Discord: activate overlay - so it'll work
By activating the Discord overlay, you can also see in the game which of your friends is currently speaking and whether your own microphone is making any sound. Here in the practical tip you will learn how to set this up.
Where can I activate the Discord overlay?
By activating the Discord Overlay you will see in-game the avatars of the friends with whom you are in a language channel. While someone is not speaking, the avatar is either grayed out or disappears. The overlay can be easily configured in the Discord desktop application in the settings.
- First start Discord.
- At the bottom left you can see your name and avatar. Click the gear icon on the right side of the window to open the user settings.
- Then select "Overlay" in the "App settings" area.
- Slide the slider at the top of "Enable Overlay" to the right to turn it on.
- On the right you can define a key combination for switching the overlay on and off. This is useful when the overlay hides key in-game ads.
- You can make further settings below this.
The overlay doesn't work: common causes
If you have activated the Discord overlay as described above, but you don't see it, there are three typical problems:
- You may have to call up the overlay once when you start the game with the key combination so that it will always be displayed in the future.
- The firewall could incorrectly classify the overlay as a threat and therefore block it. You may even see this as an error message. Adding an exception to your firewall will solve the problem.
- Not only the firewall, but also your antivirus can block Discord. Again, you can add the program as an exception and activate the Discord overlay.