The ability to converse while playing an online game has become a norm for gamers worldwide. It allows players to talk verbally, engage in textual chats, use predetermined codes, and even devise a mix of these practices to command a team of people located across the globe.
You may use them to supervise as an appointed leader in the game, or just utilize it as a tool to socialize with your pals. There are plenty of reasons why a gamer will preferer utilizing the conversational frameworks available in games.
Following the growing popularity of cooperation-based games like Fortnite, Microsoft made Xbox Party Chat free as a part of its free-to-play policy last year. Now you don’t need a ‘Live Gold Subscription’ anymore to engage in a party chat.
The changes were soon rolled out for all Xbox owners in the following months after Xbox Insiders beta-tested the feature. Microsoft continues to roll out important updates for improvements in sound quality, monitoring levels, and status tones to date.
Amidst these ongoing patches, it’s quite nominal to incur certain issues with the ‘Party Chat’ feature on your Xbox, and those can be resolved easily too. Let’s take a look at some common troubleshooting methods that you can follow to rectify issues with Xbox Party Chat.
Also, Read:
How to Fix Xbox Controller Drift
Best VR Headset For Xbox One
Best Xbox One Emulator for Windows PC [eSportsLatest]
5 Timeless Methods to Fix Xbox Party Chat Issues
Check Xbox’s Operational Status
Xbox is quite transparent with the availability status of its features and functionality. They have a specific section on the website, dedicated to notifying users about any known outages and their resolution status with adequate timestamps.
The issue details also include the affected feature and you may also enable notifications to get updated when a particular service is up and running again. It’s the first thing to do while troubleshooting as server-side issues are completely out of your hands.
You can access the ‘Xbox Status Page’ here – https://support.xbox.com/xbox-live-status
Diagnose Network Statistics
Any issue with your network that may cause it to fluctuate can also prevent you from accessing the ‘Party Chat’ feature in Xbox. To check what’s wrong with your network, you have to check your network statistics by following the steps below:
- Press the ‘Xbox’ button on your controller to access the guide
- Navigate to the ‘Profile and System’ section, followed by choosing the ‘Settings’ option
- Under the ‘Settings’ tab, go to ‘General’ and select the ‘Network Settings’ option
- Then, select the ‘Test network speed & statistics’ option from the interface
This will initiate a detailed scan of your network speed to help you assess the performance of your connection. It includes information like download speed for streaming content and upload speed for playing multiplayer games.
The scan also suggests a ‘packet loss’ value that helps you whether your signal strength is inadequate or not. Any loss in packets may indicate interference (natural or human-made), software corruption, hardware failure, excessive system noise, or overused network nodes.
You can refer to Xbox’s official guide on common network-related issues in case your problem relates to your console’s network statistics in any way
Ask Peers to Check Their Connection
One of the most common reasons for Xbox party chat failure is the ‘Network Address Translation’ problem at a particular node of your party. To confirm the issue, you may have to ask everyone who joined the party to run a network connection test. Here’s how can you do it:
- Press the ‘Xbox’ button on your controller to access the guide menu
- Head to the ‘Profile & System’ section, followed by choosing the ‘Settings’ option
- Go to ‘General’ afterward and choose the ‘Network Settings’ option
- You’ll find the ‘Test Network Connection’ feature there
When everyone is done with the network test, figure out which member is getting a NAT indication in their network setting. The affected peer needs to test for multiplayer connection errors to troubleshoot further and rectify the issue.
Restart The Console
Sometimes, queued-up processes may hinder certain features of your console, including the ‘Party Chat’ feature. Just like with smartphones, giving a quick restart to the system allow you to eliminate ongoing processes and restart all the services again. Follow the steps below to restart your Xbox:
- Press and hold the ‘Xbox’ button on your controller to access the ‘Power Centre’ menu
- Choose the ‘Restart Console’ option, followed by selecting the ‘Restart’ option
In case your console isn’t responding to your controller commands, you can press and hold the ‘Xbox’ button for 10 seconds to initiate a force shutdown. Once the console turns off successfully, you can press the button to turn it on again.
Switch To a Wired Network Instead
If none of the aforementioned solutions are working, you may consider switching from wireless to a wired network. In case that happens to solve your problem are you’re able to start or join a party chat on a wired network, the problem is evidently in your wireless network.
To mitigate such issues, you have to contact your internet service provider and ask them to provide guidelines for configuring the wireless settings on your router.
You can also head to the “Devices and Network’ category on the Xbox forum to find a matching thread, or create a new one if none exists for your concern.
What If the Issue Still Persists?
Even if reproducing all the suggested guidelines doesn’t seem to fix the issue for you, the only thing left to do is let the authorities know by raising a feedback ticket.
Navigate to Xbox’s contact page and briefly describe the issue, along with the details of what you’ve already tried. You can also communicate with the team through the call or chat feature if that’s more convenient for you.
Bottom Line
Xbox’s ‘Party Chat’ feature is nothing new and several threads are posted on the platform related to the service.
There are other nifty fixes for the issues, apart from the ones mentioned above as well, such as checking in-game audio settings, updating the controller’s firmware, or switching to an alternate like Discord to communicate with your team. The choice is all yours!
