Everything We Know About Discord Build Overrides

A suspicious secretive link has been shared around in Discord servers over the past few months. This link is apparently a 'Build Override' or as Discord likes to call it, a Secret Shenanigan.

Let's learn exactly what these are and what their purpose are.

What are Discord Build Overrides?

Build overrides in general are a way for library developers to override the default behavior of the library on the fly. Discord's Build Overrides are special integrations you can make to your Discord client to access developer testing features temporarily.

These Build Overrides are simply an Discord application link (starting with https://discord.com/__development/link?s=CODE) Discord Developers use for testing new versions of code.

What are Discord Build Overrides used for?

Discord has a secret support article on this topic. It is available to read for everyone. You may or may not have seen the "annie/dark" theme link sent somewhere in Discord servers all around. However, applying client themes is not the main purpose of these Build Overrides.

Overrides are normally built for specific problems, for example if someone is having an issue and the Discord developers think they might have a fix then they can create a build override for them to test out the fix.
via Discordnet.dev

This explains the Note in Discord's article.

Build Overrides are supposed to be for individuals or testing batches to test out a specific potential fix for a bug.

That's why, if you ever come across a Build Override, it may return "Incorrect User" if you try to apply it to your client. This means that the build you are trying to apply is not authorized to your account or client.

What is the "annie/dark" Build Override?

It's a testing override for a new theme for the desktop application of Discord. That's right, Discord is working on application themes. We will finally have something new to look at besides the typical 'Light' and 'Dark' theme.

Annie/dark turns your Discord darker - similarly to 'AMOLED' mode on Android and iOS.

To enable this theme you simply click on "Apply" to apply the override to your Discord client. Your app will restart which is a one-time step.

If you have build overrides applied in your client and want to get rid of it, simply find the link again and click on "clear".

Keep in mind that using these Builds involves risk of breaking the client as it may contain a lot of bugs. Additionally, 'modifying the Discord client' is against the ToS of Discord.

Why annie/dark build does not return 'Incorrect User' is still unknown. This build can be applied to all Discord clients on desktop.

Final Words

I am, in no way, a professional in Discord development. If you'd like me to add or remove certain parts of this page's content, feel free to contact me and correct me.

That's all for today, hope you enjoyed today's article. Make sure to join our official Discord server to discuss further on this topic or suggest new articles!