Here's How Voice Chat Works In Fortnite On Nintendo Switch

Now that is the best news from E3 so far!!

Wait, why hasn’t it always been this easy???

Wow, Nintendo has some balls to force people to use that stupid phone app while letting 3rd party's just use the headphone jack.

Can't ninty do the same for the rest of its games?

What?! Seriously, Nintendo?! What are you doing?!

Nintendo is getting weirder and weirder today :/ Can't find the game in the e-shop? Not available in all regions right away? Anyone got it downloaded yet??

@icebear80 it’s on the US eShop. I know that much. Downloaded just fine.

Hang on there a minute, couldn't care less about the game but the Switch can do voice chat just by plugging in a headset? Yet Nintendo want us to jump through hoops with an app and a million cables

@icebear80: It is in the NA eShop now. EU eShop tonight

@TreonsRealm

Balls indeed, balls indeed.

Thank the big N, now just make this standard

Interesting, but really only useful for handheld and tabletop modes. While the Switch is docked, using the headphone jack isn't all that practical, unless you have a REALLY long cable.

@icebear80 it’s out in uk

@imgrowinglegs Thanks. Good to know. Guess Europe has to wait a bit for some reason then...

I guess it's a staggered download across the globe to take it easy on the eshop for downloads and sort any unexpected issues before it gets swamped (I think there was an issue that got resolved already)

@DarthFoxMcCloud totally agree. I will be playing docked with pro controller mainly and it would be nice to be able to use chat without miles of cable or being tethered a few feet from the tv. Unless Bluetooth headphone functionality is coming in a future update I'll have to settle for handheld mode when chatting.

ONLY plus to the mobile app is you're wire-free to use voice chat.

@bluedogrulez It is tonight here!! Almost bedtime in Norway

why isn't it like this for splatoon?

@DarthFoxMcCloud easier to buy an extender cable than it is to have a whole secondary device powered on with multiple wires going everywhere.

Ok, then... bring it to Splatoon now!

@1UP_MARIO Just showed up here in Norway too now

I imagine the reason for Nintendo's solution for voice chat is simple: Control. You can't just talk to anyone in the Switch Online app.

Do people trash talk in Fortnite like I think they do? I don't think I'd want my child participating in that environment.

A free game does what Nintendon't

"available to play for free right now"

I thought this was $25 to start now later this summer, or is that Paladins?

@Folkloner Even then it's not that practical with lots of cable lining the floor and easy to trip over. Nintendo should have allowed for Bluetooth speaker natively built-in to the Switch. It was a major omission but I guess they wanted to save the Bluetooth signal for the controllers only. I'm not saying the app is all that great but connecting my AirPods to my iPhone and turning off the screen and going full wireless in Splatoon 2 voice chat beats dealing with wires any day. But again, Nintendo should have had a wireless chat option in the Switch itself and not had to rely on a smartphone app. Maybe that'll happen with a software update at some point down the road.

(exhales).... So it is possible for console voice chat.....(inhales..Than exhales).....

I don´t see it in the eShop yet, but found a friend playing it and followed the e-shop link.

Yeah Nintendo has been terrible on that front and Epic just shows how easy it is. Other developers should do it too, the app thing is plain stupid

@icebear80: yeah, sorry, I saw the venerable Tom Whitehead report "11PM tonight," but was fully unaware of what time zone he was referring to.

Wait?? What? So has this been possible all this time? Why did Nintendo do that app then? That company baffles me sometimes in the choices it makes. I’m happy but also weirdly a bit angry.....strange.

I love Fortnite but it chugs on the Switch.

I really don't care for chat on Nintendo systems, however this is very good news for those that do.
For those that want to use the chat feature in docked mode get a long extension cable or a cheap Bluetooth trans/receiver that plugs into the headphone jack if you want to go wireless.

My TV's built in Bluetooth doesn't work with my "very expensive" headphones so I had to purchase such a Bluetooth device from Amazon. Works really great.

I just cannot understand the weird mentality of those that moan about voice chat. Its an OPTION. Don't use it if you don't want it.
My nephews (along with countless other kids) have PS and Xbox with voice chat and with good parenting it is not a problem.

Awesome! Now do that for splatoon 2.

That's great, now all games should allow for this, and also, please, Nintendo, allow us to pair bluetooth headphones/headsets for game audio, and also voice chat!

... Why the hell does Splatoon require the adapter then?

I wish they just let us use Bluetooth headsets.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@BoFiS

Nintendo will not go this route but stick to their voice chat app (or adapter) or whatever. That is my speculation.

The only reason I can see for the Switch using this method of voice chat is INTEGRATION, as Fortnite is cross platform on the PC and the Xbox and it is needed to communicate with players on these other systems.

I seriously doubt the Nintendo voice app will work across platforms. Nintendo just about want it to work on Nintendo systems.

