How To Add Reaction Roles On Discord

Roles are very useful in Discord, but it can be even more useful with the use of reaction roles. Here's a guide on how to add reaction roles on Discord.

Discord’s role feature makes server management much simpler. It is recommended for all admins and mods to make use of roles to keep servers safe and regulated.

Roles are also useful for other users as they help to distinguish VIPs or server staff from other members.

If you are overseeing a server that has thousands of active users and hundreds of new members every day, you know that assigning roles to each new member individually would be unbearable.

Thankfully, there are bots that allow users to assign their own roles by simply using Discord reactions. This article will explain how that works, which bots you can use, and how to add them to your server.

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Reaction Roles

Before we guide you through using this function, here’s a brief description of how it operates and why it can be helpful.

In many moderated servers, new users are limited in what they can and cannot do until an admin or mod assigns them an appropriate role. This could take minutes or even hours, depending on whether or not any moderators are online.

If you want to make your server more welcoming, efficient, and skip this part of the process, you can use reaction roles.

When a user joins your server, they will be greeted by a message which they can react to. The message explains this and the possible roles that can be assigned. When the user reacts with the appropriate emoji, the bot automatically assigns them to the designated role.

Which Bots Have Reaction Roles?

To use reaction roles, you need to add one of the many bots that offer such a feature. Here are some of the more popular ones:

How To Add Reaction Roles

The first step is to add the bot to your server. In this guide, we used MEE6.

  1. Go to the MEE6 website and log in with your Discord account.
    MEE6 Discord bot website login
  2. Select your server and click Authorize. Make sure the Manage Roles permission is checked.
  3. Return to Discord so you can start creating the necessary role/s.
  4. Click on the server’s name to expand the menu and select Server Settings.
    selecting Server Settings in Discord
  5. Select the Roles tab and click Create Role. You can now start customizing the roles.
  6. Add a role name so you know which ones to assign to the bot. You should also choose an appropriate color and the necessary permissions. Create as many roles as you want to have on your server.
  7. Ensure MEE6’s role is placed higher than the newly created ones. For example, in the image below, reaction roles Blue and Red are below the bot’s (MEE6’s) role.
    reaction roles blue and red are below MEE6 role
  8. Now, return to MEE6’s dashboard. We picked this bot for reaction roles because it has an online dashboard which makes things much easier.
  9. Under Server Management, enable Reaction Roles.
    activating Reaction Roles under MEE6 Server Management
  10. Activating Reaction Roles should redirect you to the feature’s settings. Here you can pick a text channel, write a message, add a title, image, and more. If you want to keep things basic, simply pick a text channel and write a message.
    picking text channel, writing message, title, image, etc
  11. Below these settings is where you can edit the reaction and roles. Add appropriate reactions by clicking Add Reaction.
  12. Once the reactions have been added, assign the newly created roles to them, finalize your edits and click Save. You can enable or disable Allow members to pick up multiple roles.
    clicking Add Reaction button

After clicking save, the message should be sent in the text channel, and users should now be able to select their roles by reacting to it.

Discord MEE6 users select roles by reacting

Test your new system by reacting to the message, then click your name in the member list to see whether or not the role has been assigned to you.

If you’ve followed these steps thoroughly, you should be done. All of your server members can now effortlessly assign themselves to a role.

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Branko Gapo

Keeping up with the incredibly fast evolution of computer technology is impossible. Branko aims to use his knowledge on this matter to share news and information on all the latest essential technological innovations and advancements.