How to Spoiler Text on Discord (Plus Strikethrough and More)

Nothing kills the buzz in a fan server faster than someone blurting out the ending of a show the night it drops. Discord's answer is the spoiler tag: a grey box that hides your words until a reader chooses to click. I love it for community managers too, because it lets people talk freely about a launch, a quiz answer or a competition result without ruining it for anyone who's catching up.

Below you'll find every way Discord's own help pages describe for hiding text, images and links, how to switch spoilers off for yourself, and a quick tour of the rest of Discord's chat formatting, including strikethrough. I've described each symbol in words, so you'll know exactly which keys to press.

Spoiler text on Discord with the eye icon on desktop

This is the easiest route if you're on the desktop app or using Discord in a browser.

1. Type your message in the chat box as normal.
2. Highlight the words you want to hide with your mouse.
3. A small formatting toolbar pops up above the text. Click the eye icon.
4. Press Enter to send. The highlighted part now shows as a dark box until someone clicks it.

You can hide a single word, one sentence or the whole message. Only the part you highlight gets covered, so you can leave the context visible, for example "The twist in episode 6 is" followed by a hidden reveal.

Typing spoiler text on Discord by hand with vertical bars

If you'd rather keep your hands on the keyboard, you can type the spoiler markers yourself. Put two vertical bars (the pipe key, usually above Enter or next to the left Shift key) straight before the hidden words, and another two vertical bars straight after them, with no spaces between the bars and the text.

So a message would read: two vertical bars, the secret part, then two more vertical bars. Discord's Spoiler Tags help article shows exactly this pattern, and it works on phones and computers alike. On a phone keyboard, the vertical bar usually sits on the second or third symbols page.

Using the spoiler command for a whole Discord message

When the entire message is a spoiler, there's an even quicker option. Type a forward slash followed by the word spoiler at the very start of the chat box, pick the spoiler command from the list that appears, then type your message. Discord sends the whole thing hidden. It's a handy habit for anyone posting quiz answers in a members' channel, because you don't need to remember where the bars go.

Hiding spoiler text on Discord from your phone

On mobile, the steps depend a little on your device. Discord's help article describes this route for iPhone and iPad:

1. Type your message in the chat box.
2. Press and hold on a word, then drag the handles to select the text you want to hide.
3. Open the context menu that appears and choose Mark as Spoiler.
4. Send the message.

On Android, menus vary by app version, so if you don't see Mark as Spoiler, use the vertical bars method or the spoiler command instead. Both work on every version of the app.

Marking images, files and links as spoilers on Discord

Words aren't the only thing you can hide. According to Discord's help centre:

• Images and files: add the attachment to your message, then click the eye icon labelled Mark as Spoiler on the attachment before you send. The picture shows blurred until someone clicks it.
• Links: put two vertical bars before the link and two after it. This works the same way on mobile.
• Server invites: these are the exception. Discord says invite embeds can't be hidden with spoiler tags.

For creators sharing sneak peeks or behind-the-scenes shots with a paying community or a launch team, a spoilered image is a neat way to build a bit of suspense in the channel.

Strikethrough on Discord and other markdown shortcuts

Discord uses a simple formatting language called markdown, and its Markdown Text 101 help article lists the shortcuts. Strikethrough is the one people ask about most. To cross words out, put two tildes (the squiggly line key, often next to the number 1 or on the hash key) before the text and two tildes after it. The words appear with a line through them, which is great for jokey corrections or ticking things off a shared to-do list.

Effect	What you type either side of the text
Spoiler	Two vertical bars
Strikethrough	Two tildes
Bold	Two asterisks
Italics	One asterisk or one underscore
Underline	Two underscores

A few more from the same article work at the start of a line rather than around words. One, two or three hash symbols plus a space make a big, smaller or smaller still header. A dash, a hash and a space make small grey subtext. A greater-than sign and a space turn the line into a quote, and three greater-than signs quote everything after them. You can also turn words into a clickable masked link by putting the words in square brackets and the web address in round brackets right after.

You can mix these, so a spoiler can also be bold. If your group also uses WhatsApp, its formatting rules are different, and I've covered those in my guide to highlighting text in WhatsApp chats.

Why your Discord spoiler text isn't hiding

If the box doesn't appear, check these first:

• It's inside a code block. Discord's help says text marked as a spoiler inside a code block won't be hidden. Take it out of the code formatting.
• The bars aren't touching the text. Make sure there's no stray space between the vertical bars and your words, and that you've used two bars each side, not one.
• You've switched spoilers off. If your own settings show spoilers all the time, you'll see the text even though others won't. More on that below.
• It's a server invite. Invite embeds can't be spoilered.

Turning Discord spoiler tags off or on for yourself

Some people find the grey boxes annoying, especially moderators who need to scan a busy channel. Discord lets you choose how spoilers show for you, under User Settings, then Text & Images. The options are:

• On click: the default. Spoilers stay hidden until you click them.
• On servers I moderate: spoilers show automatically in servers where you have a role with the Manage Messages permission.
• Always: spoilers show everywhere.

Discord's help notes this setting can only be changed on the desktop or browser app, not on your phone. Your choice only affects what you see. Everyone else still gets the hidden box.

One last thing: once you click a spoiler, it stays revealed while you're in that channel, and Discord hides it again when you leave. You can't un-see it, though, so think twice before clicking in a channel for a show you haven't finished. And if you've already let an ending slip in a YouTube comment, my guide to deleting your YouTube comments shows how to take it down.

Frequently asked questions

How do you spoiler text on Discord?

Highlight the text and click the eye icon, or type two vertical bars before and after the words. You can also type the spoiler slash command at the start of a message to hide all of it.

How do you strikethrough on Discord?

Put two tildes straight before the words and two tildes straight after them. The text shows with a line through it once you send the message.

Can I spoiler an image on Discord?

Yes. Add the image to your message, then click the Mark as Spoiler eye icon on the attachment before sending. It shows blurred until someone clicks it.

Why isn't my Discord spoiler working?

The most common reasons are that the text sits inside a code block, there's a space between the bars and the words, or you've set spoilers to always show for yourself in Text & Images.

Can I turn off spoilers on Discord mobile?

Not from the phone app. Discord's help says the spoiler display setting can only be changed on the desktop or browser app, under User Settings, then Text & Images.