Chatting with your friends will be easier than ever! On July 20, 2022, Microsoft announced its partnership with the popular social platform Discord. A recent update allows Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S users to access to chat with anyone on Discord via voice channels or group calls directly from your console directly by mobile phones. This isn’t the most surprising move for Microsoft, considering PlayStation’s recent efforts in collaborating with Discord. This update has been a long time coming for Xbox fans, who have wanted a partnership like this for a while, with Microsoft noting that this was one of their most requested features.
This new update will bring Xbox users all the wonderful features of Discord voice chat. Players will be able to see who is in the call and speaking while in-game. Players will also be able to adjust the sound and switch between Discord Voice and Xbox game chat. Unfortunately, this update will not be accessible to everyone yet. According to Microsoft, starting today the Discord update will begin rolling out to Xbox Insiders, and will eventually begin expanding in the following weeks. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing this update to include the rest of Xbox users before this year is over.
To those that are able to access the update early, head on over to the Parties & chats tab on your Xbox console, by clicking the Xbox button. Once you’re there, click on Try Discord Voice on Xbox and a QR code option will pop up. Scanning the QR code will take you to the Discord and Xbox apps necessary to set-up a two-way link between your respective accounts. A reminder that even if your accounts are linked together already you will still need to re-link them.
Once everything is properly linked, players can join in a Discord channel like normal on their console via their mobile phones; all it takes is clicking on the Join on Xbox option in the Discord mobile app. Remember that players will need the Discord mobile and the Xbox mobile apps for this to work, as this update transfers Discord voice chat to Xbox chat.
For more details on this update and its current issues, please see the latest Xbox Insider Release Notes.