Social Media
Effective ways to Block Discord
Learn techniques to block the Discord App and website on your devices
While some people might decide to deactivate their Discord account and uninstall the app from their phone and computer, a better approach is to block discord. By blocking discord, you could consider limiting when it can be accessed or which devices it can be accessed on or block it completely in a way that is harder to bypass.
Some Tech Lockdown members report that Discord can be a stumbling block towards their mission of breaking unhealthy addictions on the internet. Furthermore, Discord is an application that parents commonly need to restrict for their children.
As a result, we suggest a few strategies for dealing with Discord, including:
- Scheduling when Discord can be used and which devices it can be accessed from.
- Combining Discord Parental controls with scheduling when it is unblocked.
- Blocking Discord using your Home Router and also directly on devices it can be accessed on.
Scheduling when Discord can be Accessed
Before you block Discord entirely, you might consider scheduling when it can be accessed and also utilizing Discord's parental controls .
Although the provided parental controls are pretty limited, it can be a step in the right direction when combined with scheduling.
You can use a DNS Filtering Content Policy to schedule when Discord should be blocked and this will apply to both the Discord app and Discord accessed through a web browser.
One of the main benefits of using a DNS Filter Content Policy to schedule Discord access is that you can install it on many types of devices.
- Home Router / Home Wifi. Schedule when Discord can be accessed on all devices using your home internet connection.
- Smartphone App. You can schedule Discord usage on a smartphone by downloading an app that ensures your schedule is still enforced even when your WiFi is off and you are using 4g/5g internet.
- Computer Application. Similar to the smartphone, Windows and Mac computers can install a program that keeps you always connected to your Content Policy .
Discord is commonly used alongside PC gaming, so it's commonly accessed from a Windows computer. A computer would use the home ethernet connection or Wifi, meaning that connecting your Home Router to your DNS Filter Content Policy would be one way to block it on computer as well. You might also consider scheduling internet shut off times at night to further hone in your blocking system.
You can use a DNS Filtering Content Policy with a scheduled rule to decide when Discord is allowed or blocked.
For example, I update my Tech Lockdown Content Policy to give myself a 30 minute window at lunch where I can use distracting websites and apps:
You can schedule access to the discord app as well by selecting Discord as part of your block rule:
This rule is commonly combined with a rule that blocks the entire internet at night :
If you are scheduling your own usage of Discord, bypass prevention is an important point to consider. Otherwise, it's easy to develop a habit of compulsively adjusting your Discord block schedule until you eventually don't block it at all.
To keep myself from adjusting my Content Policy rule schedule, I lock my Tech Lockdown profile .
Locking a profile is a core part of the Tech Lockdown blocking system since we are focused on helping people break compulsive habits.
Block Discord Entirely
When dealing with addicting apps like Discord, we've realized that a multi-layered blocking approach is often necessary.
This makes blocking harder to bypass and can help deter compulsive use.
In most cases, the first layer of blocking the Discord app and website will be more than enough for most people. However, you might decide to combine Layer 1 and Layer 2 for a more effective Blocking System .
Layer 1: Using a DNS Filter to Block Discord Entirely
Just like we talked about earlier, you can use a DNS Filter Content Policy to block discord entirely.
This time, however, we won't assign a schedule to the block rule because we want to block it always.
The first thing is to create a Block Rule and find the Discord App
Some people might be tempted to just block the discord.com domain. However, the Discord Desktop app and mobile app use many different URLs to function properly.
These are the DNS addresses Discord uses:
discord.com discordapp.com discord.gg discord.app.com discordapp.net
However, using the Tech Lockdown Content Policy to block the Discord app will automatically block all associated DNS hostnames that Discord uses. If discord changes these addresses in the future, you won't have to worry about updating your rule to include them.
Once you create this block rule, you should start off by connecting the computer or smartphone directly to your Content Policy.
There are a few ways to do this, but the easiest way is to simply install the app and allow that to configure your device's settings to point to your Content Policy.
