Roblox users are getting a new way to connect with friends while playing games like Dress to Impress. Starting Monday, those who log onto the gaming platform will see a new way to chat called Party. The suite of features will add new social elements to Roblox — like group chats — and bring the functionality of an app like Discord directly to the Roblox platform.
Prior to the launch of Party, Roblox users would have to communicate with friends off the platform to coordinate gaming sessions. Several Roblox games have built-in chat already, but those chat windows are often shared with others in the server and will close once you leave a game. Party will allow up to six users to form a group chat as they play games on Roblox. The new features only allow for text-based messaging at launch, but an update from the company details plans to add voice chat to the in-game app.
Party will not be available to all of the Roblox users. According to the Roblox Corp.’s vice president of product, Garima Sinha, Party will only be accessible to accounts marked as being age 13 and older.
The addition of a new way to interact with players could come with risks for the platform. Hindenburg Research, an investment firm that focuses on social activism, described Roblox as a “pedophile hellscape” in a report because of the platform’s lack of child protections when chatting and friending with other users. Additionally, several reports have highlighted Roblox’s gaps in moderating mature content in games. In November, the platform announced it would be expanding moderation controls for users age 13 and below and limit social interactions for its younger users.
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