Decent aim isn’t the only key to success in games like Apex Legends. Considering it always requires a team effort to last until the end of a match, you’ll need to have quality communication skills to be in sync with your teammates.
Players use the in-game voice chat for constant information flow and occasional joking around, which can also be essential to a team’s morale. It’ll be tough to coordinate with your teammates when the game chat is down, which can be a disadvantage compared to other teams on the field.
Once you realize that your game chat is down, there isn’t anything you can do while you’re in a match apart from re-plugging your microphone. If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to wait for your match to end to troubleshoot the problem.
In rare cases, the game chat can go down due to server-related issues and you may need to wait for Respawn Entertainment to roll out a fix when that happens. If the servers are doing fine but you still can’t use the in-game chat, here’s what you can do.
PC players
If you have a spare microphone lying around the house, testing whether it works should be the first troubleshooting step you should take. This can save you from investing more time into other troubleshooting methods since nothing you can do will fix the bug if your microphone is damaged and doesn’t work in general and another one does. This step also applies to console players; trying out other microphones is usually advised for them if the solution method below doesn’t work even after a couple of tries.
There are a lot of underlying Windows settings that can be preventing Apex Legends from using your microphone. When this happens, you’ll be able to talk to other players but they won’t be able to hear you.
Type in “Microphone” into the search bar or after clicking on the start logo on the bottom left of your screen. Choose “Microphone privacy settings.”
Once you get there, take a look at all the apps that have permission to access your microphone. If Origin or Apex Legends doesn’t have permission to access your microphone, you’ll be able to fix that through the privacy panel.
If permissions are fine, but you still can’t use your microphone in Apex, you’ll need to check out whether your headset or audio card has new drivers available. Most gaming headsets come with their own drivers that feature equalizers and other features which can sometimes mess up your default audio settings. Set up your new drivers and test your microphone in other programs before hopping back into Apex.
Console players
Console players have it easier than PC players since it’s relatively harder to mess up system settings. If the game chat isn’t working for you in Apex on your console, all you’ll need to do is reset your console.
Turn off your PlayStation or Xbox and also unplug it. Wait a few seconds, plug the power cord back in, and start your console. Once you’re back online, launch Apex again to see if your microphone is working.
What if nothing works?
If your game chat’s still not working after trying out multiple troubleshooting methods, your last option will be contacting Respawn. Send in a support ticket and explain all the troubleshooting steps you’ve tried so far to fix the problem.
The support staff may instruct you to send in logs and explain how you can do that to help them fix the bug. Apex’s customer support response is relatively fast, but your results may vary during busy periods like holidays or seasonal events.
