Voice chat

“

May I borrow your earpiece? "This is Scout! Rainbows make me cry! Over!" Click to listen — The Spy to the late Scout

”

Voice chat is a communication feature available in all versions of Team Fortress 2 and is primarily used for coordinating team play and general conversation.

In the PC version, voice chat functions in a push-to-talk manner (default key: V). Voice chat on the Xbox 360 is activated simply by plugging in a headset into the controller. On the PlayStation 3, a wireless Bluetooth earpiece can be used.

Uses

Voice chat is helpful in situations that require detailed or rapid communication, such as:

• Warnings for incoming enemies.
• Communicating with your Medic buddy, to activate his Übercharge.
• Coordinating an attack with a group of other players.
• Rooting out disguised Spies.
• Indicating the locations of enemy Engineer buildings.
• Telling people the exact location of the intelligence.
• Informing teammates of fallen enemies or destroyed buildings.
• Calling for backup.

Unintended uses

Any of these actions will generally get you kicked or banned from a server:

• Playing music using external programs.
• Verbally threatening or harassing players.
• Screaming into the microphone to agitate other players.
• If alltalk is on, giving the enemy locations of your team.
• Making repetitive trade requests in a non-trading server.

Limitations

The Mute players button.

A player's voice can only be heard by their own team by default, and dead players can only be heard by their dead teammates. On servers where alltalk is enabled (with the setting sv_alltalk 1), all players can hear each other, including players who are on opposite teams or waiting to respawn. The alltalk feature is not available on the console versions.

Specific players can be muted in the PC version via the main menu by clicking the Mute players button near the bottom of the screen. Voice chat can be disabled altogether in the Voice tab of the options screen.

On the PC, in-game voice chat is sometimes complemented by the use of third-party Template:W software, such as Mumble, Teamspeak or Ventrilo. This allows players to coordinate with their teammates regardless of server limitations. For example, using an alltalk-enabled Team Fortress 2 server and two external voice channels simultaneously allow for public discussion between the teams, and private in-game coordination among teammates.

Speech bubbles

When a player is using voice chat, a speech bubble icon is displayed on the right side of their HUD. Another bubble appears above the player's head, visible to teammates. On alltalk servers, a team-colored speech bubble is shown over all talking players, including cloaked and disguised enemy Spies. Additionally, a talking player's name and team are displayed as a colored bar on the right side of the HUD. If they are waiting to respawn, a Skull will appear by the side of their name.

• 

  The default voice chat bubble.

• 

  The BLU voice bubble, used on alltalk servers.

• 

  The RED voice bubble, used on alltalk servers.

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  An unused bubble, similar to the one used in Template:W.