Discord and Microsoft announced Discord voice chat last week, making it available initially to invite-only Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox testers. The new feature is now available to Xbox Insiders in the Beta ring, which doesn’t require an invite.
Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox dashboard update for beta testers at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today that will include Discord voice integration. The voice chat works by first linking Xbox and Discord accounts and then connecting to a Discord voice call using the mobile app and transferring the call to an Xbox console using the Xbox mobile app.
The process is a little involved, but once the initial setup is complete, it’s relatively easy to connect to Discord voice calls and transfer them to an Xbox console. Because there’s no dedicated Discord app on Xbox, it means you won’t be able to access Discord chat as this is just for voice calls.
On the Xbox dashboard itself, Discord calls are neatly integrated into the part of the Xbox dashboard where you normally find the Parties & chats features. In a Discord voice call, you can see all your Discord friends that are currently in the call, adjust volume, and disconnect from a call directly from the Xbox dashboard.
This new Discord voice chat functionality will be available in the Beta ring for Xbox Insiders today, and we’d expect to see it progress to the Delta and Omega rings in the coming weeks before being broadly available for all Xbox consoles soon.
