How To Turn Off Discord Overlay in Games? [2024 Update]

While Discord Overlay can enrich your gaming experience, it isn’t suited for everyone. Constantly getting hit with notifications and messages can distract and interrupt your gaming sessions. In this article, we will be breaking down how to turn off Discord Overlay on your computer by following quick and simple steps. So let’s jump in!

What is Discord Overlay

Discord Overlay is a helpful feature that allows you to quickly bring up your Discord while playing games even if you are in fullscreen. The Discord window appears as a transparent window over your games, allowing you to keep an eye on your chats while also giving you the option to pin them.

Gamers can trigger the overlay using a customizable shortcut and can personalize the overlay’s appearance according to their liking.

READ MORE: Discord Kick vs Ban: What is the Actual Difference? [2024] ➜

Should You Disable Discord Overlay?

While disabling Discord Overlay is a matter of personal preference some users find the feature distracting. On top of that, using it can also lead to slight performance issues such as FPS drops as it uses your system’s visual processing power and adds load to your GPU.

So if you are on a computer with lower specifications, disabling Discord Overlay can help you achieve a smoother gameplay experience. However, if you are someone who relies on communicating with your team during gaming sessions and have a high-end computer, letting it on might be the best option.

READ MORE: How to Fix Discord’s High CPU Usage Problem? ➜

How to Enable Discord Overlay

Before jumping into disabling the Discord Overlay feature, we’ll take things step by step and first learn how to enable it when playing games. Here’s a detailed guide to enabling the Discord Overlay.

1. Click on the gear icon to open up User Settings.
   

   

2. From here, scroll down and click on Game Overlay under the Activity Settings tab.
   

   

3. Finally, toggle on the button next to the Enable in-game overlay option. 
   

   

Once you have enabled overlay, you can also set a custom keyboard shortcut to trigger the overlay whenever you want. Additionally, you can also customize the overlay with options such as Avatar size, Display names, display user, and even the position of notifications.

↪ Using Discord Overlay When Gaming

As and when you enable Discord Overlay, you should start receiving notifications which you can expand using the toggle overlay lock. If the overlay isn’t showing up on your game, you can head to the Registered Games tab and check if the overlay is toggled on by clicking the monitor next to it. You can also manually add games by clicking on the Add it option.

READ MORE: [FIX]Discord’s Voice Chat and Overlay Stops Working in Games ➜

How to Disable Discord Overlay

Now that you have a feel of what using Discord Overlay is like, let’s look at the method to disabling it if you don’t find it that helpful. When disabling the Discord Overlay you have two different options; the first one is entirely disabling it and the second one is to disable it for specific games. Let’s break both of them individually.

1. Disable Discord Overall From Everywhere

If Discord Overall is causing performance issues when playing games, you can entirely disable it by following these steps:

1. Head to the User Settings tab and click on Game Overlay.
   
   

   

2. From here, simply toggle off the button next to “Enable in-game overlay” and you are good to go.
   

   

READ MORE: How to Disable Discord Super Reactions on Mobile & PC ➜

2. Disable Discord Overall for Specific Games

Disabling Discord Overall for specific games can be a great way to keep the feature away from games where notifications can cause interruptions.

1. Open up your User Settings and navigate to the Registered Games tab.
   

   

2. Under the Added Games section look for your game and click on the monitor icon next to it. As it turns red, the overlay should now be disabled from your game.
   

   

READ MORE: What is a Discord Kitten and How to Become One? [2024] ➜

Bonus: Troubleshooting Discord Overlay Not Working

When you go through the process of enabling and disabling the Discord Overlay, it’s common that issues can arise such as Discord Overlay not working. If that’s the case, you can try out a few troubleshooting methods to fix the issue right away.

1. Run Discord as an Admin

Running apps as an admin gives them the ability to modify settings. While it’s not recommended to run apps as Admin as it gives the program complete control over whatever necessary settings, they want you can give it a shot to see if it fixes your problem.

2. Turn off Discord Hardware Acceleration

Hardware Acceleration allows apps to take advantage of your computer hardware to perform functions more efficiently. However, it can also cause performance issues in older computers which can affect the overlay. For a smoother experience, you can disable hardware acceleration by following these steps:

1. Click on the gear icon to open up User Settings.
   

   

2. From here navigate to the App Settings tab and click on Advanced.
   

   

3. Finally, toggle off the button next to Hardware Acceleration and your Discord will perform a quick restart.
   

   

READ MORE: Disable or Enable Hardware Acceleration in Web Browers ➜

3. Reinstall the Discord App

If the above methods don’t work, you can try reinstalling the Discord app to clean up corrupted files. You can also contact Discord support if the issues persist.

READ MORE: How to Fix Discord Overlay Not Working While Playing Games? ➜

Wrapping Up

While Discord Overlay can make it easier for gamers to communicate without having to switch to different windows it can also be a bit distracting for some. After reading our article, we hope you are now equipped enough to disable or enable the Discord Overlay according to your needs and preferences. Happy Gaming!