Frequently Asked Questions

Nowly automatically updates your Discord status (Rich Presence) with what you are watching or listening to on supported websites. The project is made of:

• a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Firefox;
• Nowly Host for Windows, macOS, and Linux;
• a web library of presences.

The entire project is open source and free.

Yes, Nowly is completely free. The project is developed by two people in their spare time. If you want to help, you can support the project through Ko-fi or GitHub Sponsors. It is optional: features remain free.

Installation takes a few steps:

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store or from the version that matches your browser.
2. Download and run Nowly Host for Windows, macOS, or Linux.
3. Open Discord Desktop.
4. Install a presence from the library.

Nowly already supports several platforms, such as YouTube, Twitch, and other streaming services. To avoid an outdated list, check the library for every available presence and the ones in progress.

Presences are added dynamically by the community or by the team in their spare time. No extension update is required to receive a new presence available in the library.

Nowly Host communicates directly with the Discord client on your computer through a local IPC* connection. No data passes through our servers to display your Rich Presence. Nowly only sends the activity information Discord needs: title, platform, duration, playback state.

* IPC means local communication between two applications on your computer.

Your Rich Presence activity, no. It stays local: the extension passes it to Nowly Host, which sends it directly to Discord.

• Reviews and comments: if you publish a review on a presence, the rating and comment are stored server-side.
• Anonymous publishing: you can publish anonymously to avoid showing your Discord identity publicly.
• Analytics: they are optional, disabled by default, and only used to improve Nowly.

Several possible reasons:

• Is Discord Desktop running?
• Is Nowly Host installed and detected?
• Is the extension enabled in your browser?
• Are user scripts and browser permissions enabled?
• Is the matching presence installed from the library?

Open the extension side panel to see the Nowly diagnostic.

You can remove Nowly in two parts:

• Extension: remove Nowly from your browser extension manager. After removal, you are automatically redirected to a page that removes your device from active counters.
• Analytics: if you enabled them, that page also lets you delete analytics data linked to your device.
• Nowly Host: uninstall the app from your system settings, whether you are on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

Yes, the complete source code of Nowly is available on GitHub. You can browse the code, suggest improvements, report bugs, or contribute to the project's development.