discord closes the connection with error 4014. That is a frequent cause of a bot going offline right after being set up. See the 4014 explanation.

Why server owners care

These intents are the part of a bot that touches your members' data. Message content is the one worth thinking about: a bot that reads messages can filter spam and links, but also sees everything said where it has access. You can limit that by denying the bot View Channel in private areas.

It also affects reliability. A bot that loses an approved intent can quietly stop welcoming members or enforcing rules.

Noxyr and privileged intents

For a Noxyr custom bot using your own application, the setup requires the Server Members Intent and Message Content Intent to be switched on in the Developer Portal. Noxyr's features that rely on them include welcome messages, verification and anti-spam. Read the full guide to privileged gateway intents, and see the broader idea in gateway intents.

Check before you install a bot

Ask which privileged intents a bot uses and what for. A music bot rarely needs presence data, and a poll bot rarely needs to read all messages. If the answer is vague, pick another bot.