💬 Lesson 6: Text, Markdown & Reactions
Now that you can chat, let's make your messages clear and expressive. Discord speaks a little language called Markdown that turns plain symbols into bold text, code blocks, spoilers, and more — plus emoji, reactions, stickers, and GIFs. None of the essentials cost a thing.
📚 What You'll Learn
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Send, edit, and delete your own messages confidently
- Format text with Markdown: bold, italics, code, quotes, spoilers, and lists
- Add emoji and reactions, and know when a custom emoji needs Nitro
- Use stickers and GIFs, and tell free features from paid ones
In This Lesson
Sending, Editing & Deleting Messages
You already know the basics: click into the message box at the bottom of a channel, type, and press Enter to send. Two small skills make a big difference in how polished — and how forgiving — your chatting feels.
Line breaks without sending. Pressing Enter sends your message. To add a new line inside the same message, press Shift+Enter. On mobile you usually get a return key on the keyboard and a separate send button, so it's easier to write multi-line messages there.
Editing. Sent something with a typo? Hover the message (on mobile, long-press it) and
look for an Edit option, usually in a small menu or the ⋯ "more" button. A quick
shortcut on desktop: press the ↑ up-arrow key in an empty message box to edit your most recent
message. Edited messages show a small "(edited)" marker — that's normal and honest.
Deleting. The same hover/long-press menu has a Delete option. You can always delete your own messages. Deleting other people's messages requires a moderator permission we'll cover in Act II — for now, you're in charge of your own words.
🧠 Mindset
Nobody types perfectly, and Discord assumes that. Edit and delete exist precisely because mistakes are expected, not shameful. Treat them as normal tools, not emergency buttons — the more relaxed you are about fixing a message, the more naturally you'll write.
⚠️ Important: Deleting a message removes it for everyone, but people may have already read it, quoted it, or screenshotted it. Delete is for tidying up — it's not a way to "unsay" something sensitive. Think before you send, especially in bigger servers.
Markdown: Formatting Your Text
Discord uses Markdown — a simple way to format text by wrapping it in symbols. You type the symbols, and Discord renders the result the moment you send. It feels like magic the first time and like second nature within a day. Here's the full everyday toolkit:
| You type | You get | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
*italics* or _italics_ |
italics | Emphasis, titles, a gentle stress |
**bold** |
bold | Strong emphasis, key words |
***bold italic*** |
bold italic | Extra emphasis |
__underline__ |
underline | Underlined text (two underscores) |
~~strikethrough~~ |
Crossing something out | |
`inline code` |
inline code |
Code, commands, exact text |
```lang · code · ``` |
a boxed code block (optionally colored) | Multi-line code; add a language name for color |
> quote |
an indented blockquote | Quoting someone or setting text apart |
||spoiler|| |
a hidden, click-to-reveal blur | Hiding spoilers or surprises |
# Heading |
a large heading | Headings (#, ##, ###) in text channels |
- item or * item |
a bulleted list | Lists (indent for sub-points) |
[text](https://…) |
a masked link | Showing friendly text over a URL |
For a colored code block, start the block with three backticks followed immediately by a
language name — for example ```py for Python or ```js for JavaScript — then your
code on the next lines, and close with three backticks. Discord applies syntax highlighting based on that
language hint. Plain ``` with no language still gives you a tidy monospace box.
Here's roughly how a few of these look once rendered in a real conversation:
/help without any confusion.Figure 1 — A simplified mock-up (not a real screenshot). Bold, italics, inline code, a strikethrough, and a blurred spoiler, all from plain Markdown symbols. Reactions sit under each message.
And here's the whole idea in one picture: you type ordinary symbols, and Discord renders formatting when you send.
Figure 2 — Markdown flow: plain symbols in, formatted text out. The symbols disappear; only the formatting remains.
✅ Tip: Preview before you commit
On desktop and web, formatting previews right in the message box as you type, so you can see bold or a spoiler take shape before you hit Enter. If a symbol shows up literally, you probably missed a closing mark — every Markdown wrapper needs a matching pair on both sides.
⚠️ Watch out: symbols you didn't mean to format
If you genuinely want to show a symbol like * or _ as text, put a backslash
\ right before it (for example \*not italic\*) and Discord will leave it alone.
This "escaping" also rescues usernames or file names that contain underscores.
Emoji, Reactions, Stickers & GIFs
Text carries your words; emoji and reactions carry your tone. Here's the family, and where the honest line between free and paid falls.
Emoji
Standard emoji — the universal 😀 🎉 👍 set — are Free and work
everywhere. Open the emoji picker (look for a smiley-face button near the message box) or type a colon and
a name, like :tada:, to search as you type. Every server can also have its own
custom emoji that admins upload.
⚠️ Important: Using a server's own custom emoji inside that server is Free for everyone. Using custom emoji from one server in a different server — carrying them everywhere you go — is a Nitro perk. That's the single most common "why didn't my emoji work?" surprise.
Reactions
A reaction is an emoji you stick onto someone else's message instead of replying. Hover a message (long-press on mobile) and pick the reaction / add-emoji option. Reactions are one of Discord's quietly great features: they let a whole channel say "👍 got it," "❤️ love this," or vote "✅ / ❌" without twenty separate messages. Click an existing reaction to add your own to the pile, or click again to remove yours. Reactions are entirely Free.
