Roblox is shutting down its video chat service

Roblox will discontinue Roblox Connect, a video calling service introduced in 2023.

Roblox Connect allows you to video chat with other people using your Roblox avatar, which will be able to mimic the movements you would make in real life. You can also hang out with connected people in a shared virtual environment. But in a statement, the company says users 13 and older are “mostly” chatting via the platform’s group voice chat function to make calls.

“Roblox Connect has been retired today, including both the developer-facing APIs and the Roblox Connect feature itself,” said Roblox spokesperson Angela Allison. Edge. “Users 13 and up mostly use our latest stuff Party voice The feature is instead to make private voice calls with trusted friends on Roblox.

In a post last month announcing the shutdown of the APIs, a Roblox employee said I noticed that Party Voice “handles private voice chat in a way that’s more capable and more relevant to how players use Roblox today.”

When Connect was announced, Roblox said it intended to open source the feature, but I haven’t been able to find out if that has actually happened. I asked the company for details.