Playstation 4 Party chat gets improved sound quality and more participants

Sony is working on improvements to the Playstation 4’s Party Chat feature to improve sound quality and allow more participants to join a Party. Now there can be a maximum of 8 people in such a Party group, soon that maximum will be 16.

Sony announces the improvements in a blog post. The company says it needs the help of Playstation 4 owners to test the upgrades and is therefore starting a Preview Program. Users can sign up for this beta testing program and get early access to the improvements for Party. In addition to the upgrades already mentioned, Sony also says it has improved the network connectivity.

Users who eventually become PS4 System Software Beta testers cannot be in the same Party as users who are not in the test program. Also, Share Play, the function to share games with a friend, does not work with users who are not in the program. Preview Program participants do receive a code that can be shared with 19 other accounts, which means that those users will also be in the program.

In addition to the improvements already mentioned, American testers will also receive a function that can create chat transcripts. For example, voice messages in the Party voice chat can be transcribed into text, which then displays the feature in the user’s mobile device. The user can also enter text via the Second Screen app, which converts the transcription function back to speech. Sony emphasizes that this feature will only be for US users for now and will only work in English.

It is not yet known when the Preview Program will start and how many people can participate in it. It is also unclear whether this program will be expanded with additional functions at a later date. Sony does write that the increase in the number of Party participants and the improvements in sound quality will later be passed on to all PS4 users.