After years of community demand, League of Legends may be on the brink of a major change to how players communicate in ranked and casual matches, according to credible online leaks.
Data miners have uncovered evidence in the League’s PBE files for Patch 16.5 suggesting that Riot Games is actively preparing to roll out team-wide voice chat, a feature previously limited to party voice with premade friends in the game.
The leaks, shared on X, show new interface elements in the PBE that appear tied to voice communication. This includes a dedicated voice chat panel with options to toggle between party voice and team voice, and separate push-to-talk bindings for each. It also introduces a new report category specifically for voice chat abuse, giving players a clear way to flag misconduct if conversations turn toxic.
While many players welcome the shift to real-time voice instead of relying solely on text and pings, they believe direct communication could sharpen coordination, cut down on misunderstandings, and make solo queue feel far more strategic and fluid.
On the other hand, many in the player base are wary of what this could mean for toxicity. League has long struggled with in-game harassment, and introducing voice chat opens a new front for potential abuse, where moderation would be tougher than text chat.
While League has gone without built-in team voice for years, Riot’s other titles, including VALORANT, have long featured integrated voice chat. However, given the game’s reputation for toxic lobbies, the developers will likely face added pressure to ensure strong moderation tools and clear safeguards are in place before rolling the feature out widely.
At this stage, there is no official confirmation or release date from Riot Games, but the appearance of voice-related code in the PBE suggests the studio is seriously exploring the feature, and it could arrive on live servers with a future update
