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How to translate in the Discord desktop app

Updated 2026-11-02

Browser extensions stop at discord.com. Here is why, and how to get translations inside the Discord app you actually use on Mac and Windows.

The problem with "just use an extension"

Most guides to translating Discord end with a browser extension. That works if you read Discord in a browser tab. But most people keep Discord open as an app: it sits in the dock or the taskbar, starts with the computer, and sends notifications. An extension cannot reach it.

The reason is simple. The Discord app on Mac and Windows is its own program. It does not load your browser's extensions, so nothing you add to Chrome or Firefox appears in it. To translate inside the app, the translation has to be part of the app itself.

Three ways people try it

• Copy and paste. Select a message, copy it into a translation website, read, come back. It works for one sentence. In a channel that moves every few seconds, you fall behind at once.
• Switch to the browser. Close the app and use discord.com in a tab with an extension. You lose the app's notifications and its place on your screen, and you have to remember to do it.
• Add the translation to the app. This is what Subline does on Mac and Windows: it puts the translation inside the Discord app, under each message.

What Subline changes in the app

The Subline app adds Subline to the Discord app on your computer. Discord keeps working as before: same window, same account, same notifications. The difference is a short line under each message written in a language you do not read, in your own language, marked ✦.

To do that, the Subline app swaps one small file in Discord's program folder for a loader, and keeps Discord's original file next to it. That is also how uninstalling puts Discord back exactly as it was.

Discord updates itself often, and an update can replace that file. A small helper checks for this every 5 minutes and puts Subline back. If Discord is open when that happens, you get a notification asking you to quit and reopen Discord. Subline never closes Discord for you.

Install it on a Mac

1. Download the Mac app from the home page. There is a version for Apple silicon and one for Intel Macs.
2. Open the downloaded file, then open Subline.
3. The Subline app finds Discord. If Discord is running, it asks you to quit it, or offers Quit Discord for me, while it adds Subline.
4. Open Discord again and press Link once. The first time, Discord shows its own Authorize window.

The Mac app is signed by its developer and notarized by Apple.

Install it on Windows

1. Download the Windows installer from the home page.
2. Your browser may ask whether to keep it: choose Keep.
3. The first time it runs, Windows warns about an unknown publisher, because the app is not signed for Windows yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
4. The Subline app adds Subline to Discord, the same way as on a Mac. Then open Discord and press Link once.

If you want to check the file before running it, the safety page links the antivirus scan of the exact installer.

Then choose your language

Open Discord's settings. In the sidebar, under Subline, open Settings and pick your reading language. Subline knows 82 of them. From then on:

• Every server channel you open shows translations under messages in other languages.
• Messages already in your language are left alone.
• Direct messages stay untranslated until you turn one on with the 🌐 button on a message.

If you also use Discord in a browser

The same plan works in Chrome. Add Subline from the Chrome Web Store, open discord.com, and link the same Discord account: your plan follows the account, not the computer. This is also the way to use Subline on Linux, since there is no Linux app.

If something looks wrong

• No translations after a Discord update. Give the helper a few minutes, then quit and reopen Discord when it asks.
• Another mod is installed. If Discord already runs a different mod, the Subline app says so and waits. It replaces it only if you choose Replace it and continue.
• A translation reads badly. Right-click the message and choose Report translation. You see exactly what is sent before you press Send.

Removing it

Open the Subline app and choose Uninstall. Discord is restored to its original files and the helper is removed. On Windows, Settings, then Apps, works too.

For the full picture of what Subline keeps on your computer and what it sends, see the privacy page. To compare the app with bots and extensions, see how to translate Discord messages.