League of Legends getting a voice chat?
A recent clip of the Chinese League of Legends client showcasing in-game voice chat during solo queue has sparked excitement across social media. Fans are asking: Is Riot Games finally bringing voice chat to solo queue? Let’s break it down.
Although League of Legends has supported voice chat for a while, it’s limited to pre-made parties. Expanding this feature to include all teammates in solo queue would require additional infrastructure, but it’s not an impossible task for Riot to achieve.
The clips from the Chinese client indeed show players communicating with teammates through an in-game voice chat. However, this doesn’t signal a global rollout of solo queue voice chat. The feature in question is exclusive to Tencent’s WeGame, a gaming platform integrated with popular titles in China, including League of Legends.
WeGame is closely tied to WeChat, one of the largest social media platforms globally, which facilitates texting, voice and video calls, and even financial transactions. For Chinese players, WeChat is a daily necessity, and WeGame leverages this integration to enable voice chat. However, this functionality operates entirely outside of League of Legends itself.
Tencent, the majority owner of Riot Games, has seamlessly incorporated WeGame’s voice service into the Chinese client. It even allows players to report verbal abuse through the platform. However, this feature is not being tested or planned for international servers.
Tencent attempted to introduce WeGame to other regions in the late 2010s but discontinued the service after failing to compete with platforms like Steam. As of now, WeGame remains exclusive to China, which means its voice chat feature is unlikely to appear elsewhere.
While Riot hasn’t ruled out voice chat for League of Legends entirely, it’s not currently on their development roadmap. For players outside China, the existing voice chat system will remain limited to pre-made parties for the foreseeable future.
Though voice chat might not be coming to global servers soon, Riot has many exciting updates planned for League in 2025—just don’t count on in-game voice chat being one of them.
You must log in to post a comment.