Discord started in 2015 as a useful tool for the gaming community to make chatrooms online and filled the void of a VoIP service left out by many popular multiplayer games. However, over the past two years, Discord has grown to accommodate a wider range of consumers and has over 150 million monthly active users who created over 19 million active servers.

As the community grows, so does the disconcert, and Discord is no stranger to that fact. Keeping that in mind, Discord offers a way to block others on the platform; however, the feature has garnered a lot of criticism for allowing those blocked to access the other person’s profile.

Here we’ve discussed what exactly happens when you block someone on Discord and the additional safety measures to ensure that a person who isn’t on your friend’s list and is blocked by you has minimal access to your profile, if at all.

Also read: How to create a Discord bot?

What does blocking someone on Discord do?

When you block someone on Discord, they won’t be able to see your Online Status. They’ll still be able to see your past messages and message you. But you won’t receive the message body, just a notification indicating the number of messages you’ve received from the person you blocked — X Blocked Messages.

If you want to, you can also bring Discord’s attention to a harasser or bully by reporting them. Check out our guide to report a user, server or DM on Discord.

Also read: Why is my Discord overlay not working?

Tips for a safer Discord experience

Members of a Discord server can DM each other freely. So, if you want to block DMs from people who aren’t your friends on a server, go to the privacy settings and disable the Allow direct messages from server members option.

You can also use Discord’s Safe Direct Messaging feature via the Privacy & Safety settings. Choose one of the following options to filter your message before they land in your inbox. This ensures you don’t receive any explicit media from anyone, including your friends.

• Keep me safe: Discord will scan all images sent in all of your DMs, including those from your friends and server members. Any explicit media will be blocked.
• My friends are nice: Discord will scan images sent by people who aren’t in your friends list.
• Do no scan: Discord won’t scan any images in your DMs.

Lastly, you could also limit who can send you a friend request in Discord via Settings. If you don’t want random strangers to be sending you friend requests, then disable the Everyone toggle. Same goes for Friends of Friends and Server Members.

Also read: How to fix ‘Discord notifications not working’ error?