Nintendo's Switch Online service offers some interesting bonuses, such as NES games, but some of the fundamentals of online communication, such as voice chat, have been heavily criticized by gamers due to their lackluster implementation. Nintendo's official support for voice chat comes in the form of a smartphone app which, unsurprisingly, hasn't gained a ton of traction among developers. If you were hoping for a better voice chat system to come to the hybrid, Vivox may have the answer.
Vivox is a cross-platform communication system, which provides both text and voice chat inside games. It actually powers the voice chat inside Fortnite, one of the few titles that support proper voice chat on the Nintendo Switch. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's possible to simply plug in a headset into the 3.5mm on the hybrid and use that to talk to other players - an implementation that might not work very well if you play in docked mode, since the Switch will be somewhat far from you.
With Vivox officially supporting the Switch, other titles will likely start to implement voice chat in a similar way. Hi-Rez Studios plans to include it in its own titles, Paladins and SMITE, and other developers might join in.
Vivox won't be the only choice developers have for the foreseeable future. Fortnite developer Epic Games is working on its own voice chat system for cross-platform titles on the Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and more. Presumably, this will also replace Vivox's service in Fortnite.
Source: VentureBeat
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