Part of me want to echo the voices here, yet the curious part wonder if this have to do with all those stability updates with the whole Splatoon 2 voice chat being a half thought prototype.

If this feature was built in from the start then I don't see a reason for the needlessly complicated set up Nintendo was encouraging us to use. Every game needs this feature, keep the phone app for those who want it but don't force the rest of us to use it when it clearly isn't required.

@icebear80 started downloading about 12:30 est / us time and it’s crawling along. I’ve nipped out to get on with my life, hopefully ready to go by early eve

Please implement this chat to MHGU

@Pablo17 I havent seen a frame drop yet. I'm actually really impressed. Restart your system? Sometimes mine will do that (and I've seen others complain too), and a restart solves it.

Weird that Splatoon can’t be this simple...

@TreonsRealm They're probably contracted to use the app.

It was certainly a poor idea to begin with, but once the contract was signed and actual work completed on it, they are probably tied to the terms (which may include some exclusivity clauses for their own games).

The actual online dev probably has all of the power now with the signed contract (ie scrapping one part may result in the dev scrapping all of it). Paying off such a contract "could" work but would warrant that a Plan B had been set up rather than all the work being offloaded onto someone else.

This is all speculation though as we don't actually have access to the terms.

This is so much better than any other means they’ve done voice chat yet.

@DarthFoxMcCloud Isn't there a bluetooth option thru the USB connection on the side of the side?

@justin233 I'm sure Fortnite forced this condition or else they wouldn't have come to the console.

Well isn't that nice.

@Pablo17 It's most likely due to every one jumping on and playing at once to give it a try. I'd give it a week or so before the initial hype wears off, and the remaining player base will be more realistic

it's nice to see fortnite on the switch, good move for both parties and the gamers as well. now fix your arceus damn voice chat nintendo!

Okay Nintendo, you cannot hide behind technical issues anymore, time to update Splatoon 2.

so why the fffffffffffffffffffffff hell didnt nintendo do that. instead of this god awfull fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff garbage they came up with, proves again they dont care what you say.

@Iacobus dont let them play then simple really

Wait what? Why don't all games on switch do voice chat in this manner? Especially Nintendo developed games?

Ok, so time to kill the phone app nonsense. Just license whatever EPIC is using.

Nintendo needs to hand off the entire thing to someone who knows what they are doing online.

Wait what? Why don't all games on switch do voice chat in this manner? Especially Nintendo developed games?

Really? I tried that and it didn't work.

Should be like this for every game but i guess Nintendo just loves to make everything requires a separate accessory.

@Agramonte Dude LOL Epic isn't using anything special. Most multiplayer games have voice chat built into them. Switch doesn't need anything special, the developers need to add voice chat into their game.

Destiny has the same problem. It's not that they can't do voice chat, it's that they choose not to because Keemstar and the F@G scared bungie away from doing public voice chat by trolling the living hell out of everyone. (seriously, they even convinced a kid his xbox was going to explode)

@PhilKenSebben Yea I've had zero fps drops even in 50v50. Also graphics look good too. Res is low and draw distance is low but otherwise it looks like the PS4 version

I suspect that if it turned out to be this easy, then this either means they're leaving it to the discretion of developers (good news for Rocket League and Minecraft!) or they plan to make it a perk of the subscription service later this year.

If the latter, I'm not sure how mad folks can really get, considering, IIRC, you have to pay for online functions with Xbox Live and PSN anyways.

Either way, this opens up opportunities!

Was that so difficult Nintendo?

@rjejr Well.... not really - I would have to imagine that Nintendo has allowed / enabled them to do this - it’s not like they discovered something Nintendo didn’t know about - maybe it will be activated across the board for all games or maybe just something that they have enabled to let this game be ported etc and will be enabled for other devs moving forward, or in an update.

@HugoStiglitz_420 Na man, We would go back to wild wild west of every publisher doing whatever they want (or can). We tried that and it was a mess in consoles. There needs to be a centralized platform on the hardware. Every publisher just plugs and play into that - and everyone knows how it works.

So they should just turn off the public channel. Need chat in a Raid or Strike - even the mindless public event have no need for it. If you in the tower - just dance 😏

@TreonsRealm if I had to guess the voice chat is being handled by epic. Just shows Nintendo could do the same thing if they decided to join us in this decade.

Wished other games like Revelations 2, Doom and potentially Generations Ultimate offered voice chat like this.

Ha. I looked around and found this video from last August.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJek0tzz26E

I'm surprised this was never more widely known.

Why has Nintendo tried to make this so difficult this could be easily have been done for Splatoon instead of the wire mess they created
Am I right in thinking any headphones with a mic like for example some beats will work ?

Is it possible to just listen to the voice chat, i.e without a microphone?

Unfortunately my headset has separate jacks for headphones and mic. But it's great that EPIC thought of this ahead of time.

