Instant replay

[SamuelStefano]

Hello everyone! I’m a junior developer who’s always eager to learn and experiment with things I love—and Discord is part of most of my days. I’ve had so many funny voice-chat moments with friends that slip away as soon as the call ends, so I decided to build a bot that “replays” recent highlights—kind of like NVIDIA Instant Replay, but for Discord.

So far, I’ve even managed to record users’ voices for a time interval they choose via a form after calling the bot command. What I’d really like, though, is the ability to capture someone’s shared screen when they’re streaming—and that isn’t supported by the current API.

I explored a workaround by connecting to OBS Studio’s WebSocket (which is allowed), but:

It’s pretty complex.

It’d require running a “bot user,” which probably violates Discord’s rules.

I’d have to dedicate a browser tab solely to Discord if I wanted to automate it—hardly ideal.

That’s why I’d like to propose adding a screen-recording endpoint to the official API. Think about it—so many amazing moments vanish over time, and many servers already have dedicated clip channels. A built-in way for bots to record shared screens would be a ton of fun!

Here’s a rough sketch of how it might work:

Single sharer: If only one user is streaming, the bot automatically records that screen.

Multiple sharers: If more than one user is sharing, the bot asks (via form) whose screen to record—or, if you choose “everyone,” it records each screen separately and posts each video in chat.

No sharers: If nobody’s sharing video, the bot simply posts the audio clip.

In my prototype (which only succeeded at audio recording), I set it up so that if a call has multiple participants, the bot joins instantly and continuously buffers everything in short loops. But without native screen-capture support it can’t grab video.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether the Discord API team might add this feature, or if there’s another sanctioned approach I’ve overlooked. Thanks for considering it!