If you’re unable to communicate with your fellow Guardians in Destiny 2‘s game chat, fret not—it’s something we can debug.
Voice chat issues can have multiple triggers, including ones you have nothing to do with. Multiplayer games host thousands of players every day, and believe it or not, there’s a lot happening with the netcode every time you ‘push to talk’ with your teammates. Like every other live service game, Destiny 2 has had ups and downs ever since its release, and it certainly isn’t immune to the infamous game chat bug.
Fortunately, provided it’s a client-sided hiccup, you can eliminate the factor through workarounds and fix the annoying ‘game chat not working’ error for good. Here’s everything you need to know in order to fix the error.
Tips to fix Destiny 2’s game chat not working error
While farming the internet for workarounds that actually work, I found multiple complaints regarding Destiny 2’s bugged chat feature. I also noticed how reports of such occurrences usually pour in before or after in-game updates or scheduled maintenance.
Related: How to fix error code WEASEL in Destiny 2
It seems that most game chat hiccups appear right before Developer Bungie plans to deploy a patch. If so, you cannot do much besides turning to Discord or the built-in party chat feature available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox.
Note that while Bungie can mess things up a few times, it’s always possible that the problem is on your side. You can try the following fixes just to be sure.
Restart the game
Although it sounds basic, restarting the game and the system is the most successful yet simple fix for most issues, including game chat errors. If you haven’t tried it already, make sure you do.
Make sure your system is using the correct output
Sometimes, Destiny 2 can wrongly detect an audio output that isn’t in use. You can check for the same in the device’s sound settings; check if the game detects the microphone or speaker you’re using. At times, the game may detect your controller as the audio output or input device, causing the error.
Disable speakers you aren’t using
Sometimes, a bug can force some in-game or system settings to change, causing an unintentional hiccup in Destiny 2’s communication system.
An example would be when Bungie introduced cross-play in the game; several players reported being unable to communicate with friends for a while. Luckily, a user-suggested workaround did the trick for many at that time. Turns out, the game was detecting the wrong audio output.
You can try the same workaround if you play Destiny 2 on PC. On Windows 10, right-click on the Speaker icon on the taskbar’s right side and select Sounds. On Windows 11, open Settings and go to System > Sound > More sound settings. Click on the Playback tab. Now, right-click on the devices you don’t use as speakers and disable them.
Related: Why is chat not working in Destiny 2? Chat shut off explained
Once done, you can save the settings and close the window. Check if the game chat error persists in Destiny 2 after trying this.
Note that if you can hear your friends but they can’t hear you, try the same workaround with your system’s microphone settings.
Update your device’s software
In rare cases, the system’s audio drivers could be outdated. Check if you’re able to hear audio from other applications or games. If not, it’s likely a driver issue.
Complete any pending system updates (Windows updates, console system updates) to nullify a potential driver problem. Make sure that Destiny 2 is updated as well.
While you’re at it, you can also initiate manual updates for your Windows PC’s audio drivers using Device Manager. Open up Device Manager and find the system’s drivers under the Audio section. Right-click on the driver name and select Update driver. Always restart your device after making such changes.
Related: Here are all of Destiny 2’s working emblem codes
Those are all the workarounds you can try to fix Destiny 2’s game chat issue. If you haven’t been able to make it work yet, it’s likely because the problem is on Bungie’s side. Wait out the maintenance period or the post-update blues and things should return to normal soon.
You can also report such issues to Bungie directly or post them on Bungie’s community forum for suggestions from the player base.
