What is the name of Discord's built-in game overlay?

Discord’s built-in game overlay is called the in-game overlay. It places selected Discord features directly over a supported game, so players can use chat and voice controls without switching windows.

The overlay grew from Discord’s original focus on gaming communities. Instead of forcing players to use Alt-Tab to check messages or see who was speaking, Discord designed an interface that could appear on top of gameplay. Users can customize its position, transparency, displayed users, avatar sizes, notifications, and shortcut key.

A common mix-up is confusing the overlay with Discord’s streaming tools. “Go Live,” screen sharing, and streaming let someone broadcast gameplay; the overlay is the private interface a player uses while gaming. Discord’s current support documentation calls the feature “Game Overlay” and says it is supported on Windows 10 and 11, not macOS or Linux. The default shortcut is Shift plus the backtick key, although users can change it.