How to Make a Welcome Channel on Discord

Learn how to create a welcoming environment for new Discord members with our step-by-step tutorial.

Table of Contents

Discord is one of the most popular platforms and one of the favorites of the community builders on Unita.

One of the great features that users love is the ability to create channels, which are essentially chat rooms where you can talk to other people about specific topics that matter to the community.

But to orientate people inside your server, it’s key to create is a welcome channel, which can help new members understand what’s going on inside each space.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the steps on how to make a welcome channel on Discord.

Set up a Welcome Default Channel Step by Step

1. Open Discord and Create a New Channel

Once in your server, the first step to making a welcome channel on Discord involves creating a channel. To do this, simply right-click on the channels list or your server’s name and click on ‘Create Channel’. You can also click on the plus icon next to a channel category to create a new channel.

create a new channel

Then, you’ll be prompted to enter a name for your channel. For a welcome channel, you might want to choose something like “Welcome” or “Introductions.” Additionally, make sure the channel type is a text channel.

create a welcome channel

2. Customize Your Channel Settings

After creating your channel, you’ll want to customize its settings to make it more useful for your server. You can do this by right-clicking on the channel name and selecting ‘Edit Channel‘. Another way to access the channel settings is by clicking on the gear icon next to the channel name.

edit channel settings

Here are a few settings you might want to adjust:

  • Channel topic: This is a brief description of what the channel is for. You might want to include something like “This channel is for new members to introduce themselves”, or “Here you’ll find information about what the server is all about”.
  • Permissions: By default, all members of your server will be able to see and post in the welcome channel. However, you may want to restrict who can post on the channel. This includes only allowing new members or certain roles to post. Additionally, you could create a read-only channel instead.
  • Channel category: You can group channels into categories, which can make your server look more organized. For this, all you need to do is to create some categories and move channels to fit those categories. Consider placing your welcome channel in a category with other channels that new members might find useful, such as a “Getting Started” category.
customize welcome channel

3. Add a Welcome Message Manually

Once you’ve created and customized your welcome channel, it’s time to add a welcome message. This can be a brief message that greets new members and explains what the channel is for. To add a message, simply type it into the channel and hit enter.

You might want to include some prompts to encourage new members to introduce themselves, such as asking them to share their names, where they’re from, and what brought them to the server. On the other hand, if you made your welcome channel read-only, your welcome message may have general information on the server. Don’t forget to embed links to make it even more informative!

how to make a welcome channel discord

Lastly, to make sure your welcome message stays visible and doesn’t get lost in the chat, you can pin it to the top of the channel. To do this, hover over the message and click the three dots that appear on the right side of the message. Then, select ‘Pin Message‘. Your message will now stay at the top of the channel, even with new messages sent. (This, of course, doesn’t apply if you decided to make a read-only channel).

pin welcome message

4. Use a Bot to Create a Welcome Message

Many Discord bots out there allow you to make a welcome message. However, for this tutorial, we’re going to use MEE6 since it’s one of the most popular ones.

To get started, you first need to invite the MEE6 bot to your Discord server. You can do this by visiting the MEE6 website and clicking the ‘Add to Discord‘ button.

mee6 for discord

Next, follow the prompts to authorize the bot to access your server.

invite mee6 to your server

After you click on ‘Authorize’, you can select the server to which you want to add the bot. Then, you’ll be redirected to MEE6’s dashboard. Once on the dashboard, click on the ‘Embed Messages‘ tab in the left-hand menu. Then, click on ‘New Embed Message‘.

create a new embed welcome message on mee6

Now it’s time to craft your welcome message. First, select the channel in which you want to publish your embed, and then give your embed a name (this won’t be visible to other members).

embed message on mee6 discord

Next, start crafting your welcome message. The MEE6 embed builder has a space to write a title and the message, as well as select the color. You can also add emojis to make it more interesting, a header, a footer, and a thumbnail image.

customize your welcome message

Moreover, you can also add external links to your embeds! This is useful to promote your community’s website or social media, for example.

discord welcome message

Here are some additional ideas for creating a welcome experience for new members:

Once you are ready with your embed, simply click on the ‘Publish‘ button at the top right corner of the screen. This will directly publish the embed in the channel you selected at the beginning.

5. Test your welcome channel

Before you invite new members to your server, it’s a good idea to test your welcome channel to make sure everything is working as expected. You can do this by creating a new Discord account, asking a friend to join your server, or viewing your server as a member.

Once you’re on the server as a new member, visit the welcome channel and make sure that you can see the welcome message and any other relevant information.

how to make a welcome channel discord

And that’s it! This is how to make a welcome channel on Discord. Remember to keep this channel updated with any important information or changes. Now, try to set up forums for fostering an even more welcoming and friendly atmosphere that will help you grow and strengthen your Discord community.

Picture of Paola Baselica

Paola Baselica

Hey there! I'm Paola, and I like to call myself a word wizard. Since 2018, I've been writing content for diverse places across the web. Now I'm rocking it with Unita's copywriting crew, where I get to explore, write, and polish up the coolest communities you'll ever find on the web. It's been a wild ride, and I'm here to make every word count and every story pop ????✨????