Xbox party chat can finally filter out your heavy breathing

Xbox party chat noise suppression — (Image credit: Xbox)

You no longer have to feel self-conscious about your breathing annoying your friends in Xbox party chat, as a new update has introduced a background noise suppression feature.

Party chat noise suppression launches for Xbox Series X and S today, and it's coming to other devices "soon." The feature is enabled by default, so you should hear a lot less in the way of breathing, button clicks, and air conditioning the next time you start up a party.

Xbox also announced another nifty feature alongside the upgrade to party chat. For some games, you'll now be able to play a cloud version straight from a captured screenshot or video clip. So if a friend posts a particularly cool Forza Horizon 5 stunt, for example, you'll be able to play that section for yourself straight from a browser.

Earlier today, Xbox announced a new version of the Elite Series 2 controller, which comes in white and offers fewer accessories in exchange for a cheaper price. The company also said that newer releases of the Elite Series 2 pad are "more reliable" than earlier ones, suggesting that they're getting reported quality control issues in check.

There's also drama around the Xbox brand today, as PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has skewered Xbox's offer to keep Call of Duty multi-platform, calling it "inadequate on many levels."

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.