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Xbox launches reporting feature for in-game voice chat

The new system will allow players to record clips of voice chat and send them to Xbox moderators for review.

TJ Denzer

July 13, 2023 7:52 AM

Image via Xbox

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Xbox has been pretty good about allowing players to report harassment or block other players in games, but there’s one form of interaction it hasn’t been fully equipped to handle until now. This week, Xbox launched a new reporting feature that will allow players to record in-game voice chat and report it to Microsoft for review. It marks a major move in a good direction for helping to keep players safe and keep toxicity curtailed.

Xbox announced the new voice chat reporting feature via a press release on the Xbox Wire blog on July 12, 2023. With the new system, players will now be able to record up to a 60-second video clip of in-game content with chat included, and then be able to send it to Xbox moderation teams for review. If the review team finds the chat to be inappropriate and not in line with the rules of conduct, then action will be taken against the offending player.

“This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles,” Xbox Player Services CVP Dave McCarthy wrote.

This could be considered a huge step forward in Xbox player moderation. Voice chat has been an integral part of Xbox Live almost since its launch, but the content therein has always been a mixed bag depending on who you play with. Toxicity in games like Call of Duty, Madden, and other major titles has had little in the way of content moderation outside of reporting messages or blocking a player in the game.

It will be interesting to see if other platforms look at this and adopt it in some way because PlayStation could likely use something like it as well. Nonetheless, it seems Xbox is becoming a slightly safer place to play. Stay tuned for more Xbox and Microsoft news as it comes out, right here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.