Zone voice chat bug, getting small blips of zone voice chat for half a second even though I'm not i

Izar_Berning · October 2024

Its happening everywhere.
I'm not in zone voice chat. Playstation 5 EU Server.
Getting a small half a second of people talking.
The persons name is showing up in the
bottom right corner
Players voice still there even when players voice is turned all the way down in audio settings.
Also still the same on Playstation NA server.
Had reports from other users its happening to them also, its super frustrating!

Rittings · January 2025

I'm going to attempt another reply - because last time i replied I got smacked with a warning for it being a "conspiracy theory" that this was happening...

This time... I'll just drop the video, say it's a bug since Blackwood that CANNOT be fixed ... no matter what you do (heck I uninstalled the game for nearly 12 months because of this bug... I might do it again... and it's STILL going on).

It's breaking privacy issues, it doesn't matter if you're in zone chat or not (I'm not in chat here, and have player voice audio pushed all the way down... but still it persists). It's absolutely awful... and sometimes it's much louder and much more annoying - and at busy times you can have 20 different infiltrators at the same time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2iD4nJFeE4

Rittings · January 2025

As you can see... you can mute player voice (lowering it all the way usually removes all player voices in group chat/guild chat and even zone chat - but whilst this does lower the annoyance, it still doesn't eliminate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT1efnPKUx0

ZOS_Kevin · January 2025

Just wanted to follow up here. We have passed this on to our team. The difficulty here is getting this issue to be reproduced internally to pinpoint the issue. But we will pass along the linked videos to try and narrow down the potential issue.

Izar_Berning wrote: »

Its happening everywhere.
I'm not in zone voice chat. Playstation 5 EU Server.
Getting a small half a second of people talking.
The persons name is showing up in the
bottom right corner
Players voice still there even when players voice is turned all the way down in audio settings.
Also still the same on Playstation NA server.
Had reports from other users its happening to them also, its super frustrating!

Rittings · January 2025

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to follow up here. We have passed this on to our team. The difficulty here is getting this issue to be reproduced internally to pinpoint the issue. But we will pass along the linked videos to try and narrow down the potential issue.

I do appreciate that reply and response - so much better than getting a warning for stating it was a "conspiracy theory" haha.

Rittings · January 2025

I also do think it's a PlayStation specific issue from what I've discovered. But it's absolutely important to understand the following facts from my research:

1. Deleting saved data doesn't fix it
2. Uninstalling the game and reinstalling doesn't fix it
3. You don't have to be in any chats at all for it to be happening
4. The person you hear also does NOT have to be in any chats for it to be happening, and in fact, quite a number of the people I've messaged have not been in any chats, and indeed claim to have no headset on, and their PS5 controllers muted - which means it's somehow circumventing the microphone mute built in to the PS5 options
5. A number of the people I've reached out to have actually been in a group chat privately with someone else, or in a group dungeon etc.. which means they may think they are in private chat, but they can still be heard by anyone experiencing this bug
6. I've rarely had any repeat names upon each login - which means it can happen to just about anyone

Outside of it being highly annoying - it's also concerning that any of us using the game might be "victims" of a privacy leak... again, this isn't a conspiracy theory - it's a genuine concern from a customer. I do honestly believe it should be high priority for a fix.

Right now the ONLY fix I've found - is using a third party controller (that doesn't have an in-built microphone) and when playing the game, move to PSN party chat so you eliminate the risk of your own audio leaking, and also remove the awful sound of random snippets of voices.

katanagirl1 · January 2025

I have not seen this happening but I have the option on PS5 set to mute audio when I log in. Maybe that will help as a workaround until there is a fix.

EDIT: typo

Rittings · January 2025

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I have not seen this happening but I have the option on PS5 set to mute audio when I log in. Maybe that will help as a workaround until there is a fix.

EDIT: typo

Sadly doesn't fix it - and according to a few people I've spoken to, they have this set this way - but their voices are still being shared like it is circumventing this option in PS5.... which is a major issue I think.

xyphrum · January 2025

Here some extra info from my experience. I call it white square chat.
Normally in voice chat, names are shown with a circle behind them.
But in the bugged chat, names get a solid square behind them.

I think it happens only when you play on BOTH servers. I play for weeks on EU
and all is ok. Then I switch to NA and it immediately happens on NA.
Then I switch back to EU and the white square chat stays.
Not sure, but it may be related to having a toon with the same name on both servers.

Here is how to reproduce:
- be sure on both servers, no channels are joined
- go to NA server, join a voice channel, let's say the officer channel of a guild
- relog, it will show on top right "voice channel changed to officers"
- logout, switch to EU server (same toon name?)
- BUG! it now says "voice channel changed to officers"
- it will show an office channel for an empty guild
- you will see the white square chat, 1 or more names repeatedly pop up
- relog or /reloadui will remove the extra channel from the list,
but does not fix the square chat problem.

Here is a video that shows how I reproduced it (Cadwell's helm is NA):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcAFkP5W4iE
bonus: catching OP in chat while he's totally unaware (to stress the importance of the issue):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9vaAIgJ-8s

Here's how to fix it:
On your current server, join and leave voice channel of each type (area/group/guild).
Be sure no voice channels are joined and switch to the other server (same toon name?),
join and leave a voice channel of each type (area/group/guild)
Again be sure no voice channels are joined.
Switch back to your first server. No white square chat should pop up.
If it still persists, a relog/reloadui after each action may be needed and
possibly on multiple characters.