After years of asking for in-game voice chat Blizzard fans can finally get excited, the feature is officially in alpha testing for the battle.net client.
Last night a number of Blizzard accounts were flagged for the alpha, with players receiving a welcome email that details how to set up voice chat and linking to the testing forum where they can give their feedback. No, this was not an April Fools’ joke.
The alpha is invite-only at the moment, with a very limited number of friends, family, and community members getting access. No key is needed to activate voice chat, players simply restart their battle.net launcher and follow the activation prompts in the pop-up screen. If the pop-up doesn’t show up players can also go to the settings menu and check under the “in development” tab to see if there is an install button.
Blizzard plans to roll the feature out to more members, but didn’t give a timeframe for more account flags or beta testing.
“We’ve been hard at work creating an easier way to keep you connected with your guildies, teammates, and friends across all your favorite Blizzard games,” says the welcome email. Although the feature is not available in all titles at the moment it is still possible to chat via the battle.net app while in a game, and Blizzard will be integrating voice chat “on a game by game basis as applicable.”
To use voice chat players just right-click on an individual and select to open the feature, this then opens the voice channel interface, with the option to write text on the left and voice chat on the right. Players can also create a channel by clicking on the button in the friends list, and then drag friends into the channel to chat as a group.
Voice chat is currently limited to a player’s battle.net friends list, and it is only possible to chat with other friends who are in the alpha.
