If you're experiencing issues chatting with other players in Sea of Thieves, for example, they can't hear you, there are a few things you can try.

Windows Privacy Settings - Let Apps Use Your Microphone

You must ensure that Sea of Thieves has permission to use your microphone within your Windows Privacy Settings. Simply follow the steps below to check your settings:

If Sea of Thieves is open, close the game entirely
Click the Start Button
Type "Privacy" without quotes
Select "Microphone Privacy Settings" from the given results
On the left of the new screen, select "Microphone"
Under "Let apps use my microphone", ensure the toggle is set to On.
Scroll down the list of apps below that toggle to find "Sea of Thieves" and "Sea of Thieves Insider". Make sure they are also toggled to On.
Launch Sea of Thieves again and try chatting with your crew.

Also, please disconnect and reconnect your headset/microphone as this will refresh your device settings and prompt new driver installations which may be required.

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Xbox Party chat

Party Chat – We know from our forums that some crews are entering the game and setting up a party chat for their crew. Players who don’t accept the invite or join the crew late are not automatically added, so they may believe that their chat isn’t working and their crew is silent.

Unplug and reconnect your headset
Ensure your microphone is not muted
Ensure that neither you or the person you want to communicate with are using Party Chat

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Issue: I’ve joined a crew, and I can hear them talk but, they cannot hear me

Game Chat & Microphones – This could be caused by a variety of issues. Here’s what to try to resolve this issue:

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Voice chat in game

Below are details for the various voice chat statuses when looking directly at another player. All of the below work both for your own crew and enemy crews:

For the sake of clarity, we will refer to the players in the below scenario as You (Your character) and Fred (Crew mate/enemy).

Not talking

Screenshot of the Xbox Live gamertag displayed over a pirate without the chat icon present

The player will see no symbol above Fred’s gamer tag due to the following circumstances:

Fred has no microphone connected.
Fred has a microphone connected but is not talking.
Fred has their microphone muted.

Player talking

Screenshot of the Xbox Live gamertag displayed over a pirate with the chat icon present

The player will see a speech bubble symbol above Fred’s gamer tag due to the following circumstances:

Fred is talking and you should be able to hear him.
You may encounter our voice chat bug which means you would see this but not hear Fred, this can be fixed by unplugging and re-plugging in Your headset.
If You see this and still hear no talking then you may have your audio setup incorrectly through the OS.

Player Muted

The player will see a symbol with a line through it above Fred’s gamer tag due to the following circumstances:

You are in an Xbox party and the symbol will appear when Fred is talking, when he is not you will see no symbol.
You have muted Fred and the symbol will be permanently above his gamer tag.
You have blocked Fred and the symbol will be permanently above his gamer tag.
You have set up your OS security settings to block all talkers.

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Further Troubleshooting

If the above solutions do not solve you chat issues then you may need to further investigate into the possible cause. We would recommend the following:

Ensuring your signed in accounts match

Please ensure that the profile which owns and you use to play Sea of Thieves (or linked to Steam) is also signed in to your Xbox Console Companion app / Xbox (Beta) app.

Reset your copy of Sea of Thieves (Microsoft Store Version)

Press the Windows Key
Type in Apps and Features
Select Sea of Thieves
Advanced Options
Select Reset

Verify integrity of local game files (Steam)

In Steam, right click Sea of Thieves from your games list
Select Properties from the context menu
From the Properties menu select Local Files
Click 'Verify Integrity of Local Game Files...'

Check you NAT type

Your Routers NAT settings must be set to 'Open'. An easy way to check this is:

Press the Windows Key
Type in Xbox Console Companion app and hit enter
Select Settings
Select Network
Await results from the network troubleshooter

Once confirmed you will need to access your router to make the configuration.

Check your Microphone is listed as the default device

Right click the speaker icon found in the taskbar
Select Sounds
Select Recording
Right click your desired Microphone and select Set as Default Device
Right click the desired Microphone and select Properties
Select Levels
Confirm the Headset Microphone level is set to the desired value
Select Apply then OK
Talk into your microphone at this point to confirm the microphone itself is working
If the Microphone is not outputting any audio please make sure it is not muted, should this not be the case please refer to your Microphone / Headset manufacturer

Configure the individual Microphone input for Sea of Thieves

Boot Sea of Thieves
Minimise Sea of Thieves
From the system tray in the bottom right corner of Windows, right click the Speaker Icon and select Open Sound Settings
Scroll down to the Advanced Sound Options and select App Volume and Device Preferences
As Sea of Thieves is open, it will show in the displayed list. From here you can specify the output and input.

Confirm Microphone Selection in the Xbox Console Companion App / Game Bar

For the Xbox Console Companion app

Press the Windows Key
Type in Xbox Console Companion app and select it from the list
Select Settings
Scroll down to Microphone
Confirm the correct microphone is listed from the drop down list

For the Xbox Game Bar app

Press the Windows Key
Type in Xbox Game Bar and select it from the list
Once viewing the game bar all sound input and output settings can be found on the left

Restart your Windows Audio Service

Press the Windows Key
services.msc and select the Service app
Scroll down your Services(Local) list and locate Windows Audio
Right click Windows Audio and Select Restart
Check that your Microphone is now working
If that does not work, right-click the Windows Audio and select Properties
In the Windows Audio properties window, check if the Startup type is set to Automatic. If not, set it to Automatic and click Apply to save the changes. Restart the computer and see if this solves the problem

Update your Microphone Device Drivers

Press the Windows Key and type Device Manager
Expand Audio Inputs and outputs
Right click each device and select Update driver.

Remove then update Microphone Device Drivers

Sometimes you will need to completely remove old drivers before an update can work effectively. To do this:

Press the Windows Key and type Device Manager
Expand the Sound, Video and Game Controllers options
Right click the device and select 'Uninstall Device'. Once complete unplug the device from your PC
Now either download the latest drivers from the company website and then plug your device back in. Or plug your device back in and let Windows automatically retrieve their own drivers. (this may be an option to try out both sets of drivers to see if it solves the problem)
Once installed, right click the driver again and select 'Update Driver' (to ensure at the latest version)
Proceed through your sound settings as detailed above to ensure that the device is configured as your default Input / Output device.
Then once complete perform a reset of Sea of Thieves and boot the game again

Disable any VPNs

Disabling any VPNs which are in use have also been shown to solve this for certain users

If your problem is not resolved and you perhaps need further support please create a ticket for the Sea of Thieves customer support team.

Information we would ideally like to get would include:

What type of headset and adapter are you using?
Do you regularly use party chat in other games?
Can you hear enemy crew members, or is it just your own crew that you cannot hear?
Is the issue reproducible? If so, could you detail the steps required

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