@Iacobus If you don't want your child to talk with people online in certain games that's why parental controls exist. No need for ridiculous and overly complicated smartphone app shenanigans

@SmaggTheSmug You could get yourself a headset adapter that connects them into a single jack. They're pretty cheap!

@imgrowinglegs because this has been implemented into the actiual game code. it is that simple only Nintendo have blocked that access until now. I hope this freedom is given to every game that requires it as now we know it is possible it will be nothing less than unacceptable.

Need an officially licensed Switch headset now.

@Iacobus I think this is the answer guys. It seems wierd at first but as a parent I wouldn't want a child below a certain age to be subjected to trash talk, which could be terribly damaging if directed towards a young mind. Parental controls are good but may be inadvertantly overlooked. Nintendo are very family focussed and want to avoid this kind of psychological damage as much as possible.

@DarthFoxMcCloud
Or you could use any wireless receiver/bluetooth adapter.

I bet Nintendos strange drop of that annoying voice chat-app has something to do with that they really wantet the most popular game that exists today - on the Switch.

@Dang69 Nope. There were articles posted on this (I think even here on NintendoLife) that Nintendo didn't offer Bluetooth voice chat natively on Switch because they were saving the Bluetooth connections for just the controllers. That's why Hori came up with their tangled mess of wires workaround, and Nintendo made the app.

@DarthFoxMcCloud Natively yes, but I believe they also posted an article about a usb dongle bypassing this thru the dock.

Great for handheld use, but it still seems like wireless headsets or at least ones that plug into controllers like with the PS4 or XB1 should be kind of a given by now. I keep my dock balanced atop a rather high shelf and the last thing it needs is a long cable tugging it onto the floor.

@Dang69 I would be very interested in this dongle. I've been waiting for them to release either an update or accessory to fix the bluetooth issue (preferably an update, since it already uses bluetooth just fine) since I bought the thing.

@Pablo17 perfectly fine here!

@andykara2003 wow! Do you goto church everyday too? Just wondering...

@Grant007 When you become a parent you may find it more understandable

@DTFaux
If it meant getting it at all, i would be ok with it requiring a subscription.

This will filter out 60% of the kids.

I think this confirms voice chat coming with the online subscription. I bet you any money that is why they still only have 1 game that connects to their Nintendo App. I also bet that when the subscription becomes available we will see an entire switch update with new party options and friend options integrated into the console. It just doesn't make ANY sense that Nintendo would not use this feature in any way. Just watch, they will figure out a way to make it a part of the subscription model. I bet you any money, they are making their own headset that will be required for this to work later on.

Where are those chat app apologists now...? That damn thing never should have existed for an instant.

@DarthFoxMcCloud

$9 https://www.amazon.com/Talk-Roll-Microphone-Smartphones-headphones/dp/B01N8T61EZ/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1529006199&sr=8-11&keywords=headset+extension+cable

@FTPinkRabbit Nintendo Life steps for usage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hHiKpXG698

ALSO just saw this rn https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/06/the_genki_usb_bluetooth_adapter_finally_brings_low-latency_audio_to_switch

Haha, this is just more proof that Nintendo needs to hire Android programmers with actual knowledge of the OS. They have no clue how to optimize the Custom Android OS for even simple things like chat. When a 3rd party makes your multi-billion dollar company look like a literal joke, it is time to stop being bullish. Get over being told to f-off from the Cyanogen dev and ask for help. Please... before it is too late. The Switch OS is so featureless due to lack of experience it is laughable. You do not know what you are doing, so get some help already. Accept the help that has already been offered by discord or anyone else, because you have proven yourselves to be ignorant on Android programming.

TL;DR: Nintendo needs to get over the original rejection when asking for help and branch out, because they obviously have no knowledge when it comes to the Android OS. When the Wii/3DS offers a better OS, you are going so far backwards, you need help.

I tried voice chat on Fortnite once. It was 5 minutes of a German child singing 'Help' by the Beatles and screaming when he was shot at. A great experience, I must say! 😕
This is what I've been missing out on all this time. /s

@Agramonte Fair enough. The only bit I disagreed with it the "license whatever Epic is using" part. Epic isn't doing anything that doesn't already exist, they're just oddly the only game to be allowed to do it on Switch for whatever reason.

I do see what your saying about needing a centralized platform that all dev's can use, but the problem with that is it would have to be facilitated by Nintendo, and as we've already seen, they're pretty incompetent when it comes to anything involving online gaming so I doubt that would work out better than the wild wild west as you call it with each developer implementing their own in game voice chat the Fortnite has.

Also like I said, I have my doubts Nintendo really wants voice chat in many games. Opening up voice chat opens up the community to a lot of issues they might not want to deal with, especially considering they want to be the console parents buy for their kids. Having open voice chat can complicate that if it hasn't already with fortnite. As you know, gamers can be pretty "toxic".