How do you set a proxy in Discord, and what are the limits of doing so?
Discord lacks native proxy settings. Instead, it routes traffic via the device’s network path. Consequently, the easiest way to proxy Discord traffic is by setting a proxy for the entire operating system.
You can also set a proxy at the browser level when using the Discord web application. But again, aside from Firefox, even major browsers (Chromium-based and Safari) don’t feature proxy settings at the application level.
In this case, using proxy browser extensions (FoxyProxy) comes in handy, or trying launch flags such as –proxy-server with the Discord application. However, the latter approach of using flags has its own share of problems.
Yet another option is to use proxy clients (Proxifier) to control app-based networking. This can work better for routing the Discord (and other apps) traffic differently than the rest of the operating system.
However, one key limitation of these methods is that while they can proxy Discord’s text, API, and HTTP traffic, voice and video still travel via your default network path. The reason is that Discord’s voice and video rely on WebRTC, leaving standard TCP-based HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies with no way to tunnel them.
In the absence of this, the only viable solution is to use a VPN instead, which covers the entire network interface with a system-wide tunnel. Another fix, if you’re keen on not using a VPN tunnel, is passing launch flags such as --force-webrtc-ip-handling-policy=disable_non_proxied_udp to the Discord app or the browser when using the web app.
But one should note that using the launch flag arguments isn’t a solution with Mac’s Safari, and a slight performance drop is common due to the latency overhead.
