You Can (Mostly) Block New Discord Ads
Traditionally, Discoord has no advertising, and the social application only benefits from this. Unlike Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), you can use Discord to chat with friends and follow members of your fandom or online community without an influx of pop-ups or user-unfriendly data collection policies.
Alas, as you may have read, that’s changing : Discord is now launching ” Sponsored Quests “, a new experience that developers can choose from that will subtly market their games to Discord users. They may not work exactly like traditional online advertising, but they are advertising. Luckily, there is a way to turn them off—for now.
What are Discord Sponsored Quests?
As Discord highlights in its announcement , Sponsored Quests are a way for PC gamers to earn rewards by live-streaming gameplay to friends or completing in-app activities. Developers can customize quests that Discord users can use. For example, last year, Epic Games and Lucasfilm Games launched quests for the May 4th Star Wars holiday : Fortnite players could earn both an in-game Fortnite headband and a Coruscant Pride headband by broadcasting their gameplay to a friend or by accessing the app on the Fortnite Discord server .
While this may seem harmless enough – don’t do the quest unless you want the in-game bonus – the bigger problem with quests is that Discord plans to use them as advertisements for games and use traditional internet advertising tactics. to deliver them to gamers . The company will provide pop-up quests to users based on their age and location, as well as their gaming habits. So when you see the Quest pop up in the bottom left corner of your Discord window, know that the app has decided to give you that particular quest based on that data.
How to disable Discord ads
Discord doesn’t make this clear, but there is a way to disable in-game reward advertising, as well as the tracking that goes with it. To get started, open Discord, then go to Settings > Privacy & Security . Here, turn off the toggle next to in-game rewards (also known as quests) .
However, you may still see quest ads even after you opt out. Specifically, you may encounter these pop-ups in your gift inventory or whenever a friend is currently interacting with one. Luckily, these days the escape room experience is generally quite non-invasive. Let’s hope it stays that way: few good places to hang out have disappeared on the Internet.