diff --git a/src/plugins/discover/public/application/main/components/sidebar/discover_sidebar.tsx b/src/plugins/discover/public/application/main/components/sidebar/discover_sidebar.tsx
index 6f032ecc9a580..f3a3f121e36ad 100644
--- a/src/plugins/discover/public/application/main/components/sidebar/discover_sidebar.tsx
+++ b/src/plugins/discover/public/application/main/components/sidebar/discover_sidebar.tsx
@@ -202,7 +202,18 @@ export function DiscoverSidebarComponent({
     if (Array.isArray(fields)) {
       for (const field of fields) {
         if (field.type !== '_source') {
-          dataViewFieldTypes.add(field.type);
+          // If it's a string type, we want to distinguish between keyword and text
+          // For this purpose we need the ES type
+          const type =
+            field.type === 'string' &&
+            field.esTypes &&
+            ['keyword', 'text'].includes(field.esTypes[0])
+              ? field.esTypes?.[0]
+              : field.type;
+          // _id and _index would map to string, that's why we don't add the string type here
+          if (type && type !== 'string') {
+            dataViewFieldTypes.add(type);
+          }
           if (result.indexOf(field.type) === -1) {
             result.push(field.type);
           }