Ever since the release of Valorant in 2020, it has seen a steady rise in popularity, mainly due to its unique gameplay features. Being an FPS game, it includes agents with abilities that have unique playstyles, but the core part of the gameplay is strategizing your way to victory against your opponents. Since Valorant is a team-based FPS game, you obviously need to communicate with your team to make the best out of every round. But what if the comms in Valorant stop working? The comms not working issue in the game has been present since its release, although now its frequency has somewhat decreased. Anyway, if you have encountered the issue, here’s everything you need to know about how you can fix it.
Voice or text chat in a team-based game is a must to ensure that you and your team are in perfect sync. From calling out the positions of your opponent to suggesting strategies for retaking a site, communication plays a vital role. Voice chat in particular has much better relevancy in an intense phase of the game than text chat. So, if that stops working mid-game, losing is almost guaranteed. That said, consider trying out the below-mentioned potential workarounds to fix the issue for good.
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Valorant comms not working: How to fix it
Valorant comms behave differently when connected to different internet connections. Unlike most games, the game servers and voice servers of Valorant are different. So, if you are able to get into a game but the voice chat fails to work, this simply means that your PC is unable to connect to the voice servers. For the majority of players, their routers/modems are the cause of this issue. So, how to fix it? Try these workarounds:
Restart game
Well, the simplest and most obvious workaround you need to try first is a simple restart of the game. If that didn’t fix the issue, consider a full system restart. After this, launch the game to check if the issue persists.
Restart Router/Modem
Next, try power cycling your router or modem and then connecting to the internet. Once done, launch the game and then enter a party or a match to check if voice comms works. If not, try the next workaround.
Create Exception in Windows Defender
It is also possible that Windows Defender is blocking the game’s access to its voice servers. So, to make sure that’s not the case, create an exception in Windows Defender for Valorant, Riot Client, and the anticheat (Vanguard). Follow the steps for the same:
- Begin by typing “Windows Defender Firewall” in the Windows search bar and selecting it.
- Click on “Allow a program through Windows firewall”.
- Then, click on the “Change Settings” button.
- Remove any existing VALORANT and Riot Client entries, and add a new one using the “Allow another app…” button below.
- Locate the Valorant.exe file by going to “C:\Riot Games\VALORANT\live\VALORANT.exe” for the new firewall exceptions and press OK.
- In the firewall exceptions, ensure that all boxes for VALORANT are checked, and then hit the OK button at the bottom.
- Add an exception for the Anticheat by heading to this directory: “C:\Program Files\Riot Vanguard\vgc.exe” and hitting OK.
- Similarly, add an exception for Riot Client by heading to this directory: “C:\Riot Games\Riot Client\RiotClientServices.exe” and hitting OK.
Once done, launch Valorant to check if voice comms works.
Enable Voice Chat
To use comms in Valorant, you need to enable voice chat. Doing so is pretty easy. Just open the game, go to Settings, and select the Audio tab. Here, select the Voice Chat sub-tab, and then make sure the following settings are set as follows:
- Output device: Default or the one currently in use
- Input device: Default or the one currently in use
- Incoming Volume: 50-80
- Mic Volume: 100
- Mic Sensitivity Threshold: 0
- Party Voice Chat: On
- Party Voice Activation Mode: Always On
- Team Voice Chat: On
- Team Voice Chat Push-to-Talk Key: your custom keybinding.
Note: The PTT keybind might be overlapping with another action, which is why you might not be able to communicate with your teammates. So, try a different keybind for the Team Voice PTT action and then check whether the comms work.
Adjust Windows Sounds settings
To adjust the microphone settings on a Windows system, follow these steps:
- Right-click on the speaker icon located in the Windows system tray and select “Sounds”.
- Once the “Sounds” window is open, navigate to the “Recording” tab and ensure that your primary microphone is designated as the Default Device. To verify this, observe the capture indicator bar on the right to ensure it responds to your speech.
- Proceed by selecting your primary microphone and accessing its “Properties”. In the “Advanced” tab, within the “Exclusive Mode” section, uncheck the “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” option.
- Adjust the sample rate to 16 bit, 44100Hz, and click “OK”.
- Next, navigate to the “Playback” tab and confirm that your preferred speakers or headset is set as the Default Device.
Check Microphone Access Settings
Open Windows Search and search the following term: “microphone privacy setting”. Select the result and make sure microphone access is set to On. Next, scroll down and turn on the Let Desktop Apps Access Your Microphone option. After this, check whether voice comms work.
Use a different internet connection
As stated already, your internet connection is responsible for the game to connect to its voice servers. So, try using a different connection to check if voice communications work. If it does, then contact your ISP to fix the issue.
For now, these are the workarounds you can try to fix the Valorant voice comms not working issue. If you find this guide informative, consider visiting Android Gram daily for more such guides.