Game/Party Voice Chat Switch No Longer Working on Xbox?

  • Liberance
    Master

    So for a good while now I've been running into this issue where I can no longer interact with the game world voice chat if I'm previously logged to an Xbox Party. Meaning, you can switch to the game chat from the menu as usual, but if you do that, you don't hear the other players at all—and they can't hear you either. Both your friends from the party and any other person around. The game chat turns basically useless.

    You're essentially locked in the Xbox Party and can only go back there to communicate with those already in the Party.

    The game world voice chat works fine otherwise if I'm just playing by myself or I haven't started an Xbox Party with anyone. I should note this has been happening while I use Xbox Party with friends on PC while I'm on Xbox, but honestly it's been going for so long that I can't quite remember if it was also happening to me while playing with friends on Xbox. All I can tell is that this wasn't an issue before.

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  • JohnCourtier
    Captain
    Insider

    Similar thing happens on PC when there are multiple hardware options for input/output. Party chat / Discord / Anything else simply uses different device for output/input and thus the signal from Sea of Thieves channel is sent to inactive device. I don't have an experience with this on xbox though.

    I guess you can check which device is being used by xbox party chat and switch options till you get input/output audible in party chat and game as well.
    If those devices could be disconnected (eg. headphones), try disconnecting them. Sometimes disconnecting and re-connecting of those devices work just ok.

    Let me know if it helped. If not, tell us about your hardware options - headphones/speakers/mics (perhaps your tv has mic as well etc.)

  • Liberance
    Master

    @johncourtier said in Game/Party Voice Chat Switch No Longer Working on Xbox?:

    Let me know if it helped. If not, tell us about your hardware options - headphones/speakers/mics (perhaps your tv has mic as well etc.)

    Thanks. I'm not sure this is the issue because the channel switch simply worked before and I'm running into the problem in every configuration available: when playing with friends that are on Xbox, when playing with friends that are on PC, when playing with friends using Discord, when playing with friends using Party Chat. The Xbox is a simple standardized set up, so it's gotta be something on that end.

    The game world voice chat just seems to become inaccessible every time you open a private chat of any kind, be it an Xbox Party or Discord session. Before, returning to the channel where other players can hear you was a matter of pressing a button. Now it just doesn't work. And it's been like that for a long time, I'm surprised there aren't more people bringing up the issue.

    To add more details and summarize:

    • I'm on Xbox Series X.
    • I use the regular Xbox wired headset. Nothing fancy.
    • It isn't an issue for PC players. They've always had the Xbox Party and game world channels merged, so they can hear and speak to other players regardless of whether we're in a Party or not (the only way to make it a private audio channel for them is via Discord). As an Xbox user, I've always had to switch the channels manually. This is what isn't working anymore. Neither with Xbox Party or Discord.
    • If I start the game without creating an Xbox Party or switching to a Discord channel, it works. I can just use the game world voice chat as usual. The problem happens only after creating a private chat session.
    • One friend who plays on Xbox One has the same issue, so it seems to be console-specific.
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