Layer 1: Configuring a Home Router to Block Discord
Although Discord is commonly accessed on a computer, you can block discord on a windows or mac computer by pointing your home router to your DNS Content Policy .
Since your home router provides the internet connection that a computer's ethernet cable or Wifi connection uses, filtering content on your router should also filter on the connected devices.
Another benefit to configuring your router to block discord is that you can also use this same method to automatically turn off your Wifi at night .
To get started, you have to login to your router. The login instructions are on the backside or bottom sticker of your router.
Then point the DNS settings to the same ones used by the DNS Filtering service you use. If you need more help with this, follow our DNS Filtering home router instructions .
Layer 2: Block Discord on a Windows or Mac Computer
In addition to Layer 1 DNS Filtering, another Discord blocking method is to use the Hosts File to block the Discord hostnames. The Host File is a file on a computer that can be used to change how the computer interacts online.
Using the Host File method , add these Discord DNS entries to block the app and website on a computer:
0.0.0.0 discord.com 0.0.0.0 discordapp.com 0.0.0.0 discord.gg 0.0.0.0 discord.app.com 0.0.0.0 discordapp.net
The hosts file is fairly limited and inflexible on its own, so we recommend combining with Layer 1.
This would give you several ways that the Discord app and website is blocked, which is much harder to bypass:
- Update your Content Policy to block Discord, then install on either your Router or Computer (or both!)
- Add the Hosts file entries to block Discord domains
Layer 2: Block Discord on a Smartphone
To benefit from Layer 1 DNS Filtering when a smartphone is used away from home, you should get started by following our instructions for direct installation on Android or iOS .
This ensures that the block rule that you created previously works when the smartphone is not using Wifi, using a different Wifi connection, or connecting to the internet using 4g/5g.
Additionally, Smartphones have built-in options that give you some basic control over blocking apps like Discord in a way that works alongside Layer 1.
For example, you can use the iPhone's Web Content Filter to add the DNS addresses that the Discord app (accessed in the browser) depends on:
discord.com discordapp.com discord.gg discord.app.com discordapp.net
This would block the browser version of Discord, which is commonly used when the app is blocked on a smartphone.
These hostnames would be added to the Never Allow list.
Android also has some decent blocking apps that you can download from the app store that do the same thing as Screen Time, but it lacks a good built-in equivalent to screen time.
You could also specify Discord App time limits:
If you want to block it entirely on the iPhone, with Apple Screen Time , you can toggle off the Discord app if it is installed on the device:
You could go a step further and prevent installing new apps if Discord isn't installed and you want to prevent it from being installed from the iPhone App Store:
The downside of this approach is that now all app downloads are prevented.
Screen Time caveat
However, these Layer 2 methods are quite easy to bypass and are limited on their own. They are best used when combined with Layer 1 Discord blocking.
If you wanted to go further with Layer 2, a more effective way to block apps natively on Android and iOS is to set up Device Management.
Mobile Device Management lets you create app blocklists on your Android or iOS smartphone in a way that is hard to bypass.
Furthermore, you can even prevent installing apps that aren't specifically on your whitelist.
This is a highly restrictive approach and one of the reasons why we are big advocates for Device Management on iOS and Android.
Going Further with Bypass Prevention
When it comes to dealing with addictive apps like Discord and the subsequent bad habits, I've found that a Blocking System that considers multiple factors is a better approach.
Here's what I mean by that:
- Content Blocking is fairly easy to bypass, especially if you are self-managing.
- Some people are highly motivated to get around blockers to access addictive content and this creates challenges for any blocking system.
In order to add significant friction to help break compulsive behaviors, I've written a definitive guide that goes through concepts like the following:
- Go much further with bypass prevention using device management techniques to enforce restrictions on a device.
- Increasing accountability and browsing transparency
- Preventing uninstall of apps and browsers extensions
- Handling common bypass methods
These step-by-step instructions are made available to Tech Lockdown members in your account dashboard in the guides section.