Message Requests are turned on for everyone. If you're in the teen age group or are unconfirmed, all direct messages from people you're not friends with go to a separate message requests inbox, so you can review them before they appear in your main DM list, and you can't turn this setting off until you confirm you're an adult.
Once you’re in the adult age group, you can turn off Message Requests. If a user in the adult age group has Message Requests turned on, they will still have messages from non-friends routed to the message requests inbox, unless they share a mutual friend or a small server with the sender.
DM spam filters are set to “"filter all”". Spam filtering is applied to all incoming DMs. This is a default setting that can be adjusted at any time.
What this article covers:
What do Message Requests look like?
To view Message Requests on the desktop or web browser client, you can select your Home tab and find the folder located in the image below:
Message Requests On Desktop
From this tab, you’ll be able to view user profiles to check shared servers, and accept or ignore Message Requests. While it isn’t possible to retrieve ignored requests, people will be able to resend Message Requests to your account depending on your Server Settings and your User Settings > Content & Social > Message requests settings.
Message Requests Setting in Server Settings
Message Requests limit what content you can see before you accept the message request in order to respond. You can preview a message in Message Requests, but images or other files will not be visible or accessible and any links will be shown as plain text that can’t be selected.
Message Requests Settings in User Settings
Note: The Message Requests tab will only display if there is at least one pending request. All Message Requests will display a notification badge on the client.
What is the Spam Folder?
To view your Spam folder, select the Spam tab inside the Message Requests view.
Spam Tab in Message Requests
From this tab, you’ll be able to view user profiles to check shared servers, and accept or report spam folder message requests. You may also preview and ignore messages by selecting the message itself.
Preview for a Message Requests
Message Requests on Mobile
On your mobile device, you can tap into your DMs and find a tab labeled Message Requests if you have at least one request pending. This will pull up a view listing the requests you’ve received.
You’ll be able to both view user profiles and choose between accepting or declining requests on your mobile app, as shown below:
Direct Messages Tab > Message Requests Tab on Mobile
Preview Enabled (Left) & Preview Disabled (Right)
Message Requests for the Teen Age Group
As part of our additional teen safety protections, Message Requests are turned on for teens automatically. This helps screen out unwanted DMs by routing messages from people teens don't share a server or friend connection with into a separate inbox, so they can decide whether to accept them.
Users need to be in the adult age group to turn Message Requests off. You can check your age group status under User Settings > Account Status.
If your age group is incorrect or you are unconfirmed, you can confirm your age group. Find more detailed instructions here.
How To Turn Message Requests Off
To turn this feature off for a particular server, navigate to the Server dropdown menu > Select Privacy Settings > Toggle off “Message Requests”:
Message Requests Disabled
This means that, unless restricted by Server Settings or your User Settings > Messaging Permissions > Direct Message (DM) Permissions settings, messages sent from other members of that server will automatically populate in your DM list.
You can also toggle your global message request setting in User Settings > Messaging Permissions l, as shown in the screenshot below.
Managing Direct Messages: Controlling Who Can Contact You
When a teen receives direct messages (DMs) from a sender for the first time, Discord will detect if a safety alert should be sent to the teen for this DM. If detected, Discord will notify the teen with a safety alert encouraging them to double check if they want to reply, and will provide links to block the user or view more safety tips to safeguard themselves. Learn more about this experience here.