Let's get one thing out of the way early: Yes, I understand that voice chat in online console games has not only been possible, but has also been commonplace for two decades now. Nintendo is way behind the curve on this one.
That said, I got to try the new Switch 2's GameChat functionality at a recent event ahead of the console's June 5 launch, and I came away pretty impressed, all things considered. I also got to spend six hours playing Mario Kart World, so all in all, a pretty awesome day.
Nintendo hasn't really invented anything new here but rather has synthesized its family-friendly, intuitive sensibilities with the way people hang out with each other on Discord in 2025. Thanks to a dedicated button on every Switch 2 controller, a slick interface, and some pretty thoughtful accessibility features (that's new for Nintendo), I expect Switch gamers are going to love GameChat.
Nintendo Switch 2 GameChat preview: Nintendo joins the 21st century
As originally outlined in the big Nintendo Switch 2 Direct livestream back in April, GameChat is Nintendo's version of something you've been able to do on Xbox consoles since I was roughly 10 years old and playing Halo 2. Put simply, it's a way to create voice chat parties for up to 12 Nintendo Switch Online users.
Take a moment to pick your jaw up from the floor. Nintendo is finally doing what Xbox Live users could do back in the Bush administration. Sarcasm aside, there are actually a couple of unique features that make GameChat stand out. One is that it's immediately accessible at any time via a new "C" button on every Switch 2 controller. This, of course, makes it very easy to bop in and out of chat rooms at will without having to go to the Home menu and spend a few seconds navigating a series of icons.
The interface for all of this could not be more straightforward, in a good way. There's a button for creating a room, a button for joining an existing room (made by someone you're friends with, not strangers), and some settings for you to fiddle with. It feels very Nintendo-like in its simplicity and elegance.
Another distinguishing characteristic of GameChat is that it's designed to be used with an open microphone that's built into the console itself. This has been, by far, my biggest worry with GameChat; some of us have to deal with noise complaints from neighbors, for example. I was also concerned this would inevitably create problems with game audio or miscellaneous real-life noises bleeding into voice chat.
Granted, I was in a demo environment set up by Nintendo, but it was a very loud room with a lot going on and I gotta say...it works. I could hear everyone clearly and, as far as I could tell, they could hear me without any problems. However, I'd like to acknowledge that I was told you can plug a regular headset into the Switch 2 Pro Controller's headphone jack and voice chat like you would on any other console. I will probably be doing that exclusively, to be honest.
Nintendo Switch 2 GameChat: More first impressions
There are a few other odds and ends I noticed during the demo. One is that you can stream a live feed of your gameplay to anyone else in the GameChat room, and they can do the same for you. If you've seen any promotional footage of GameChat, you probably noticed that those video feeds are pretty blurry and run at a very low frame rate. You can blow one up to full-screen, but I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise, they live in a horizontal row at the bottom of the screen.
I can confirm that they look like that in practice, not just in marketing videos. I'm not sure how much I want to use that feature, especially given that it reduces the total amount of the screen I get to use for my gameplay purposes. With that in mind, though, there's something nice about being able to discern what your friends are doing at a glance. Our demo involved playing through a co-op level in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for Game Boy Advance, and it was kinda cool to know that one of my partners was in another room collecting Rupees without me needing to ask where he was. This feature seems built for that sort of cooperation, those little moments when you want to quickly check a friend's feed.
I also noticed a pretty neat number of customization options for GameChat. You can turn off a friend's video feed, adjust the size of your gameplay window, adjust individual users' volume levels, and just play in a regular full-screen mode, if you want. Most surprising was the inclusion of a speech-to-text window you can optionally display on screen for users with hearing issues. In the very brief demo I got of that feature, it seemed pretty good at picking up what the demonstrator was saying, and it actually labeled individual speakers in the text window.
Look, all of this could completely fall apart once it's in the hands of regular goobers like my friends and I, outside of an ideal demo environment. I also expect that parents will have a lot of questions about safety and CamgeChat parental controls. But I came away from my short time with GameChat feeling a lot better about the feature. The open-mic stuff works better than expected, but I'm also glad you can opt out of it. Streaming gameplay to other users does seem to have genuine use cases, but again, it's totally optional and decently configurable. And the inclusion of the speech-to-text window is so much more cognizant of accessibility issues than Nintendo has been in the recent past.
In other words, Nintendo put a lot more thought into GameChat than I expected. This is just how people (gamers and otherwise) interact with each other now, and Nintendo is meeting folks where they are. I'm excited to try it out in real-world settings, at the very least.
