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Nintendo is making gaming on the Switch 2 into a more social experience with the introduction of GameChat. This new feature lets Switch 2 players play and chat together, just like Discord, but Nintendo-flavoured.
A minor source of frustration for Nintendo Switch players currently is that if you want to play something like Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Mario Party with your friends and they aren’t in the same room as you, your options are limited. Usually, this means logging into Discord from another device like a laptop or a smartphone, but this is far from ideal for many users.
Nintendo announces GameChat for Switch 2
Thankfully, Nintendo plans to remedy the communication problem for Nintendo Switch 2 players with the introduction of a feature called GameChat. The Nintendo Direct presentation unveiled the feature by showing someone playing Mario Kart on their Switch 2. She then tells someone that the camera can’t see that she is far ahead of them. Then we see several other players also racing, with their voices clearly audible.
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A microphone is built into the console, and the presentation says that your voice will come through even in a noisy environment. Nintendo is even making a Nintendo Camera available to purchase separately to make video chat accessible through the Switch 2.
Users can also choose to share their screen, just like the similar feature in Discord. The framerate for the shared screen has some limitations, but this is somewhat expected from a device like the Switch 2, which doesn’t have the full grunt of a gaming PC behind it.
The GameChat feature is available in handheld and docked modes and supports ‘parallel play’ so you can chat to your friends even when playing completely different games.
The feature is accessed by pressing the new ‘C’ button located on the right Joy-Con to pull up the chat menu. The presentation confirmed that the Nintendo Switch Online membership was required to use the GameChat feature.
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