Setting rich presence

Update Discord Rich Presence from your application to display activity information.

Overview

Rich Presence allows you to display detailed information about what players are doing in your game. Users can see this information in their Discord profile and friends list and use it to join their friends’ games with Game Invites.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Set up the Discord Social SDK
• Connected to Discord with a valid client instance

Rich presence requires at minimum the openid sdk.social_layer_presence scopes. Use Client::GetDefaultPresenceScopes in your authorization flow.

---

Understanding rich presence

Rich Presence, known as “Activity” in the SDK and gateway events, represents the current activity of a user. It is not the same as Discord Activities, which are embedded games.

While several ActivityTypes are supported, games should use ActivityTypes::Playing. The SDK automatically associates the activity with your game, so the name field always shows your game’s name.

Each Activity object contains:

Field	Description	Purpose
type	Activity type	What the player is doing (e.g., “Playing”)
details	What the player is doing	Main description line (e.g., “Playing Capture the Flag”)
state	Their current status	Secondary status line (e.g., “In a group”)
party	Party information	Shows party size and capacity (e.g., “2 of 4”)
timestamps	Activity duration	Shows elapsed or remaining time
assets	Custom artwork	Game/map thumbnails and character icons
secrets	Join/spectate tokens	Enables game invite functionality
supportedPlatforms	Platform flags	Controls where join buttons appear

Layout of rich presence in Discord

Playing "Your Game Name"         <- Line 1: Game name (automatic)
Capture the Flag | 2 - 1         <- Line 2: details field
In a group (2 of 3)              <- Line 3: state + party info

• Line 1 is powered by your Discord application’s name.
• Line 2 (details) describes what the player is doing. You can include dynamic data like a match score.
• Line 3 combines the state field (“In a group”) and the party field (“(2 of 3)”).

For tips on designing Rich Presence, see the Rich Presence best practices guide.

---

Setting details and state

discordpp::Activity activity;
activity.SetType(discordpp::ActivityTypes::Playing);
activity.SetDetails("Battle Creek");
activity.SetState("In Competitive Match");

client->UpdateRichPresence(activity, [](discordpp::ClientResult result) {
    if (result.Successful()) {
        std::cout << "Rich presence updated!\n";
    }
});

---

Setting timestamps

Show how long the player has been in their current activity or how long until the match ends:

discordpp::ActivityTimestamps timestamps;
timestamps.SetStart(time(nullptr));         // Elapsed time from now
// timestamps.SetEnd(time(nullptr) + 3600); // Countdown to end
activity.SetTimestamps(timestamps);

---

Uploading and setting assets

Upload custom art assets for your app in the Rich Presence settings in the Developer Portal. Assets should be 1024x1024. Up to 300 custom assets can be added.

Asset keys are automatically lowercased when saved. Keep this in mind when referencing them in code.

Reference uploaded assets by key:

discordpp::ActivityAssets assets;
assets.SetLargeImage("map-mainframe");       // Large image key
assets.SetLargeText("Mainframe");            // Tooltip on hover
assets.SetSmallImage("tank-avatar");         // Small image key
assets.SetSmallText("Tank");                 // Tooltip on hover
assets.SetInviteCoverImage("invite-cover-image"); // Used for game invites
activity.SetAssets(assets);

If you need more than 300 assets or want to use externally hosted images, you can specify an external URL instead of an asset key.

---

Setting clickable URLs

Make the details, state, and asset image fields into clickable links:

activity.SetState("Playing on Mainframe");
activity.SetStateUrl("https://example.com/maps/mainframe");
activity.SetDetails("Rank #1337 in global leaderboard");
activity.SetDetailsUrl("https://example.com/leaderboard/global");

discordpp::ActivityAssets assets;
assets.SetLargeImage("map-mainframe");
assets.SetLargeText("Mainframe");
assets.SetLargeUrl("https://example.com/maps/mainframe");
assets.SetSmallImage("tank-avatar");
assets.SetSmallText("Tank");
assets.SetSmallUrl("https://example.com/classes/tank");

activity.SetAssets(assets);

---

Configuring status text

By default, rich presence displays your game’s name in the user’s status text. Override this:

// Use the game's name in status text (default)
activity.SetStatusDisplayType(discordpp::StatusDisplayTypes::Name);

// Use the activity's state field in status text
activity.SetStatusDisplayType(discordpp::StatusDisplayTypes::State);

// Use the activity's details field in status text
activity.SetStatusDisplayType(discordpp::StatusDisplayTypes::Details);

---

Setting party and join secret

Include party details and a join secret to enable Game Invites. See the [Managing Game Invites guide](/developers/discord-social-sdk/development-guides/managing-lobbies

discordpp::ActivityParty party;
party.SetId("party1234");
party.SetCurrentSize(1);
party.SetMaxSize(5);
activity.SetParty(party);

discordpp::ActivitySecrets secrets;
secrets.SetJoin("your-join-secret");
activity.SetSecrets(secrets);

---

Setting supported platforms

Control where join buttons appear in Discord:

// Show join button on desktop only
activity.SetSupportedPlatforms(discordpp::ActivityGamePlatforms::Desktop);

See the ActivityGamePlatforms enum in the SDK reference for all supported platform values.

---

Rich presence without authentication

Rich Presence via RPC (Remote Procedure Call) only works with a running Discord desktop client. It does not support mobile, console, or web clients.

Unlike most SDK features, rich presence can be set without full OAuth2 authentication. The SDK communicates directly with a running Discord desktop client via RPC.

Requirements:

• Discord desktop client must be running on the user’s machine
• Your application must have a valid Application ID

auto client = std::make_shared<discordpp::Client>();

// Set the application ID (no Connect() call needed)
client->SetApplicationId(APPLICATION_ID);

discordpp::Activity activity;
activity.SetType(discordpp::ActivityTypes::Playing);
activity.SetState("In Competitive Match");
activity.SetDetails("Rank: Diamond II");

client->UpdateRichPresence(activity, [](const discordpp::ClientResult& result) {
    if (result.Successful()) {
        std::cout << "Rich Presence updated successfully!\n";
    } else {
        std::cerr << "Rich Presence update failed\n";
    }
});

---

Next steps

Managing game invites

Allow players to invite friends to join their game session or party.

Managing lobbies

Bring players together in a shared lobby with invites, text chat, and voice communication.

Creating a unified friends list

Build a combined Discord and game friends list.

---

Change log

Date	Changes
March 17, 2025	Initial release