It is possible to change your bot's current activity to 1 of 4 different statuses. Use the following templates to change the status whenever you want within your code (as long as the code is within an async function).

**Playing a game**

```python
await client.change_presence(activity=
    discord.Game(name="some game"))
```

**Streaming**

```python
await client.change_presence(activity=
    discord.Streaming(name="some stream", url=stream_url))
```

**Listening**

```python
await client.change_presence(activity=
    discord.Activity(type=discord.ActivityType.listening, name="some song"))
```

**Watching**

```python
await client.change_presence(activity=
    discord.Activity(type=discord.ActivityType.watching, name="some movie"))
```

Change bot activity status

Sending plain text messages and images may be enough for most use cases of a bot but being able to add a layer of interactions for the user can vastly enhance the usability and feature set of your application.

Message components

In discord.py, the `on_message` event handler allows a bot to monitor and respond to messages in real time. This event listener is essential for creating automated conversational flows, keyword triggers, and contextual follow-ups.

Discord bot message event listener

Beyond basic message commands, advanced Discord bot features enable automated, event-driven responses to user activity and enhanced custom interactions. These features include dynamically changing the bot's presence or status and implementing interactive UI elements like buttons and select menus.

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Creating a Discord bot in Python involves completing necessary prerequisites such as installing the `discord.py` library, writing the initial bot script to establish a connection with the Discord API, and implementing advanced features like event-driven responses and interactive UI elements.

Getting Started with a Discord Bot in Python

**Installing Discord.py**

If you don't already have pip installed, then look through the intro modules for this Python course or follow the pip documentation linked in this node. Once you have it installed, run the following command from your terminal:
```python
python3 -m pip install discord.py
```

**Installing Discord Slash Commands**

The main way of interacting with modern Discord bots is via slash commands which makes it easier to provide options to the user and simplifies using the bot. To get started with slash commands, run the follow command from your terminal:
```python
python3 -m pip install discord-py-slash-command
```

Prerequisites

In your favorite code editor create a Python file in the root directory of your project and name it whatever you want. The following child nodes will show you what libraries need to be imported to get started and what steps need to be taken to get your bot running.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After