How to Use Keyboard Shortcuts on Discord & Create Custom Keybinds

Need to mute your mic? Answer that sudden call ASAP? Quickly edit the last message to fix that spelling mistake that no one would really notice, but you would? All doable with just a few key presses — no mouse needed! 

Keybinds & Keyboard shortcuts let you quickly access different functionality on the desktop app by pressing a few buttons at once! In this article, we’ll go over helpful built-in shortcuts for text and voice chat, how to make your own keybinds, and how one really helpful shortcut lets you breeze through Discord.

If you’re using the desktop client, you’ll be able to access these shortcuts even when Discord isn’t in focus. You can also use most of these on our web app using a desktop browser, but they won’t work if your web browser isn’t in focus. 

You type all your messages and replies with that new clicky keyboard of yours, so why should you use your mouse to go and edit it? Just keep using that keyboard and help break it in a bit more!

These keyboard shortcuts can help you quickly access ways to edit or reply to a message, add emojis and stickers, or pin a message to reference later on. 

• CTRL/CMD + E: Open the Emoji Picker 
• CTRL/CMD + S: Open the Sticker picker 
• CTRL/CMD + G: Open the GIF picker 
• CTRL/CMD + Shift + U: Attach a File to your message

• E or Up: Edit Last Message (E or Up)
• +: Add Reaction
• Backspace: Delete the message
• R: Reply to the message
• P: Pin the message
• F: Forward the selected message

Lastly, pressing the Up Arrow Key lets you quickly edit the last message you sent. Spelling error? idk what you mean.

Look — we love hearing your beautiful voice, but you’ve GOT to deal with how loud that clicky new keyboard of yours is. We’re sure it’s great for text chat, but not while in voice.

Thanks to a handful of voice-specific keyboard shortcuts built into Discord, you can mute your mic, deafen the audio of the call, or quickly answer a call at the press of a button. A few of them even let you access certain features without having Discord focused! 

The shortcuts below will always work on the desktop app, so if you ever have to use the Discord desktop app on a different computer, you’ll have something already familiar that you can use. 

• CTRL/CMD + Shift + M: Toggle Mute
• CTRL/CMD + Shift + D: Toggle Deafen

• CTRL/CMD + Return: Answer an Incoming Call
• ESC: Decline Call, in fear
• CTRL + ’: Call the DM you’re currently looking at.

• CTRL/CMD + Shift + Opt + V: Jump back to your call, wherever you are in-app.  
• CTRL/CMD + Shift + B: Open the Soundboard 

Your friends who play games late into the night might know some of these shortcuts like the back of their mousepads (actually, don’t look under those mousepads). But, if these are new to you, now you’ll be the one who bestows knowledge to your friends! Just… be sure to unmute your mic first.

Our built-in shortcuts are a great start to mastering the ways of the keyboard, but you can also set up keybinds tailored to your setup. Do you have one of those funky vertical split-keyboards or a really ᶦᵗᵗʸ ᵇᶦᵗᵗʸ ᵏᵉʸᵇᵒᵃʳᵈ that makes it tough to reach one of our built-in shortcuts? Set up your own! 

By heading into User Settings - Keybinds, you can set up custom your own keyboard shortcuts for a bunch of voice-focused actions, along with some navigation actions.

Some require you to just press your shortcut once, while others require you to hold the button down to do your action. We’ll organize ‘em by which ones are just a single press, and which ones are a hold! 

• Toggle Mute: Mutes your mic (duh). Press it again to unmute your mic! 
• Toggle Deafen: Silences ALL your call’s sounds and mutes your mic. Useful for when stepping away from your desk to fiddle with your clicky keyboard.
• Toggle VAD (Voice Activation Detection): Quickly switch between “Push to Talk” and “Voice Activation” modes while you’re on a voice call. 
• Toggle Streamer Mode: Hides personal info from being visible on your client, such as usernames. Helpful when you’re sharing your screen with friends (or to the world!). 
• Navigate Forward/Navigate Back: These act like your web browser’s “Back” and “Forward” buttons. If you forgot where you were just at, just press this keybind! 
• Switch to Voice Channel: Switch your desktop client to view the voice channel you’re in, no matter what part of Discord you’re currently looking at. 
• Disconnect from Voice Channel: Bye! *click*

• Push to Talk: Your mic will only send your voice when holding this shortcut down.
• Push to Mute: Your mic will be muted while you hold this shortcut down.
• Priority Push to Talk: Lowers the volume of others in the call as you talk. Use responsibly! 

Trying to figure out which ones to set up first? We’ve got a few ideas for you… check out this quick clip below to see what we think are some of the best to get set up: 

‍Keybinds make Discord so much more POWERFUL. - YouTube

Keybinds and keyboard shortcuts help you quickly access important functions without lifting your hands off your keyboard, but you can also navigate to any of your conversations with just your keyboard as well?! 

By pressing CTRL/CMD + K, you’ll see a text box pop up with a simple question: Where would you like to go? 

No, this isn’t some chatbot (thankfully) — this is the Quick Switcher. It’s a search bar for looking through nearly every chat you can access. From server channels to DMs and friends, type in ANYTHING and you’ll see the results for every server and conversation you’re in!

The text field is even pre-selected for you when you summon the Quick Switcher, so you can immediately start typing the name of where you want to go! 

If you have a specific server channel or DM you have in mind, you can add one of the following characters to the beginning of your search query and you’ll be able to narrow down to certain types of results: 

• @ -  search usernames of friends and mutual servers. (@Wumpus)
• # - search through the text channels in your servers. (#general-chat)
• ! - search through your server’s voice channels. (!voice-chat)‍
• * - search through your servers themselves. (*cool server)

If you ever space out and suddenly forget your favorite keyboard shortcut (don’t worry, we do that too), there’s something you gotta know: there’s an easy way to see all the keyboard shortcuts built into Discord!

By pressing CTRL/CMD + /, you can view a giant list of shortcuts on the fly, no matter where you are in the app. It looks like THIS:

There’s a LOT listed here and it’s always accessible with the press of a button, so there’s no need to memorize the whole thing. (But everyone will think you’re really cool if you do.)

After enough practice using keyboard shortcuts and setting up your own custom keybinds, speeding through Discord will be second nature to you! You won’t even think about using them, it’ll just happen. 

If you ever want to come back to this article quickly to reference or share it, press CTRL/CMD + D in most web browsers and you’ll save a bookmark for this blog post! Maybe it’s time to learn keyboard shortcuts in other apps, huh? 

Lastly, if you can think of anything that’s worthy of its own built-in keyboard shortcut or would be a good option to offer in the Keybinds menu, tell us over at our feedback forum! We’re always checking in on posts to see how we can improve the app.