Xbox reveals voice chat capture to make reporting of harassment easier
A new feature has been activated on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S that’s supposed to make it easier to catch users behaving inappropriately on voice chat, making the gaming experience safer and more enjoyable for everyone. Players now have the ability to capture voice clips with a maximum length of 60 seconds and make a report to Xbox using them as evidence. There is an option to do so after the current gaming session has concluded, so people don’t have to interrupt their gameplay to file a report immediately.
This is a reactive feature, which means the system will capture the last 60 seconds of activity. So if you hear someone use a slur or do something else that violates community standards, you have to press the button to capture and report that in the next minute to secure the evidence.
These clips won’t be stored for long and you can’t download them – they’ll only be available for the report, which you’ll have to make inside the next 24 hours. Once a report is made, you’ll get notified if any action has been taken due to it.
Microsoft is rolling out this feature for Xbox Insiders in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand first to thoroughly test it. Once enough feedback has been gathered and any adjustments have been made, it’ll go live for everyone. The company also stated that it was working towards adding more languages to the model as well.
This form of collecting evidence to make moderation of inappropriate voice chat behavior – we’re talking about the whole line-up of “heated gamer moments” here, so everything from sexist to racist drivel people like to spout when they think they’re anonymous – is becoming more common.
Recent Steam hit BattleBit Remastered, a pixel art shooter in the mold of Battlefield, has been lauded for its strict chat moderation using this exact system, keeping the chaotic fun enjoyable for everybody. Perhaps the time in which you'll have to immediately mute voice chat on every game is slowly coming to an end.
