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Xbox Launches New Voice Reporting Feature, Empowering Players with The Option to Capture and Report Inappropriate In-Game Voice Chats

Summary

  • Xbox’s latest safety feature allows players to capture and report inappropriate voice activity on any multiplayer game with in-game voice chat on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
  • Players who experience or witness inappropriate verbal behavior can “capture now, report later” minimizing impact to their gameplay.
  • Xbox’s player reporting and evidence capabilities now cover all content including text, image, video, and voice, further supporting player safety.
  • The voice reporting feature will be available first to Xbox Insiders to gather feedback from the community.

Players come to Xbox to build friendships, be competitive, and to experience incredible games – and they expect to be treated fairly, for interactions to be free of hate or harassment. Our investments in safety have helped players feel safer across text, video, and image – and our new voice reporting experience is the latest addition to our robust suite of family and online safety features.   

Starting this week, we are releasing a new platform-wide voice reporting feature to Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insiders, that gives players the option to capture and report inappropriate in-game voice chats. More specifically, this feature equips Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One players with the ability to capture a 60-second video clip of an in-game voice incident that they believe violates our Community Standards and submit it as evidence to our Xbox Safety Team for review. This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles.  

Targeting In-Game Voice Chat  

When we looked at the next important step in our safety innovation, our team targeted in-game chat because it is often the place where players have the highest opportunity to interact with players outside of their friend network. Making the feature available across Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One ensures that players have this feature available to them in any multiplayer in-game chat.  

The new reporting experience helps the Xbox Safety Team in their enforcement process, with more context to make decisions that reinforce our Community Standards. Evidence capture empowers each of us to actively support one another, report incidents that are inappropriate, and ultimately provide better protection for all players. We want players to feel comfortable jumping into any multiplayer chat feeling supported and welcome – and if they experience or witness inappropriate conduct, they can take action. We also ensured that players and their data are protected and secure in accordance with our Microsoft Privacy Statement.

With reactive voice reporting, Xbox continues to help players feel protected. Empowering players with easy-to-use tools helps foster togetherness, while improving the greater health of the gaming community on Xbox. With measures like this in place, players can feel confident they are in a safe, welcoming environment. – Stephen Balkam, CEO, Family Online Safety Institute

It was important to hear directly from our community about their unique experiences and what would help them feel protected and more empowered on our platform. We consulted with a range of community members – including Xbox Ambassadors – of different identities, backgrounds, and cultures.  

“Implementing voice moderation is a huge step in keeping the community at Xbox safer. I feel more confident knowing that Xbox has gone a step further to ensure we experience a positive environment not just through text chat, but through voice chat as well.”

SammieChaos, Xbox Ambassador

“Xbox is again leading the way in terms of player experience. By taking actions to reduce toxicity that is usually very difficult to track— players of all ages, genders, and backgrounds can be confident that Xbox has their back.”

Secret Asian 29, Xbox Ambassador

“As a woman online, I often find myself staying silent in online multiplayer to avoid abuse and harassment. I am excited for features like this that can help give people like me their voices back. Nobody should miss out on interaction with their fellow gamers because they are afraid to speak.”

CamicaziBoss, Xbox Ambassador

The reactive voice reporting feature will be available to console players in select English-language markets (US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) via the Xbox Insider Program – and we encourage all players to share feedback to help us improve this feature. We are actively working toward supporting additional languages as we continue our investment in voice moderation. 

How it Works  

Reactive voice reporting on Xbox is designed to be quick and easy to use with minimal impact to gameplay. The feature is designed so players can capture quickly and jump back into their gameplay and finalize the report when their game is over.  

Players have full control – you choose what to capture and report. Our feature is designed so that only you, the player, can initiate the capture of the last 60-seconds of gameplay activity that occurred for content moderation purposes. While this feature works similarly to how you’d capture a game video, any captured clips using the voice moderation feature are only for content moderation purposes – they will not appear in your recent captures and clips cannot be downloaded, modified, or shared. Only you have access to the clip until you submit it with your report – Xbox is not saving or uploading any voice clips without you, the player, choosing to start the reporting process.  

The clip lives on your console for 24 online hours, giving you the flexibility to either submit immediately or wait until you’re ready. We’ll also send you a reminder to report if you haven’t completed one within the 24 online hour period. If you decide not to report, the clip will be erased from your console automatically. We’ve also made updates to our notification features so the player that submitted the report will get a notification about whether or not Xbox took action on the report submitted.

Voice Reporting Image

The Importance of Active Allyship  

Each of us has an important role to play in our community – and I am asking everyone, from the seasoned competitor to the first-time player, to stand up for one another, be active allies and to report any experiences of toxicity. The improvements we are making to reactive voice moderation are for everyone – those who experience toxicity, and for those who witness it. We cannot be bystanders of bad behavior; we must do the right thing, have empathy for our fellow players, and build a safer and more inclusive community together. 

Our work is never done, and we will continue to innovate and improve upon our community safety measures to protect each other and our community at large. This feature is one of many we are working on, the first in our voice moderation work, and we look forward to sharing more in the future. As players use the feature, we’ll share data and updates in our bi-annual Transparency Report. If even one player feels safer with this measure, then we are on the right track.   

In the meantime, below are some helpful safety resources: