The future of immersive communication on Roblox

Updates Announcements
#1

[Update] November 20, 2023

[Update] November 17, 2023

[Update] November 16, 2023

Hello Creators,

Today, we are excited to launch Roblox Connect and calling APIs for creators! We previewed this launch at RDC in September. Connect is an experience on Roblox where users can call friends and have a conversation as their avatars – together in a shared immersive space.

Immersive communication enables a sense of being closer together, just like in real life, and in turn helps unlock deeper engagement in experiences. Since the launch of chat with voice, we’ve seen how adding communication capabilities to experiences increases frequency and deepens engagement with users.

We are opening up the technology that powers Roblox Connect to be fully open-sourced so that you can build synchronous voice and avatar communication into your experiences and drive further user engagement in new and exciting ways.

We created the Roblox Connect experience for creators and users to test drive how immersive communication looks and feels on Roblox. In the Connect experience, you will be able to try out the features and sample the environmental assets you can access through the APIs.

Calling APIs for Roblox Connect

Alongside Connect, we’re releasing new APIs: SocialService (Call, SelfView), and PlayerView. With these APIs and Connect’s open source code, you will be able to integrate calling capabilities, explore new camera modes, utilize environment assets, and incorporate modules such as the EmoteBar into your experiences, just like Roblox Connect. These APIs enable you to build synchronous voice and avatar communication into any existing or new experience. You will be able to utilize the exact same features and assets as the Connect experience, but we’re also confident that you will take the communication functionality to new and innovative heights. To start building immersive communication features into your experiences, check out our Roblox Connect Usage Guide.

Dave Calling Garima DaveEmoteEdit Dave View Modes

Safety and Moderation

Safety is foundational to everything we do and integral to how we built Connect and the APIs. Our Community Standards and Terms of Use, which set clear expectations for how to behave on Roblox apply when using Connect or experiences powered by the APIs.

Roblox Connect is powered by chat with voice and facial animation, and builds on the verification and moderation infrastructure that is already in place for voice. Calling will only be available to those users 13+ and Roblox voice-enabled (ie. be phone-verified or ID-verified). We also leverage existing platform tools for users to report a person, as well as to block conversations and decline unwanted calls (please see the chat with voice Help Center page).

What’s Next

This is just the beginning for Roblox Connect and immersive communication. We are working hard to build additional capabilities, including group calling and much more. Until then, please dive into the Roblox Connect Usage Guide to learn how to start using the new calling APIs. We look forward to your feedback on the current calling APIs and what you’d like to see next in the product roadmap.

The future of immersive communication will be built by our community of creators, and we can’t wait to see what you do with it!

Top FAQs

Click here to view

Who can use Roblox Connect?

  • Users must be age 13+ and Roblox voice-enabled (ie. be phone-verified or ID-verified). Also, users must update to the latest version of Roblox in order to use Connect.

Which platforms will Roblox Connect be available on?

  • Roblox Connect will be available on both mobile (iOS and Android) and desktop at launch. Availability on other platforms is coming soon.

Will calling be available globally?

Are there any restrictions on which experiences can utilize the APIs?

  • Only experiences that are more than a week old will be able to use our calling APIs.

With all the new communication styles (camera, voice), what will this do to the performance of my experience?

  • We’ve optimized and tested this feature among a variety of devices to minimize performance impact. For the majority of creators and users, we expect there to be little or no impact by enabling these features. To get started, please consult the chat with voice Usage Guide and the Roblox Connect Usage Guide.

Does enabling calling in an experience automatically make it 13+?

  • No, adding calling into an experience doesn’t change its Experience Guidelines, but only eligible users within that experience (13+, phone or ID verified) will be able to use the calling features.

What precautions do we have in place to address spam calling, exploitation, or abuse?

  • There are several guardrails in place to protect all callers from undesired exposure. The system utilizes many tools to identify spam calls, including spam detection logic (limiting repeat calling frequency, call suppression), caller requirements, and experience protections.

What options does a user have when they experience bad behavior?

  • Users can block or unfriend a contact directly from the phone book or from their friend’s list on Roblox. Users can also go to the Roblox menu, click on Report and have the option to identify a person to block. Additionally, all communication experiences will still sit atop the existing and established voice moderation infrastructure, which users will be able to utilize to file abuse and safety reports on any bad behavior observed. For more information, please see the chat with voice FAQs.

How is user data kept safe during calls?

Is any of the data stored when users enable their camera?

  • No. When users use their camera to animate their avatar, animation keyframes created by this process are deleted in real-time after they have been used and cannot be shared. Video from their camera never leaves their device. For more information, please review Roblox’s Facial Animation Privacy Notice.

How about the voice conversations? Is Roblox storing those?

  • Roblox uses voice recordings moderation purposes, including moderator evaluation of abuse reports, training and evaluating automatic safety detection systems, and measuring overall safety of the platform. Please see the Privacy Policy for more information. Roblox does not share voice recordings with creators or third parties, or otherwise use voice recordings except as described above or in the Privacy Policy.

How are voice recordings stored?

  • The security of your information is important to us. We have measures in place to protect personal data against loss, misuse, or tampering. Recordings are encrypted and can be accessed only by limited internal teams. For more information on our chat with voice, check out our FAQ.

  • All personal information, including voice recordings, can be removed through a privacy rights request (safety exceptions and jurisdictional requirements may apply).

  • For more information, please see the Roblox Connect Help Center FAQs page.

Will users be able to eavesdrop on my call?

  • No, users who are not part of the call will not be able to eavesdrop. The Call API provided only allows developers to specify a reserved server (with access code) as the call destination.

    If a developer mistakenly teleports a user that is not part of the call to the reserved server, Roblox platform will automatically end the call.

170 Likes
SocialService Call system doesn't work, requests to enable already enabled voice chat
Allow us to DISABLE calling completely
Creator Roadmap 2023: End of Year Recap
#2

This topic was automatically opened after 10 minutes.

#3

Well, this is weird.

I’d like to make it clear that no self-respecting developer has ever asked for this, it doesn’t add anything to the Platform. For us as developers, there is literally not one reason to add calls, it takes away from gameplay and doesn’t create extra socialization. In my eyes, this even rips from the in-experience socialization and referral opportunities because people just won’t be close to their friends in places as much, instead being satisfied with a call and doing two completely separate things.

It’s a really bizarre concept, and I’m a little worried that time is being spent on this – a feature that adds nothing to the platform – instead of advancing on the Technical Roadmap’s promises before End-of-Year.

345 Likes
Allow us to DISABLE calling completely
#4

I am phone-verified and yet I still don’t even have access to voice chat.
I’m not seeing me using this feature anyways :slight_smile:

40 Likes
#5

I just thought I’d prominently display that Roblox is recording the voice of everyone who uses this feature, since they neglected to do so themselves in this announcement by putting it under the “FAQ” foldable.

73 Likes
#6

I am very excited once I can find a friend to use it with, haha.

29 Likes
#7

nobody using this bruh this update is useless, disappointing even

87 Likes
#8

Is it just me or is her smile creepy?

This is definely a large update, but I feel like its gonna be only used by some users due to the fact that its easier to use discord, that doesnt require the id verification or phone verification to use.

23 Likes
#9

This is cool and all, but how can I turn off receiving calls from people? I got called in class from the app and wanted to know how it can be turned off :slightly_smiling_face:

45 Likes
#10

This is cool but I don’t see anyone really using this.

15 Likes
#12

Yeah, this isn’t the best idea. Is there even a way to disable this feature? Not to mention that it records your voice and uses it for moderational purposes. I’ve actually never heard anyone ask for this feature. I think it would be opposite of what they’re expecting, this would feature is mainly going to be used to annoy people and if anything we can’t even disable it? We just have to block people? But we also have a limit of how much people we can block? Hmm… interesting :face_with_monocle:

28 Likes
#13

theres a way to disable being called right? i cant imagine how many calls popular people or people with alot of friends are gonna get in the next day

14 Likes
#14

No one will use this. This is why we have Facetime, we’re not on Roblox to video chat with friends, we are here to play games.

40 Likes
#15

The avatars used in this demo tell us a lot about the unspoken truths motivating this feature. If you think children won’t notice how corporate this feels, you strongly underestimate how attuned kids are to their emotions and it will affect when and how they use this addition. I’m sure parents will love this but the actual children, the users, are not going to see any reason to use this method of communication that feels sterile and meticulous when they can find a more organic social experience on the platform. As someone who has a lot of experience with both social experiences on Roblox as well as “corporate” UI design, I don’t think the way this is being implemented is going to gain much traction. More and more features as of late are seemingly capital motivated and to assume your users arent attuned with that or don’t care is almost insulting to them. Respect and listen to your users, I can guarantee they would prefer a much more organic (as in naturally forming, not “look, you can be you in the real life but in the virtual world!”) way of interacting with their peers. Excited to see what the team behind this comes up with because I know they’re trying their best but this comes off as a bit tone-deaf.

P.S. the camera motion is nauseating, strongly recommend removing it or having an option to disable it.

50 Likes
#16

Unfortunately, Roblox recently removed the ability to disable notifications via removing the “Notifications” tab from Settings and making all the options there not functional anymore.

12 Likes
#17

Thanks guys! This is such an effective use of resources and totally not just to appease investors with a feature nobody will ever use! We didn’t want any more access to Voice, or improvements to anything, what we all really wanted was the ability to call our friends and annoy them with Roblox’s half-broken notification system.
Screenshot_20231114-131739

85 Likes
#18

How do we disable this? In no way do I want my players being distracted from my games and going off and calling someone else. That harms my engagement.

Along with this, what the hell is the point of this update? Your over 200M dollars in debt every quarter and your losing money rapidly, how about you work on fixing existing features that have been broken for decades and adding features developers actually want (#feature-requests is here for a reason, use it)! Listen to your top developers feedback instead of your investors feedback and maybe you might actually be able to get out of this death spiral your in.

You have better things to be working on.

61 Likes
#19

These avatars were a meme at first, and now they’re downright just bad. Why are resources being wasted on this?

Quite literally nobody wants this nor asked for it in the first place. I can imagine there are a bunch of other things resources could be going to.

It’s already being abused to hell and back for me. Can we stop this now?

IMG_9970
IMG_99701284×2778 2.18 MB

I’m quite literally angry at this point. This needs to go or have the option to be disabled.

47 Likes
#20

YOU WILL call your friends on Roblox.
YOU WILL not disable notifications.
YOU WILL use the ugly AI-generated avatars.

67 Likes
#21

Also I agree with the people above. These avatars are horrendous and I’m shocked people at Roblox are working on features of this nature. I know it’s a large company, but pursuing The Metaverse™ (even by any other name) is not a winning strategy and it’s going to turn people away if they see stuff like this because nobody wants to call their friends over Roblox.

37 Likes