New safety feature will let players capture and report inappropriate voice chat on Xbox.
An image showing the steps on how to report offensive voice chat in Xbox multiplayer games.

The Xbox team at Microsoft is starting to roll out a new platform-wide voice reporting feature that will let players capture and report inappropriate in-game voice chats. This new feature will let those on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S help in weed out all of those people screaming slurs, insults, threats, and the sort while you wait for a round to start in Call of Duty lobbies.

The new reporting system is coming first to Alpha and Alpha-skip Xbox Insiders. Those enrolled in those early preview channels will be able to capture up to a 60-second clip of in-game voice incidents that players feel violate the Xbox Community Standards. These submitted clips will be reviewed by the Xbox Safety Team with appropriate actions being taken if a violation is found.

Microsoft says that the voice reporting feature on Xbox is made "to be quick an easy to use with minimal impact to gameplay." Players will be able to quickly capture potentially offensive clips, jump back into gameplay, and then finalize their report when the 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.​
At the start, the voice reporting feature is available only for select English-language markets. These markets include the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Xbox hopes to support additional languages soon and throughout the Insider testing period.

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.