Discord Privileged Intents Wiki: What They Are & Why Bots Need Them
Discord bots can access different types of information depending on the permissions and intents they use.
Some of the most important are called Privileged Intents.
They give bots access to sensitive or larger amounts of gateway data, which is why Discord treats them differently from standard intents.
What Are Privileged Intents?
Privileged Intents allow an application to receive certain categories of information from Discord's Gateway.
The main privileged intents are:
- Guild Members
- Guild Presences
- Message Content
These can be extremely useful for bots.
But they also come with additional requirements.
Why Do Bots Need Them?
Different bots need different information.
A moderation bot may need access to member information.
A community bot may need message content to process commands.
A role or activity bot might rely on member or presence information.
The important thing is to only request what the bot actually needs.
More access isn't automatically better.
The 10,000 Member Milestone
One important milestone for Discord bots is reaching 10,000 servers.
At this point, Discord can require an app to go through a review process for continued use of privileged intents.
This is exactly the kind of situation growing bots need to prepare for.
If Discord sends a review notification, developers should pay attention to the deadline rather than waiting until the last minute.
What Happens If You Don't Complete the Review?
If the required review isn't completed successfully, Discord can restrict an application's continued use of privileged intents.
That can affect features that depend on those intents.
For a growing bot, this can become a serious technical problem.
Imagine having thousands of servers using your bot and suddenly losing access to data required for one of its core features.
That's why developers should plan for the review before reaching the milestone.
Best Practices for Developers
Keep your bot's access as limited as possible.
Before submitting a review:
- Check which intents the bot actually uses
- Remove unnecessary permissions
- Make sure the privacy policy is accurate
- Review your bot's functionality
- Test features that depend on privileged intents
- Keep your developer information updated
And most importantly:
Don't wait until the deadline.
FAQ
What are Discord Privileged Intents?
They are special Gateway intents that provide access to certain categories of Discord data.
What are the three privileged intents?
Guild Members, Guild Presences and Message Content.
Why does Discord review some bots?
Discord uses additional requirements for apps that reach certain levels of distribution and use privileged data.
What happens at 10,000 servers?
Applications using privileged intents can be required to undergo review for continued access.
