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Discord

What's Now Playing supports two Discord modes, which can run simultaneously:

  • Bot Mode: A bot account joins your Discord server, updates its presence with the currently playing track, and can optionally post track announcements to a channel.
  • Rich Presence Mode: Updates your own Discord user's Rich Presence status via the Discord desktop app running on the same machine.

What's Now Playing Configuration

Discord settings in What's Now Playing

  1. Open Settings from the What's Now Playing icon
  2. Select Discord from the Streaming & Chat section
  3. Check Enable Bot Mode and/or Enable Rich Presence depending on which modes you want
  4. Fill in the fields for each enabled mode (see setup sections below)
  5. Set the Presence Template for the status text shown in Bot Mode presence and Rich Presence
  6. Click Save

Bot Mode Setup

Bot Mode connects a bot account to your Discord server and updates its presence with the currently playing track. If Twitch is also configured and enabled, the presence will show as a Twitch stream link.

Step 1: Go to the Discord Developer Portal

Go to https://discord.com/developers/applications. If this is your first time, you may see a "What brings you to the Developer Portal?" onboarding screen.

Discord developer portal onboarding

Select Build a Bot and click Continue to Portal.

Step 2: Create a New Application

Click New Application in the upper right corner.

Create a new app dialog

Give your application a name (e.g., wnpbot), agree to the Developer Terms of Service, and click Create. You may be asked to complete a CAPTCHA.

Step 3: Note Your Application ID

You will land on the General Information page.

Discord app general information

Copy the Application ID. You will need this for Rich Presence Mode. For Bot Mode only, you can skip this for now.

Step 4: Get a Bot Token

In the left sidebar, click Bot.

Discord app sidebar showing Bot option

Discord bot options

Click Reset Token. Discord will ask you to log in again to confirm. After authenticating, the token will be displayed once. Copy it immediately, as you cannot view it again without regenerating it. No privileged intents are required for What's Now Playing.

Step 5: Invite the Bot to Your Server

In the left sidebar, click Installation.

Discord installation page

Under Installation Contexts, make sure only Guild Install is checked (not User Install).

Under Default Install Settings → Guild Install, set the Scopes to include bot and set the following Permissions:

  • View Channels
  • Send Messages
  • Embed Links
  • Attach Files
  • Read Message History

Copy the Discord Provided Link and open it in a browser.

Discord add app dialog

Click Add to Server.

Discord add to server authorization

Select your server from the dropdown and click Authorize. You must have Manage Server permission in the server to add a bot.

Step 6: Configure What's Now Playing

Paste the bot token into the Bot Token field in What's Now Playing's Discord settings. Click Save and restart. The bot will appear in your server and begin updating its presence as tracks change.

Note: Discord enforces a rate limit on presence updates. What's Now Playing waits at least 20 seconds between updates to stay within this limit, so there may be a short delay before the bot's status reflects a new track. This is expected behavior.

Channel Posting

Bot Mode can post a track announcement to a Discord text channel each time a new track plays.

Setup

  1. Right-click the channel in Discord and select Copy Channel ID (Developer Mode must be enabled in Discord's Advanced settings)
  2. Paste the ID into the Channel ID field in What's Now Playing's Discord settings
  3. Optionally set a Channel Template for the message format. If left empty, the Presence Template is used
  4. To include cover art with each post, check Attach cover image to channel posts and set the Max size (px) for the image. The default is 200 px, which keeps file sizes small. The maximum is 500 px.
  5. Click Save

The bot must have Send Messages and Attach Files permissions in the target channel.

Rich Presence Mode Setup

Rich Presence Mode updates your own Discord status using the Discord desktop app running locally on the same machine. The Discord app must be running for Rich Presence to connect. If Discord is not running when What's Now Playing starts, it will retry the connection automatically every 20 seconds.

Step 1: Create an Application and Get a Client ID

Follow Steps 1–3 from Bot Mode above to create an application. The Application ID shown on the General Information page is your Client ID.

Step 2: Configure What's Now Playing

Paste the Application ID into the Client ID field in What's Now Playing's Discord settings. No bot token, no server invite, and no privileged intents are needed for Rich Presence Mode.

Click Save and restart What's Now Playing.

Note: Discord only allows one application to display Rich Presence at a time. If you are playing a game or running another app that also updates Rich Presence, What's Now Playing may be suppressed until the other application stops. Close any competing applications if Rich Presence is not appearing.

Note: Discord enforces a rate limit on presence updates. What's Now Playing waits at least 20 seconds between updates to stay within this limit, so there may be a short delay before your status reflects a new track. This is expected behavior.