Blizzard Is Now Recording, Transcribing Toxic Overwatch 2 Voice Chats

Blizzard Entertainment has a new weapon in its arsenal to help stamp out abuse and toxicity in Overwatch 2: audio recordings and text transcriptions.

In the latest patch notes(Opens in a new window) for the game, Blizzard explains how audio transcriptions are now being used when a player is reported for disruptive behavior. At that point, a temporary audio recording is used to automatically create a text file transcript using a speech-to-text program. Once the transcription is finished, the audio file is deleted and nobody ever listens to it.

The patch notes make it clear that recordings are only ever made after a player is reported, and only for chats from public voice channels. Any disruptive behavior in team and match chat can therefore be recorded, but group “party” chat is exempt. Players will also receive a notification when entering voice chat for the first time after this feature is enabled informing them their chats may be recorded.

For now, the voice recordings are only active in “select countries” for PC players, but Blizzard doesn’t give any details regarding which countries. Players will know if they are being monitored from the notification mentioned above.

These recordings are just the latest feature of Blizzard’s Defense Matrix Initiative(Opens in a new window) announced in September. The initiative is meant to, “protect the integrity of gameplay and promote positive behavior in Overwatch 2” now that it has switched to free-to-play, and consists of a growing number of systems and tools.

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