Note:
- Keyboard Navigation is only available on the desktop and browser app. These navigation settings will not work in the mobile apps. 

Whether you rely on your keyboard to use your desktop, or you just don't feel like reaching for your mouse, Discord now has full keyboard navigation across the entire desktop app so that you can do what you need to in the way that works for you.

What does this article cover? 

• Getting Started with Keyboard Navigation
• Navigating Messages
  • Message Shortcut Keys List
• Section Jumping
• Other Resources on Shortcuts

Getting Around

Navigating Discord with a keyboard is based around two things: 

1. moving focus with the Tab key and the arrow keys, and 
2. interacting with elements with Enter and Spacebar.

To start navigating in Keyboard Mode, simply press Tab. 

Once you're in Keyboard Mode, you'll see a blue Focus Ring appear around the element that currently has focus. This ring will move around as you navigate.

For the most part, the Tab key will move you through everything in the app. Buttons, Links, and other interactive content is generally going to be part of the Tab order of the app, so if you can click it, you can probably Tab to it.

For everything else, arrow keys should get you around as you'd expect - list-like content such as the Guilds list, Channels, Messages, context menus, and more. 

Because these things can have hundreds of entries at a time, they often aren't included in the Tab order of the page, so if you see something that looks like a List, try the arrow keys.

Navigating Messages

Messages in Discord can be pretty complex. Sometimes there are just a few words, but other times there are user and channel mentions, links, images, videos, embeds, reactions, and a full list of actions you can take on each message.

To navigate through these messages, start by hitting the Tab key!
Then you can jump from one to the next with the arrow keys, and then move into the content of a message with Tab. 

Message Shortcut Keys List

With so many actions to take on messages, there are also a number of dedicated shortcut keys to make things quicker. When you focus on a specific message in Keyboard Mode and you have your blue ring highlighting the message you’d like to interact with, you can use the following shortcuts below!

Moving Faster - Section Jumping

There's a lot of stuff in Discord. If you've got a lot of messages, holding the Tab key to try to get around will quickly get cumbersome. 

To make this easier and to help you get around faster, you can use Section Jumping to immediately move between the large sections of the app.

While in Keyboard Mode, pressing F6 will immediately move your focus to the start of the next section in the app (and pressing Shift+F6 will move you backwards through the sections instead).

For example, if you're focused on a Channel in the Channel List, pressing F6 will take you directly to the Messages section, and pressing it again will take you to the Channel Members, or, if you have an active Search open, to the Search results.

In the server view, the sections you can jump between are: 

• the Server list
• the Channel list
• Messages
• the Member’s List

As a reminder on what shortcuts you can use for Section Jumping, check out this table below: 

Even Quicker with Shortcuts

Discord also supports keyboard shortcuts. Jumping between guilds or unread channels, using the Inbox, and opening the Quick Switcher. All of these have worked for years! 

And you can now more easily find a reference for everything that's available in the User Settings→Keybinds section.

If you’re interested in learning more about all the possible hotkeys - check out this link for Mac users and this link for Windows users!