Microsoft Brings Message Safety Settings to Xbox

As part of a broader effort to end the toxicity on Xbox Live, Microsoft today introduced message safety features to the service.

“We believe that gaming should be inclusive and welcoming for everyone, which means creating experiences and communities that invite everyone to play safely and responsibly,” Microsoft corporate vice president Dave McCarthy writes. “Now, we’re taking the next step in this responsible gaming journey by rolling out player-centric text filters on [Xbox One].”

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To give gamers control over the messages they see from others in the Xbox community, Microsoft is instituting new messaging filtering controls. These will start rolling out across Xbox soon, Microsoft says, starting first with private messages and then expanding over time to profiles, Looking For Groups (LFG), Clubs, and gamers’ Activity Feeds.

Basically, Xbox Live members will be able to set customized levels of message filtering—Friendly, Medium, Mature, and Unfiltered—across received messages, message requests, shared media, and more. These filters will be available in Settings > General > Online safety & family > Message safety.

When you receive a message that Xbox believes surpasses the threshold you set, you’ll see a “Potentially offensive message hidden” message instead of the original. You can select that to see the original message. The system will differentiate between friends and others. And parents can, of course, control the feature using Family settings.

“Creating content filters that work for all types of gamers is a journey and our work doesn’t stop here,” McCarthy adds. “We will continue to improve, evolve and expand our work based on your feedback. And even with filters in place, it’s still important that players adhere to our Community Standard for Xbox as well as report any conduct that violates this to Xbox Enforcement.”

You can learn more about this new feature from the Xbox website.

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Conversation 4 comments

  • justme

    Premium Member
    15 October, 2019 - 2:42 am

    <p>I realize that not everyone is a single-player gamer like myself, but can you not turn the messaging off? Or if not off (which, anyone playing multiplayer would likely not do), limit it to your friends/contacts?</p>

    • Noel

      15 October, 2019 - 4:27 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#480726">In reply to JustMe:</a></em></blockquote><p>You can do both of these things. However I myself do not. I like to exchange good game messages with people. To be honest I have never received an abusive message myself but having more options is always a good thing. </p>

      • justme

        Premium Member
        15 October, 2019 - 8:46 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#480741">In reply to Spectralmania:</a></em></blockquote><p>Fair enough. I have always been fascinated by the social aspect of gaming. When its good, it can be an awful lot of fun. But when its bad, it can be awful. Myself, I tend to use gaming as my own little escape from everything where I dont necessarily want to interact with anyone, so I would likely just turn everything off. </p>

  • FullyLoaded

    15 October, 2019 - 12:17 pm

    <p>This a good step in the right direction. What would be really nice is if this could control messaging inside of games as well. In my experience that is where most of the toxicity appears.</p>

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