Stickers & GIFs
Stickers are larger illustrated images you send as a whole message; GIFs are short looping animations from a built-in search box. Both have a generous Free layer — you can send GIFs and use default stickers without paying. Some extra sticker packs and the ability to use custom stickers more broadly are tied to Nitro. When in doubt, if Discord shows you a picker and lets you send it, it's free; if it prompts you to upgrade, that item is a Nitro extra.
💡 A bot author looks a little different
You'll sometimes see messages from apps and bots. They carry a small APP tag next to the name, like this: . That tag tells you a program, not a person, posted it. We'll add and use bots in Lesson 20 — for now, just recognize the tag.
The Free-vs-Paid Map for Expression
Keeping our guide promise, here's the honest breakdown of everything in this lesson. Notice how much is simply free.
| Feature | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All Markdown formatting (bold, code blocks, spoilers, etc.) | Free | Every symbol in the table above works for everyone. |
| Standard emoji & reactions | Free | The universal emoji set, plus reacting to messages. |
| A server's own custom emoji, used in that server | Free | Anyone in the server can use them there. |
| GIFs and default stickers | Free | The built-in GIF search and starter stickers. |
| Custom emoji used across other servers | Nitro | Carrying emoji everywhere is a personal perk. |
| Extra sticker packs & broader custom stickers | Nitro | A personal subscription add-on; never required. |
| More custom-emoji slots for a whole server | Boost | Member-funded Boosts raise a server's emoji capacity. |
⚠️ Why we don't quote numbers
Exact emoji slot counts, sticker limits, and Nitro tiers change over time and can differ by region.
We'll always tell you the shape of a feature and point you to Discord's current pages — for the
personal perks, that's discord.com/nitro. The takeaway holds: clear, expressive messaging is
free.
🛠️ How To: Post a Formatted Message
Show off your new Markdown
What you'll do: Combine formatting, a spoiler, and a reaction into one tidy message in your own practice server (the private server from Act I) or the PracticalAce practice server.
Step by step
- Go to a channel where it's fine to experiment (an off-topic or test channel).
- Write a short message that uses bold for a key phrase and italics for emphasis. Preview it as you type.
- Add a code block: type three backticks, the word
py, press Shift+Enter, typeprint("hello Discord"), then three backticks to close. - Add a spoiler somewhere with
||like this||. Send the message. - Hover your own message and add a reaction to it. Click the spoiler to confirm it reveals.
💡 Tip
If a symbol shows up as literal text instead of formatting, you're almost certainly missing the
closing pair — every **, ||, or backtick needs a partner on the other side.
For the code block, make sure the opening and closing backticks are on their own, and the language
name sits right after the opening three backticks with no space.
📓 Learning Journal
Keep building your Learning Journal — a note in Discord, a doc, or a paper notebook. It's where you turn "I read that" into "I can do that." After each lesson, jot down:
- Key concepts you learned
- Things that clicked for you
- Questions or confusion points to revisit
- Ideas you want to try
- Your progress and how you feel about learning this
✍️ This lesson's prompt: Which Markdown feature do you think you'll use most — bold, code blocks, spoilers, quotes, or lists — and what's one real message you'd love to format nicely? Try writing that message out in your journal using the symbols, then post it later.
📝 Lesson Summary
🎓 Key Takeaways
- Press Enter to send and Shift+Enter for a line break; you can always edit or delete your own messages.
- Markdown formats text with simple symbols:
**bold**,*italics*,`code`,||spoilers||,> quotes, and more. - Standard emoji, reactions, a server's own emoji, GIFs, and default stickers are all free.
- Custom emoji across other servers and extra sticker packs are Nitro perks — never required.
🎉 What You've Accomplished
You've gone from "I can type a message" to "I can make a message land." You know how to fix mistakes, format for clarity, hide a spoiler, react instead of cluttering a channel, and — importantly — you can tell exactly which flourishes are free and which are paid. That's real fluency.
❓ Common Questions at This Stage
How do I make a code block with color / syntax highlighting?
Start the block with three backticks immediately followed by a language name — for example
```js or ```py — then your code on the next lines, and close with three
backticks. Discord highlights based on that language hint. A plain ``` still gives a clean
monospace box, just without color.
Why didn't my custom emoji work in another server?
A server's custom emoji are free to use inside that server. Carrying custom emoji into other servers is a Nitro perk. Standard emoji and reactions always work everywhere for free.
How do I write a long message without accidentally sending each line?
Use Shift+Enter for every new line, and only press Enter when the whole message is ready. On mobile, the keyboard's return key adds lines and a separate send button posts the message, so multi-line writing is even easier there.
🔭 Looking Ahead
In Lesson 7, you'll keep conversations organized and findable: mentions, replies, threads, pins, and search — the tools that turn a busy channel into something you can actually navigate.
📚 Additional Resources
- Glossary — every term in plain language
- Quick-Reference Cheat Sheet — the full Markdown syntax table
- support.discord.com — official help center
- discord.com/nitro — the current, official list of Nitro perks
🌟 Encouragement for the Journey
The difference between a message people skim and a message people read is often just a little formatting. You now have that superpower — and it costs nothing. Go make your words clear.