Push-to-Talk Is (Not) Necessary

For as long as we’ve had online multiplayer games, we’ve had voice chat.

Maybe the game didn’t have built-in voice chat, so people used Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Mumble, Skype, and others. Then Discord came around and became the one-stop shop for text and voice chat, but that’s not the point of this article.

For as long as we’ve had voice chat, we’ve also had heated debates on the pros and cons of Voice Activation and Push-to-Talk.

The general sentiment is that Voice Activation is bad and Push-to-Talk is good. But it’s not that simple.

Voice Activation is one of those things where if it’s done right, nobody has any complaints. But if it’s done wrong… people will definitely let you know. And not always in a very polite manner.

However, in fast-paced gameplay, you may not always have time to press the Push-to-Talk key, or pressing it might hamper your aim, movement or other actions.

Do you think people in competitive e-sports use Push-to-Talk?

Granted, if you’re going to use Voice Activation, it’s your responsibility to set it up correctly. Just like when you’re driving a car, it’s your responsibility to not drive like a maniac and endanger others. While a badly set up microphone might not directly endanger others, it surely doesn’t make them happy.

Well, unless you do something funny like rip a huge fart when your mic is open. That might brighten someone’s day. But probably not yours.

Seriously though, just put in a little effort. Have patience; gain convenience. It’s not much to ask. And if you use something like AutoPTT, you only need to do the setup once.

Things that help:

• Increase the Voice Activation Threshold (and speak louder). If you have a tendency to trail off, use a lower Deactivation Threshold (if using AutoPTT)
• Move the microphone closer
• Turn off the TV while you play (unlesss you play on the TV, I guess)
• If you have an external mic (not a headset), consider getting a boom arm, shock mount and/or pop filter
• Use Push-to-Mute or Toggle Mute instead of Push-to-Talk
• Use a mix between Voice Activation and Push-to-Talk, which AutoPTT calls the Tap mode, where a key press is required to start speaking, but the mic stays active until you stop speaking, even if the key is released immediately
• Ensure you can see if your mic is active or not. AutoPTT’s Overlay, Stream Deck plugin and Bitfocus Companion plugin can help with that too