If you’re part of the Xbox Insiders program, you can now use Discord voice chat on Xbox starting today. The folks at Xbox published a blog post this morning announcing the deeper integration between the two services.
“Planning a few rounds of multiplayer action in Halo Infinite with buddies on both console and PC? Exploring new biomes with your friends in Minecraft? See them already playing a game that supports cross-play? Connect to their voice channel and chat as you all play.”
This is a huge deal for Xbox/PC folks who want to play together. So far, PlayStation doesn’t have Discord voice chat – but I imagine it’s coming at some point. Remember, PlayStation and Discord announced a partnership last year.
One important thing to note – it doesn’t appear to be a dedicated app. Instead, you’ll need to have Discord and Xbox apps on your phone, and both of them linked.
“On the Discord mobile app, you’ll see a new option to Join on Xbox. At this point, you’ll need the Xbox app to transfer voice chat from your Discord account to your Xbox. If you have it installed, the Xbox app will launch and let you connect the Discord Voice chat to your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One console.”
It appears to work in conjunction with Xbox’s existing party system.
Again, this is massive for games with crossplay. Having Discord voice chat on your Xbox makes playing with folks on PC much easier. The lines between platforms were already blurring with plenty of games supporting crossplay these days. Voice chat was always a small hurdle as you had to use in-game options or a program like Discord via your phone. That hurdle disappears today.
Discord voice chat on Xbox goes live today for Xbox Insider folks. What about everyone else? Xbox says that’s coming “soon.”
